should politicians blog?

I am now writing the fourth installment of my blog, I had a different topic in mind until I asked myself the question, why do I blog? I started blogging as a reponse to topix.net, I wanted to give some substance to the discussions there, to harness and manifest the good, to placate the angry, to provide information to those in need, to change hearts and minds. In short, I wanted debate, I wanted a way to participate in our nascent democracy without necessarily taking public office (at least not yet.) In answering myself a new question came up, "Should Mosisili blog?" This has now been be extended to should politicians blog?

Imagine, if there was a blog in which Mosisili himself was able to explain to us the constraints he had when picking his cabinet and what his expectations were from each of his ministers? Imagine if each of the cabinet members themselves blogged about the daily challenges of thier work and sought our participation in addressing these challenges? Imagine if all of our parliamentarians blogged and read (and hopefully used) the comments that we would leave them? Imagine that, a government to which we would have access; access to their thoughts and they access to ours.

Imagine an opposition that works in tandem with the people to hold government accountable, that is au courant with their thoughts and aspirations. As John Lennon said "Its easy if you try."

In Africa, I am aware of only Thabo Mbeki's blog on the ANC website. In the UK and the US a number of politicians have blogs or podcasts. The following site has more details http://www.bloggerheads.com/politicians.asp