For crying out loud, calm down minister!

2011-11-07 07:15

After reading that news item last week about a gung-ho bodyguard in a blue light convoy pulling a gun on a motorist who didn't pull over fast enough, I  started wondering about how and when government leaders got to be elevated to the status lords of the universe and so hell-fired important.

Sure, security is one thing but having to get places in such a hurry is something else altogether.

I am not just talking about South Africa's ministers but most government ministers the world over who seem to believe that what they are doing is so much more important than everyone else.

Sure, every now and then they do have important things to do but mostly they're just off to deliver a speech, visit a school, open a factory/shopping centre/new building/road or just have lunch with someone.

As I've said before in this column, I can think of hundreds of business leaders and doctors for example, who have far more important reasons for being is hurry to get places than any government minister.

But, they don't get to have blue light convoys and bodyguards to aim guns at their fellow motorists if they don't get out of the way quickly enough.

Ok, so maybe it is about security, but surely one can have security without ending up behaving like spoilt royalty?

Admittedly, South Africa is quite a dangerous place when it comes to driving anywhere and yes, I have no doubt that most ministers might be nervous. But then, most motorists are just as nervous - and the richer they are the more justifiably nervous they tend to be.

The question I am asking is why government ministers should get priority on the roads? Particularly as this priority privilege gives them an over-the-top sense of power and self-importance. Like that minister who last year ranted about ordinary people getting in her way on the roads and not moving over, saying something incredibly arrogant like, "can't they see I am trying to govern this country?"

Somewhere along the line government ministers, who are elected by the people, paid by the people and accountable to the people, were elevated to the status of kings, queens and in some cases god almighty.

They get treated like deity by their minions and everywhere they go they expect to have doors opened for them, roads cleared for them, aircraft kept waiting for them and so on.

I really don't mind them wanting security but when I watch television and see government ministers all over the world expecting to be treated like kings and queens I just have to wonder where we, the citizens, went wrong?

And the marketer in me wonders when politicians will realise that in this day and age, arrogance and posturing will not win votes but a touch of humility certainly will.

They need to remember that next time one of their bodyguards aims a gun at some luckless motorist that they will be shooting themselves in the feet.

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