The triumph of ‘public servantism’

Last Sunday, I visited my designated voting station at Acropoleos A Primary School (Nicosia) to cast my vote. On arriving at voting room ‘K’ and trying to enter, I was told by someone inside that they had just closed.

It was one minute before 12 noon (and their ‘instructions’ were to shut down between noon and 1 pm).

There was no queue, just me and a ‘closed’ room with several people chatting, no doubt looking forward to enjoying yet another coffee. One young lady tried to plead with the ‘woman in charge’ (remember nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?) but she received a terse reply: “We’re closed, he (she was referring to me the prospective voter) can come back in an hour.”

So, what did this incident prove to me, on a day when less than half our electorate bothered to turn up?

1. That bureaucrats would rather hide behind a directive (I am not even discussing the fact that I arrived a minute earlier, so it should not have applied) even if by exercising a modicum of judgement, they can save a citizen a whole hour (at the expense of a few seconds for themselves)

2. That when you confer authority to people ridden with complexes, they’d rather use it to underscore their prerogative (‘I just follow rules’ or ‘I have the authority here’) rather than find a solution that serves the public good (‘a satisfied citizen’, ‘a good voting turnout’).

3. That when it comes to reasonableness, sound judgement and common sense, most of our public servants would rather live up to the dictum ‘common sense is not so common’!

What a shame!

Nicos Rossides via email