With the parliamentary polls drawing nearer by the day and amidst the bitter squabbling between the political parties for power, I do wonder, “What if?”

What if, like the flowers that bloom on their embossed banners and flags, they too could coexist harmoniously in an idyllic garden? A garden where grassroots blossoms of daffodils, daisies, and dandelions grow. A garden where perhaps water lilies or lotuses peep out in their pink and purple prettiness through the clear waters of a blue-green pond.

Just what if?

Thoughts turn to the symbols of different political parties. Does there exist any real enmity between them? Talking strictly about the symbols: no. The water lily does not creep out of her space in the lake and sends its roots and shoots aground to try to throttle the buttercups. The buttercups, on the other hand, minding their own business, basking in the glory of spring, dazzling yellow in the sunshine, or intermittently getting refreshingly drenched in the seasonal showers, do not give up all this to encroach upon the turf of the water lily.

In an idyllic garden, each delights in itself and provides delight to its surroundings.

But then symbols, alas, are symbols. The great Greek philosopher Plato said about art that it is “twice removed from reality.” He, of course, meant that art imitates life, which itself is only an imitation or a mere reflection of reality, the true nature of things.

The world of symbols we inhabit is unfortunately twice removed from reality, with “removed” being the operative word. We are so removed from reality that we mercilessly, mindlessly mow down the dandelions, daffodils, and daisies of the grass with bulldozers. We are so removed from reality that we pitilessly, pointlessly pluck the lotuses and lilies living their lives in their space in the lakes.

It does not have to be this way. What if the symbols could reflect a reality that would lead us up the path of a different garden? A garden where the hand holds a sickle to weed out what is destructive so that grassroots flowers in the spring sunshine and water lilies blossom, sprinkled in seasonal showers?

What if?