Jamaica's 'lay citizens'

By Garth A. Rattray

A lay magistrate is someone with limited judicial authority. A lay preacher is not an ordained minister but is a member of a church chosen to lead services. And then there are lay citizens. This cohort of citizens may be viewed in two ways. They may be considered non-experts who don't contribute to or participate meaningfully in the important decision-making policies in their country. Or, they may be seen as the group of people who have decided not to be a part of any political group or organisation.

We live in a democratic society in which free will prevails. We have the right to exercise our individual freedom as long as we do not harm others or infringe upon their freedoms and rights. We also have the freedom to choose not to actively participate in the voting process.

I vote and I believe that we should all vote in order to accurately reflect the true state of our democracy. However, it seems to me that any country that forces people to vote can-not be a democracy. And, by extension, anyone who wants to force people to vote cannot truly believe in the democratic system.

We had years of 'garrison' voting in which entire communities were forced to vote for one particular political party. Citizens were forced to go to polling stations and were watched over as they made their mark to participate in a mockery of our democracy. People used to vote for others who were tardy and even vote for others who had already gone to be with the Creator.

AN UNDEMOCRATIC DECLARATION

And now, we have a member of parliament who openly and unabashedly announced to the entire world that he would not assist citizens - bona fide members of our democratic society who pay taxes one way or the other - no matter how desperate or needy, if he checked and found that they did not participate in the electoral process. That is certainly no way to honour or uphold democracy. The really sad part of this disturbing story is that absolutely nothing will come of it as usual. And doing nothing about his utterance is also no way for a country to support democracy.

Instead of unfeelingly and unethically penalising citizens in our democratic society for not voting, there should be a concerted effort to ascertain why some citizens choose not to vote.

Anecdotally, people who do not vote in general elections choose to abstain as a personal form of protest, a show of dissatisfaction with our politicians. Most blame politics for our gun culture, for our apparent lack of respect for human life, for the perpetuation of poverty, and for the inextricable predicament that our country is in.

NO DIFFERENCE IN PARTIES

Some don't vote because they can't see any fundamental difference between our major political parties. Once upon a time, the parties had very divergent principles, but now, their manifestos read like carefully crafted announcements extolling their good points and putting forward their action plans, much in the same way that candidates for managerial positions present their curriculum vitae.

People don't think that politicians are looking out for the underprivileged poor unless doing so gets them political points, directly and manifestly benefits their party, and furthers their agenda. This doesn't qualify as symbiosis because generations of poor people have little or nothing to show for supporting political parties.

Then there are those who would genuinely love to vote but throw up their collective metaphoric hands in immeasu-rable frustration. They yearn to participate in the democratic process but fear that they will only be contributing to the empowerment of self-serving, corrupt and inept people.

Instead of berating non-participants, our politicians should woo voters by being ethical, people-serving, transparent and always put country and people way above politics.

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.