phone in santo domingo
Phone booth in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; photo by dr. fil

Well, since everyone seems to be sharing their thoughts about the public exchange of love letters between the Vice President of the ruling coalition member LDS Slavko Ziherl and PM Borut Pahor, who’s to stop a pmsed dr. fil?

For background and more on the contents of the letter, visit Mr. P. Basically, a psychiatrist who entered the world of politics in 2005 in preparation for 2006 local elections took it upon himself to teach a man with a degree in political science who has been involved in politics since his student years, making it more than half of his life, on the subject of what is politics and how it is to be conducted.

With the best of intentions, he wants to open the PM’s eyes to the reality of the state of political affairs in the country which Pahor is apparently unable to comprehend. What is it they say about best intentions?

Although he did not sign the letter as the Vice President of PM’s coalition partner and even though allegedly he did not consult his party prior to this significant public outburst, he does write from the standpoint of a member of the ruling coalition and not as merely a concerned citizen.

Without going into much detail, let me say that in my opinion, this is not the correct place or way to handle a political partner’s dissatisfaction if he intends to remain a part of a hopefully productive partnership. I cannot imagine how this letter could achieve anything positive. If it served no positive purpose, why write it?

1/ Decide whether you’re writing as a concerned citizen or as a prominent party member. If the latter is the case, you may want to consult with the party before making important moves.

2/ Decide whether your party is part of the coalition and on what terms the party will remain in the coalition. If those terms are not met, get out.

3/ If you have better solutions to the present problems than the PM, go ahead and put your proposals forward for discussion. E.g.: how would you have handled the Annual Account extortion issue?

In his letter, Slavko Ziherl wrote: “They say that a mature person has no need to be liked by everybody.” How very true. And what other purpose than securing the sympathy of a mass of people angry with Janez Janša’s blackmail move has he achieved? Yes, he does have every right to write whatever he feels like writing short of slander. Yes, I do actually believe his intentions were basically good. And yes, I do believe writing the letter was a selfish and rather naive move, which made no contribution to constructive problem-solving in Slovenian politics.

You guys go have a cup of coffee or an energy drink or whatever and talk it over, for crying out loud.