Editorial

CHANGE THROUGH LEADERSHIP IS THE VERY ESSENCE OF THE DIASPORA VOTE IN JAMAICA

But the need for change is not enough..”We can’t make progress unless we elect knowledgeable, competent leaders” — Moghalu. The desire for change must ensure the universality of one man one vote vested in the plurality of governance. Plurality in governance is a universal order, anything else only invites tyranny perched on anarchical throne.

With the Diaspora Vote, party identity and garrison strongholds are less important in deciding which party or who governs Jamaica. It is to ensure real change through demonstrated leadership and not just sound bites to quench the thirst of those who so desperately seek social and economic changes. “We need to put this alongside the financial crash, which brought home to people that a very few individuals working in the financial sector can accrue huge rewards and that the rest of us underwrite that success and pick up the bill when their greed leads us astray. So taken together we are living in a world of widening, not diminishing, financial inequality, in which many people can see not just their standard of living, but their ability to earn a living at all, disappearing. It is no wonder then that they are searching for a new deal, which Trump and Brexit might have appeared to represent.”-Stephen Hawking

Social and Political apathy can and will destroy our democracy as pluralism is at the heart of every functioning democracy. No society can say it is truly democratic when in a supposedly open and free society the active oppositions have not made their voices heard forcefully enough to effect changes that will improve the lives of the citizenry and when the voices of the captive poor are subverted into voting against its interest and instead for the promise of change from those who seek power for personal wealth and greed. No government can claim legitimacy over good governance and the rules of law when the very fabric of society which serves to protect and maintain these fundamental principles are rapidly being eroded through their lack of leadership in the ever-increasing gap between the rich and the poor.

The quality of the Diaspora Vote is measured by its constitutionality and by its freedom from the constraints and coercion of Jamaica’s sociopolitical realities and represents a struggle for the freedom of a captive underclass trapped within the colors of tribal party rituals. “Without a critical mass of support from well-informed citizens, rules and institutions become paper tigers, the rules get ignored, the institutions get overpowered, because in each case, what we’re trying to do, will be opposed. There are initially powerful people, whose interests have to be faced down, and so, the march to get good public policies, is not just an onward, upward, happy process, it is a process of struggle, and so citizens have to get sufficiently informed, that they get on the right side. The crooks, the initially powerful, they will be putting out narratives that try to misinform, and so it’s the business of ordinary citizens to get properly informed.” – Sir Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford.

Hence, it is not change we seek for the sake of change but rather leadership based upon a history of caring about the human condition demonstrating clear and precise vision on how to improve the lives of others without regard to race or social class ” for to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chain, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others”-Mandela

 

By: Silbert Barrett

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