Vote or else, what?

“Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don't give up the fight.”
Bob Marley 

Mr. Peter Bunting - voting in 2011
Photo – Dave Lindo 

Gleaner Published: Friday | December 30, 2011

The topic of compulsory voting is hot, no doubt driven by Member of Parliament, Mr. Everald Warmington’s recent utterances. Whatever the reason for its resurgence it’s always worth debating, if for no other reason than to focus public attention on this Right. If we’re really lucky we may even convince a few fence squatters to join the ranks of the voting. My own opinion on the topic of compulsory voting swings from “democracy is too important to be optional”[i] to “it is not consistent with the freedom associated with democracy”[ii], pausing for long periods on ambivalent’s varandah.

Let me state clearly, that I have voted in every general election since I reached voting age and have voted in several local government elections too. I believe those who vote freely in general elections and as a matter of course, are likely to be voters, generally. By ‘generally’ I mean these are the same individuals who tend to participate in voting exercises wherever they present themselves. We, and here I include myself, attend and participate in, Parent Teacher’s Meetings, Citizens’ Associations, Church/School and other community efforts. We volunteer or allow ourselves to be volunteered for this and that in service to our communities, families and friends. We fill out the survey forms and give the nice customer service agent a minute of our time to answer a few short questions. We are known as the reliable ones, the dependable ones, the ones you can call upon to do something last minute or we know how to or who can, get it done.

We attend the meetings even if we don’t voice an opinion but check a box or raise our hands when asked to vote. We believe that whatever "it" is, won’t get better if people like us do not participate, even if we do so out of enlightened self-interest. We have strong opinions on a variety of issues and sometimes voice them, but we believe it is our duty to do what we can to improve our lot. We don’t leave "it" to chance, or hope that someone else will pick up the slack. You know us well and sometimes, you disdainfully opine behind our backs that, we’re all up in everything. You take us for granted anyway and ask us what happened when you don’t turn up.   

It’s almost impossible to convince individuals who see no point to voting in a general election in Jamaica, to vote. They want a reason to vote, they need to be convinced that it will matter, they often genuinely believe in the rightness of the message they think their non-participation sends.

Traffic Amnesty Cross Roads tax office in St Andrew
Published: Sunday | January 6, 2013
Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer  

Today, on the subject of compulsory voting, I’m pausing on ambivalent’s verandah again but I just know we can do better. How about just adding another option on the ballot that says “None of the Above”? That way we may at least be able to quantify the segment of the voting age population that is prepared to participate but see not real choice.

That might work, but for some (too many), I’m afraid they’ll always be too lazy or disengaged to be bothered. As for compulsion, recall what happened with the traffic ticket amnesty. Now apply that chaos to a post election scene.

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[i] The Economist explains Where is it compulsory to vote? Sep 19th 2013, 23:50 by T.W.

[ii] IDEA Compulsory Voting What is compulsory voting?

Warmy's Warning

“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.” John Maynard Keynes     

Mr. Everald Warmington
Google Photo

This past week, the Member of Parliament for South West St. Catherine, Mr. Everald Warmington had us talking, again. I wish I had the transcript but in its absence I'll rely on other sources to refresh my memory. If you can hear or see beyond the shock value of his utterances you'll get to issues worthy of serious thought. 

The crux of Mr. Warmington's argument seems to have been; if you don't vote you don't count. If you don't vote you have no business asking for government assistance. If you don't vote, unlike some thirty of so countries, there are no real consequences. 

Problem is that as offensive as these utterances were to many, we intuitively and for many, practically, know that this is the reality. "A suh di ting set". Mr. Warmington didn't say anything we didn't know, we just didn't want to hear it from an elected representative. Let's start with the recent kerfuffle with the Jamaica Labour Party and those Senate "resignations" - signed undated letters used to clean house. And what about Boards of Directors appointed to public entities - all asked to resign or summarily ejected with every change of government? 

The right to vote in a democracy is sacred, but in Jamaica the duty to vote is treated with scant regard by a large segment of qualified voters. Our voter’s list has grown healthily since 1944 but our rate of participation hasn't kept pace. I have lots of theories as to why but I keep coming back to what I most frequently hear; it doesn't matter - nothing is going to change. A vicious circle; if you don't vote nothing will change and if nothing changes you see no reason to vote. Chicken or egg?

The country will not, in my view, arise from its apathetic slumber until we see tangible and meaningful evidence that our votes matter. Some of us will vote regardless of the outcome, but we cannot continue to build a government based on 28.2% of the total qualified voters, as was the case in the last general election. A point also made by Ken Jones in his piece “Remedying Voter Apathy”, and appropriately dubbed, “electile dysfunction” by Ronald Mason.

I continue to believe, until I am proven wrong, that we are being hamstrung by a constitution which cannot serve us in the present nor will it serve is in the future. It guarantees that our elected representatives must first serve the best interest of their party at the expense of the populace. It ensures the victors are rewarded with ministries or worse, ministries without portfolios which bloat the cabinet at the expense of schools, hospitals, roads, water and other basic necessities for civilized living. It makes it impossible for an elected representative to vote his/her conscience for fear of incurring the wrath of the party leader. It reduces the cabinet to a collection of placeholders instead of a body armed with the skills and competences needed to manage a ministry in a modern and ever global time. It renders the notion of service to country through elected office unattractive to our brightest and best leaving only the most partisan to pursue a career in political life.

Most egregiously, it promises and delivers a never ending recycling of those who hold fast to the status quo until death do they part, locking out new ideas.

Year	Total Electorate	% Votes Cast	Party forming govt	# of Votes to form the govt	% of All  Voters to    form the govt
1944	663,069	59%	JLP	161,138	24.3%
1949	732,217	65%	PNP	207,671	28.4%
1955	761,238	65%	PNP	250,338	32.9%
1959	853,539	66%	PNP	309,129	36.2%
1962*	796,540	73%	JLP	290,491	36.5%
1967	543,307	82%	JLP	226,312	41.7%
1972	605,662	79%	PNP	269,258	44.5%
1980*	990,417	87%	JLP	502,174	50.7%
1983*	990,586	29%	JLP	257,040	25.9%
1989	1,078,760	78%	PNP	473,752	43.9%
1993	1,002,599	60%	PNP	358,994	35.8%
1997	1,182,294	65%	PNP	429,807	36.4%
2002	1,301,334	59%	PNP	396,370	30.5%
2007	1,336,307	61%	JLP	410,401	30.7%
2011	1,648,036	53%	PNP	464,418	28.2%

Data source: Electoral Office of Jamaica

Why Tessanne Chin Matters to Me

Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking risks. Perhaps this person will never be disappointed or disillusioned; perhaps she won’t suffer the way people do when they have a dream to follow. But when the person looks back-she will hear her heart – Paulo Coelho


Miss Tessanne Chin
Photo credit - NBC The Voice

If you’re living in some deep, rural place in Jamaica, plagued by a lack of basic amenities like say, electricity, you are forgiven if you haven’t heard about Tessanne Chin; (affectionately), the "Chiny" girl. Otherwise, what’s your excuse? If you’re paying even scant attention, I’d guess that she matters to you, she sure matters to me. Here’s why.

The first time I went to Paris, I travelled very low budget but decided that I wouldn’t let the opportunity pass me by since I was in England and could not otherwise afford the trip. I stayed in a little hotel with only a ‘face basin’ in my room because I couldn’t afford a room with a shower. A single shower served six rooms, but I wasn’t prepared to share so I made my ‘face basin’ work for me.

When I checked in, the young woman at the front desk spoke no English but we managed to complete the process uneventfully. My objectives were simple, see as much as I could, on foot, don’t get lost and take pictures, hopefully with me in some of them.  Years later what remains the most pleasant part of that experience was the broad smile which the word “Jamaica” brought to the face of the young woman who spoke no English and her cognitive declaration of “ah, Bob Marley”. It felt good, and it’s unforgettable.

In recent years our best and worst have been on show for the entire world to see. We cringed in national shame as “Dudus” dominated the world’s media. We sighed in painful disappointment and even disbelief as our athletes returned positive drug tests, in numbers too many to ignore. No I won’t say more, you have your own list.

If you’re reading this you’ll probably remember the sense of pride and joy you felt when a young Ardenne High School, Jamaican student named Jody-Anne Maxwell won the prestigious Scripps Howard Spelling Bee competition. Over the years we have enjoyed the usual respite from our realities when our athletes gave us joy as they proudly took victory laps, draped in our national flag. Or excite us with world class swimming gold medals and all, or ride a horse in the Olympics in a sport we barely recognize (equestrian), or make a name in a sport which we are scarcely equipped to pursue (bobsledding).

If you have not figured it out yet, Tessanne Chin matters to me because she gives me another reason to celebrate the best side of Jamaica. Maybe she’ll win the contest, maybe she won’t but what she’s achieved so far is simply spectacular. 

Thank you for taking the risk; for giving me another reason for, in the words of P!nk, "just a little bit's enough". 

Political Party Renewal

 

Photo credit - Google

 

“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” Lao Tzu

I’ve been watching and listening to the current Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leadership challenge fracas, as keenly as I did that of the People’s National Party (PNP); back when Mrs. Simpson-Miller had her turn. My conclusion then is the same now, both parties could benefit from an extraordinary change in culture which will give more eligible Jamaican voters a solid reason to engage in the political process. It won’t be easy and it will take time.

Start by changing the party's constitution to impose term limits; that way challenges will not be to the sitting leader, unless he/she is completely inept, corrupt or otherwise. Term limits will ensure that there is always healthy competition at the second tier and that the organization maintains a robust leadership pipeline; a consistent flow of new ideas. It prevents stagnation and atrophy whilst warding of the onset of an entitlement syndrome. Try it, you'll like it and it will send a powerful signal that the party really wants to renew itself.





Andrew Holness
Opposition & JLP Leader
Photo credit - Google





Our political leaders ought not to serve at their leisure; they’re not lifers occupying a jail cell, passing time. How dare they make what should be a healthy competition into a fight for scraps! On the one hand we have a hand-picked parvenu whose claim to fame is youth; as if good ideas are the exclusive purview of the young. On the other hand we have another whose claim to fame is experience; as if we don’t know that there’s a marked difference between a year’s experience repeated ten times and ten years’ experience. Who cares? Too few, and that’s the crux of the matter.

Audley Shaw
Photo credit - Google

 

Should you even care? Absolutely, because ours is a Westminster modeled democracy which requires an intelligent and useful opposition to temper the excesses of any overbearing party in government. The fact is that, as a nation, we generally do not care. You don’t have to take my word for it the data can be found on the Electoral Office of Jamaica’s website but just in case you can’t be bothered, I’ve plucked some out for you. Stare at them and make what you will of them but I’ll wager you’ll come back to the same place and ask why can’t we consistently engage at least 70% of voting age citizens? I can’t prove it, but I’m convinced leadership has something to do with it.

 

Year	Total Electorate	% Votes Cast	% PNP	% JLP
1944	663,069	58.70	23.50	41.40
1949	732,217	65.20	43.50	42.70
1955	761,238	65.12	50.50	39.03
1959	853,539	66.09	54.80	44.30
1962*	796,540	72.88	48.59	50.04
1967	543,307	82.24	49.08	50.65
1972	605,662	78.88	56.36	43.40
1980*	990,417	86.91	40.67	58.34
1983*	990,586	29.48	00.00	88.02
1989	1,078,760	78.38	56.03	42.89
1993	1,002,599	60.28	59.40	39.05
1997	1,182,294	65.22	55.74	38.57
2002	1,301,334	59.04	51.59	46.92
2007	1,336,307	61.46	49.35	49.97
2011	1,648,036	53.17	53.00	46.30

How telling is it that in its 75 years the People's National Party has only had 4 leaders with the first two having 54 years between them and by the way, they were father and son? And as for the JLP, don’t think your 6 leaders in 70 years is anything to celebrate; with both Donald Sangster and Hugh Shearer having acted as leaders. More telling is the fact that between Alexander Bustamante and Edward Seaga they served as party leaders for a combined 61 of the party’s 70 years. Should we even wonder why the party is where it is today?

I can only hope that after the dust settles it would have been worth the mudslinging and maybe, just maybe the party can become a real opposition. I won’t hold my breath though for I’m neither suicidal nor naïve.

Thanks to Ms. Dionne Jackson-Miller (@djmillerJA) for pointing out that Donald Sangster and Hugh Shearer acted, which may not count.