Elections, or Democratic Terrorism?

by Oscar Allen

At elections time, politicians alone dominate the stage. Even Christmas is postponed or adjourned.

The party apparatuses summon the crowds, provide gifts, pay the entertainers, paste up their posters, perform their acts, put down the other parties, and nightly count their seats. Last of all, it seems, they flourish their manifestos. Because they have less manifestos than T-shirts and posters, it shows that they are working on our feelings, more than on our reasonings. {{more}}

But elections should make other social leaderships come out on their stage. Up to now, only the ackward National Monitoring and Consultative Mechanism (NMCM) has made some plain statements to the parties and the people notice, though, the NMCM is not really a thing that we Vincentians set up on our own, CARICOM planted it on us. If we had our own way, we would have elections without any institutions opening their mouths except political party leaderships and their mouth organs. We, the voters, are being robbed, enslaved and mentally abused in a twisted up elections process of democratic terrorism because social institutions are dumb, when we need to speak.

That is why even at this stage, I would call us to hold a Manifesto vs Manifesto Forum without the political mouthpieces taking part. The private sector, often proposed as the engine of economic growth will have an interest in this comparative Manifesto Forum, so I would ask the Chamber of Industry and Commerce to put this act together. Request the use of and take over the radio and television transmissions from the parties for one hour, ask 3 persons of an adult male, female and a youth – of courage and competence, place a moderator and call the nation to attention, to hear what the Manifestos have to say about our Vincentian people’s future in the next five years.

The focus is not on disembodied projects, but on people. Projects do not vote.

Let us make this small start to ease back the Democratic Terrorism in this elections.