Is There Hope For Jamaica? – The Youth Perspective
Three Sundays ago, as I watched on the television and saw scores and scores of diehard People’s National Party (PNP) supporters at the Half-Way-Tree rally I started to really analyse my feelings on the whole election business. I am 26 years old and, like most Jamaicans my age, I love my country. But I care nothing for politics. Why though?
I broke my questioning thoughts to hear the Prime Minister say “One good term deserves another! The plans are drawn, the foundation is laid, and our team is ready.” My questions were so easily answered. One “good” term? Tell that to my peers with whom I graduated in 2010. 50% of them have no work and another 30% are working wherever they can get a job (which in most cases is well below what they are worth). Tell that to my generation (and I speak for the majority of my generation).
Our view of politics – and the political system – is that it is a joke. An absolute joke. No one takes the Prime Minister and her comrades, or the Opposition Leader and his labourers seriously. We believe that they are in it for the money, the free phone calls, and the important functions where people treat them like royalty. Who could blame us? They certainly could not be in it for the actual welfare of the country. We scoff at the words “progress.” Come on man, who are you fooling? We grew up in the Era of the Scandal: from Finsac, to Trafigura, to the Tivoli incursion. We most recently witnessed a Health Minister making a fool of himself, only to be moved to another Ministry. As a matter of fact, in a real country, many people would have been forced to resign; here – nothing. Real growth will always remain a dream for this country unless we remove ourselves as far as possible from the destabilizing influences of crime and corruption.
For us, the joke continues as we prepare for another election filled with empty promises and pathetic outdated antics to garner votes from those whom I perceive to be either uneducated or reaping some kind of financial benefit from the party they support. Why else would you support the Jamaican government? Surely you cannot believe that they are making progress. The memes began on Instagram showing a picture of the large crowd with the caption “When you’re dedicated to poverty and hardship”. Then of course the circus continued, with the cruel comments of Jamaicans pitting themselves against other Jamaicans whom they consider to be less educated and “stupid” for being a part of the mob. But must we bash those we perceive to be ‘uneducated’? Even if they are, is it their fault really? Or are they just the result of a failed system that perhaps even created them for this very purpose: to vote and be unwaveringly partisan? To be honest, if I were getting some extra money and some curry goat where I would not normally have any, why wouldn’t I just vote?
But do we realize the joke is on us? If we are the future – if this is our country to live in – and all we do is not care, then aren’t we also partly culpable: for being so deafeningly quiet? As I listened to the finale of the political parade late Sunday night, supporters on their way back home, horns blaring, I began to feel a touch of hopelessness. But then, is there hope? I think there is. But our political systems must change. There is no other way. It must be thrown out in its entirety.
After 53 years of independence, we must realize that our current system of governance just isn’t working. Voting for a third option seems pointless because the very method we use for voting, first-past-the post, favours and sustains two parties! It would be more prudent of us to lobby for a more representative system of democracy that will be able to run the country effectively, no matter which party is in power.
And then do we realise that people selected to be Ministers in many cases have no experience, and in some cases, probably no idea how to facilitate the portfolios assigned them? But somehow we feel that, once selected, that person should be able to perform miracles. I sympathize for them really, because how could I be in business all my life, with no history in crime-fighting, and be put in charge to tackle crime, a task that is so heavily dependent on understanding the rudiments of social intervention? Even sadder than this fact of the continuous placing of unskilled and inexperienced party people in these positions, is that we continue to accept this practice!
I care about the future of my country so I can no longer keep quiet. It’s clear as day to me; I do care…this is my future. This is my Jamaica. We must band together and speak out, not for the PNP or JLP, but for ourselves, our families, our countrymen, and our Jamaica.
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