A (thorough) reminder of parliament’s shortcomings: As the House of Representatives gears up for its next legislative session next month, it’s worth remembering all of its rather significant shortcomings during its last session, Tarek Abdel Aal writes in a scathing column penned for Al Shorouk. Although MPs boasted about the volume of legislation that passed over the past year, it’s important to note that many of these laws were hardly discussed despite their significance, and many were also rubber-stamped despite their being detrimental to the country. This is to say nothing of our elected representatives’ failure to actually represent their constituents, and instead invariably act in accordance with the executive branch of government. As a result, Abdel Aal says, parliament’s main role as a watchdog has been entirely eroded, allowing the government to take important decisions such as signing the IMF loan agreement and lifting fuel subsidies (twice) without waiting for MPs’ approval.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that’s the path to Economic Nirvana: Leave the decisionmaking up to our brave elected representatives, who will surely get around to fixing all our woes when not volunteering themselves for hazardous assignments in Amreeka.