A maturing electorate

Published in the Jamaica Gleaner: Wednesday | August 29, 2007

When the time for the election began to draw nigh, and I began to call for the manifestos from the political parties, I was told that it was not normal for manifestos to be released so early. "Just before the election," I was told; "certainly not before nomination day." Of course that is 'old-style politics'. Issues are not supposed to matter in a Jamaican election. What matters is the party and its particular political messiah. Remember 'The Hero and the Crowd' by Archie Singham?

Name-calling, eulogy and ridicule, lionising and character assassination, pantomime and jestering, the exaggeration of achievements and the inflation of promises; such is the very stuff of traditional Jamaican electioneering. Entertainment? Yes! Food for serious thought? Not really. The contempt in which politicians held the majority of the electorate demanded that potential voters be offered bread and circuses. Poor black people were only supposed to be concerned about their stomachs and their other appetites. Issues and strategies were held to be the preoccupation of the middle classes.

Debates, of course, were absent from 'old-style politics'. To present rational arguments to the public would be to credit them with intelligence and discernment. And I am not sure that even now they have caught on. How seriously did the contenders actually debate? Did they argue as if the outcome of the election depended on it? Or was it treated as a sideshow for the middle classes?

Sea of change

But political opinion polls: they are conducted all the time. It is normal for voters to be asked who they will vote for in the absence of manifestos, a discussion of the issues or debates. In the 'old-style politics', voters are expected to decide who to vote for on the basis of who received scarce benefits and spoils, or on the basis of name-calling, eulogy and ridicule, lionising and character assassination, pantomime and jestering, the exaggeration of achievements and the inflation of promises.

Our politicians have designed an education system to produce voters who will not demand rational discussion of the issues, and who will be impressed by the distribution of scarce benefits and spoils, and pantomime and jestering, etc.

I think I detect a sea of change in this 2007 election campaign. Recent editions of the Gleaner-commissioned Bill Johnson polls suggest that both content of the manifestos and performance at the debates have shifted political choice somewhat. This, of course, did not happen among the 'die-hearted' party hacks (their hearts are well and truly dead), but among the undecided and among those who say they will not vote at all. The real hope for Jamaica is that there appear relatively few "die-hearted" among the young, who have called for a more issue-orientated campaign. I hope that this will be the last campaign fought under the guidelines of the 'old- style politics.'

I hope that party manifestos will cease to be hastily thrown together in a few days after an election is announced. Our maturing electorate demands that there be consultation and consensus within parties around the policies and programmes contained within manifestos. And our maturing electorate is going to continue to demand that they be treated less like a herd of animals ("Come in your thousands," they are told; I am only one person; I cannot come in my thousands!) and hungry little children, and more like rational human beings with their own wisdom, consciences, judgement and preferences.

Parties would do well to release elements of their manifestos early, and promote public debate and discussion, which should improve the documents. The debates can then be sharper on the issues. Start treating Jamaicans with respect. And then name-calling, eulogy and ridicule, lionising and character assassination, pantomime and jestering, the exaggeration of achievements and the inflation of promises, should become less and less important as time goes on.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development NGO.