OPINION:Far from helping Ireland, constant 'woe are we' screeching has created panic and destroyed confidence, writes DAVID ADAMS
GOD PRESERVE us from those determined to “do the right thing” by the country.
The Greens were doing the right thing, apparently, when they announced at the worst possible time that there should be an election in January. It didn’t matter that the IMF and the EU were in town to negotiate with the Government on the bailout that Ireland so desperately needed, and that political stability was an absolute necessity for the negotiations to succeed.
The Greens could have scuppered everything, with disastrous consequences at home and abroad. As it was, the markets were panicked, the euro sank in value, and there was a risk of contagion across the euro zone, which would have meant the almost immediate collapse of the Portuguese and Spanish economies. Still, just so long as the Greens did the right thing by the country they were happy. Let’s hope the country returns the favour at the next election, and does the right thing by them.
They could have forced an election at any time, but chose to hang around in Government until the last minute – before panicking and trying to save their own skins, irrespective of the cost to anyone else.
The Opposition parties have been busy “doing the right thing” by the country as well. The mini-riot that developed outside Government Buildings recently would no doubt be explained away by Sinn Féin as taking the righteous anger of the Irish people directly to Ministers.
Whatever the motivation, the scenes were presented around the world as yet more evidence of a country imploding.
How very helpful: coming at a time when it is of paramount importance that Ireland portrays an image of social stability. Fine Gael and Labour have been better behaved, but they still oppose Fianna Fáil at every turn, including on the bailout: as though blind opposition on the part of a non-Government party is always right, regardless of the context.
Each is giving the impression, without ever explaining precisely how, that they can drag Ireland back to prosperity without having to borrow on conditions set by a lender, and without the public having to endure anything like the levels of austerity outlined by the Government.
That is impossible to achieve. Whatever the make-up of the next government, it will not be for Ireland to set its borrowing conditions, and austerity and the consequent public pain will be the same. Fine Gael, Labour, et al should start making that clear. To realise why brutal honesty is the right thing – if not for its own sake, then at least for theirs – the Opposition parties should take note of the experience of US president Barack Obama. Obama inherited an economic mess from the previous administration, yet that matters little to an electorate now determined to punish him for the measures he has been forced to take. The Republicans have seldom been as popular: regardless of George W Bush, Iraq, Afghanistan and a wrecked economy. A similar situation is developing in the UK, where Labour destroyed the economy, but the relatively new coalition government is carrying the can for taking actions to get it back on track. (All the while, Labour has the gall to criticise from the sidelines, and neither the public nor political commentators seem to treat this as the least bit hypocritical.)
Speaking of commentators, no doubt the Irish variety would claim that they have been doing the right thing by the country as well, carefully reflecting the anger and fears of the population. However, there is a world of difference between “reflecting” and deliberately stoking up. The hysterical screeching of some commentators – which amounts in substance to not much more than a variation on the “We’re doomed” refrain of Pte Frazer from Dad’s Army – has certainly boosted personal profiles and advanced careers, but it has contributed nothing to the well-being of Ireland. In all honesty, some of the overblown rhetoric is reminiscent of a certain power-crazed, rabble-rousing Northern preacher at his most potent. Far from helping Ireland, this constant “woe are we” screeching has created panic and destroyed confidence in the country at home and abroad (read “The Wages of Fear”, by Zachary Karabell in the November 29th edition of Time magazine). As for hyperbolic claims that the bailout somehow means a surrender of national sovereignty: these may sell newspapers – bad news always does – but they are emotive nonsense. Did the UK relinquish sovereignty in 1976 with its loan from the IMF? What does sovereignty mean anyway, when you are part of the EU and share a common currency?
Would the sovereignty scaremongers have Ireland refuse the bailout and let the country sink, content that it at least perished with some of its virginity intact? The doom-mongers calling for revolution should realise that revolutions are much easier started than stopped. And no one can ever predict where they’ll lead, other than very seldom to where was intended at the outset. Yeats was right: the worst are full of passionate intensity.
The right thing to do is knuckle down, albeit angrily, and await the ballot box.