Role Play Games ...and politicians wonder why people dont care about politics any

[brainless 0]

Last weekend, an interview with Mrs Roth, one of Germany's Members of Parliament and leader of the Green Party has been published by an onlien newspaper.

The international war against terrorism can only be won if we don't surrender fundamental civil liberties or destroy our open-minded, democratic society,[...]
the state always has to check and prove why any action violating fundamental rights is justified,
[...]
even the large coalition (*) has to obey these rules,
[...]
Germany is taking the shape of a state based on supervising its citizens,
[...]

(*) large coalition: Since a couple of months, a coalition of the two major parties (out of 5 currently present in the parliament) governs the country. Usually, one of the major parties governs in coalition with one or two minor parties. The current government is able to change the constitution without help from non-governmental parties.
The Green Party is one of the three minor parties currently present in parliament and was part of the coalition which ruled the country since 1998.

All these sentences are just fine, except for the part with "War against Terrorism" (but that would be a whole other topic). Unfortunately, Mrs Roth was part of the governing coalition during the last seven years. The Green Party was necessary to pass several laws which Roth now criticizes, among them are...:

* all telecommunications data (phone, fax, internet connection details, emails, ...) has to be stored for several years. As of now, this data piles' use is limited to "severe crimes" but the current government will probably expand the number of crimes which can be prosecuted using this data.

* the right to private copies (of audio CDs, DVDs etc). Until some years ago, german law allowed everyone who buys a CD to create as many copies for personal use as they wanted and to pass them on to close friends. You can't do neither of this anymore without doing something illegal.

* the "air safety law" (has been overruled by the federal supreme court as 'violates the constitution'): Planes which can not be contacted via radio were supposed to be shot down.

The difference between Roth's words (as quoted above) and her actions (passing these and other laws) are obvious: Last year, she was member of the governing coalition, now she's member of the opposition. It's the opposition's job to criticize the government. Obviously, this means criticizing things you are (in parts) responsible for without criticizing yourself.

Our Head of State, President Horst Koehler, said something like "I will not sign any law [passed by the government] if I don't like it." (**) He said that he thinks the "air safety law" might violate the constitution in one of its fundamental parts. He signed it anyway.

(**) In Germany, laws have to been signed by the President before they are valid. If a law does not get the President's signature, it has to be debated in parliament again...

... does it really surprise anyone that people feel they don't have to care about politics because those in charge do what they want anyway, that you can't rely on a politician to do what he said he'd do?