If Ireland were in Africa, we’d send observers to help build democracy

TRY to imagine a little African country, somewhere in the middle of that great continent. From everything we’ve heard and read about it, it fits all the stereotypes.

A governing party that masquerades as democratic, but rumours of political corruption have been established time and again to be true. Members of the government all have big houses and drive flashy cars, even though they are surrounded by poverty.

But worse than that, over the last couple of years they have been systematically dismantling the essential trappings of democracy. Parliament is being treated with disdain. It meets very seldom and then only to rubber-stamp decisions already made by the government. There is no debate, little or no questioning, no opportunity for parliamentarians to make any real input to the law of the land.