THE forthcoming general election may be more about electing an opposition than electing a government. But, while we have no end of politicians clamouring to go into government, nobody seems interested in the job of opposing.
The death of political opposition here has been a slow and virtually invisible process. As recently as 15 years ago, there were several clear, ringing voices of the left in Irish politics, reminding the political system on a daily basis that everything was not as it should be. Ironically, this was at a time of maximum difficulty for the Irish economy, then beset by crippling debts and deep recession.
Nevertheless, people like Michael D. Higgins. Jim Kemmy and Proinsias De Rossa insisted on bearing constant witness to the unpalatable truth of social injustice. A decade ago, the idea that such politicians would find themselves in a position to implement the ideas they had espoused from the margins was the stuff of political fairytales.
On the face of things, it has come to pass. But the reality of the present, so called left of centre government is nothing like the idea of it. In fact, only right wing politicians sitting on the opposition benches, and their lunatic cheerleaders in the media, would seriously try to suggest that this is in any sense a left of centre Government. It is competent, and efficient, and utterly uninspired.
Presiding over the most buoyant period in the history of the Irish economy, it is content to act out its concept of what a competent, efficient government might be like. The result is that, after four years of allegedly left of centre government, there is in this society as much inequality, poverty and marginalisation as ever there was. Despite having the two main left wing parties in government, we are no closer to seeing the implementation of radical structural change.
In truth, the two formerly left wing parties in the present coalition no longer seem interested in radical ideas, never mind conscious of the fact, that, in theory at least, they are in a position to implement any and every idea they ever thought of. Ten years ago, for example, it might have been reasonable to predict that, among the measures which might be implemented by some putative future left wing government would be some form of basic income system which would integrate the tax and social welfare systems and put an end to poor law dependency. Today, with such a government allegedly in place, there is not such thinking to be found in any of its allegedly left wing elements. Moreover, when such radical ideas emerge from elsewhere they are treated with the same indifference they might expect from a right wing administration.
The publication last week of a study, Pathways To a Basic Income, advanced a persuasive case for the viability of the long standing proposal of the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) for a basic income scheme. It provided an interesting moment in Irish political life.
OUT of the turmoil of a church which is increasingly criticised and denigrated, there emerges the kind of thinking which more healthy society would be done by politicians. If implemented, the CORI proposal would guarantee a weekly income, to lift every citizen, as a minimum entitlement, beyond the poverty threshold, with minimal adverse implications for the currently contented sector of this society.
For the past decade, the CORI organisation, led by Father Sean Healy and Sister Brigid Reynolds, has been this country's permanent opposition.
The basic income proposal, like all of this body's previous work, is radical and prophetic. It addresses some of the most fundamental issues confronting this society, including structural inequality, dependency, poverty traps, disincentives, tax evasion, social welfare fraud and, more fundamentally, the lack of social solidarity. It is also a solidly rational proposal, tested and costed against prevailing objections and emerging intact.
A left of centre government would grab this proposal with both hands. But I wouldn't hold my breath about the present lot. And if a government which includes all of the main left wing elements in Irish politics does not see fit to implement such thinking, who on earth is ever going to?
The problem is not to do with the integrity of individual politicians or even with the political parties to which they belong. It has to do with the limited capacity of government per se. This Government, like all previous government, it simply a front for the real, and permanent, government - as always, the Civil Service - which is intent upon implementing the same deeply conservative economic policy as ever, only now in accordance with the even more restrictive conditions imposed by the Maastricht criteria.
In this sense, at least from the viewpoint of the dispossessed in this society, there is little point in having the Labour Party and Democratic Left in government at all. Over the past two years, since Fianna Fail came out of government and DL went in, we have had, with the honourable exception of the Green Party, no voice in Dail Eireann on behalf of the dispossessed.
The present Opposition in Leinster House, comprising mainly Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats, is in reality a government in waiting, which is quite a different matter. Fianna Fail is interested only in trying to trip up the Government and the influence of the PDs, as the most likely future coalition partner, ensures that the impulse driving this is essentially right wing.
Thus, in a State which is already being run in accordance with the dictats of the better off, the only voice of dissent is from those who believe that enough is not being done to keep Ireland safe for the well to do.
And since all of our major institutions, including most media, subscribe to the (now universally discredited) notion of trickle down economics, there is virtually nobody left to point out that poverty and exclusion are actually increasing, and social divisions deepening in this the era of the Celtic Tiger.
Obviously, there are some advantages in having a nominally left of centre government, not least the extent to which the very idea fills certain commentators with indignation. But it would certainly seem that even a Fianna Fail/PD coalition, for all the right wing posturing, could not be significantly less sympathetic to leftist ideas than the present Government. Thus, in terms of suitability for particular roles, and given the underlying realities of power in Irish life, it would seem better to have Labour and DL in opposition, where at least they will be able to nibble at the bum of the system, than in government, bound and gagged.
In a society built around the myth of winners, the act of opposing, almost by definition, suggests defeat. But it is an honourable role, and in this society, an increasingly urgent need. I am, of course, aware that the only way to vote parties into opposition is to vote them out of government. I believe the important thing is not to take pleasure in it.