ABOUT FOUR AND A HALF YEARS AGO the mantra throughout the Caribbean was “time for change”.
The general elections held during that time in the various territories saw incumbent governments being voted out of office as the electorates across the diaspora expressed dissatisfaction with what they saw as arrogance and a lack of vision on the part of their leaders.
The then opposition parties seized the opportunity to put forward alternative ideas to transform the social and economic landscapes of their respective countries.
And indeed, those strategies worked. Hence, from Grenada to The Bahamas, new governments took control of the countries’ affairs.
Fast-forward and a few years later, it now seems as if history is repeating itself because in recent times we have seen changes in governments in Jamaica, St Lucia and The Bahamas.
And extending the cycle of change beyond the region, we have also seen significant election outcomes in France and Greece within the past week alone.
There is no denying that turmoil in the global economy and governments’ responses or lack thereof to the challenges that present themselves must be part of the daily deliberations among the electorate, forcing people to make tough decisions regarding the governance of their countries.
But beyond the global concerns, there must clearly have been significant domestic issues that incumbents either ignored or failed to tackle in meaningful ways to inspire confidence in the local populations that their governments were “on top of those matters”.
And that to me is the major reason why the “winds of change” continue to blow so strongly in most countries at this time.
While it is useful to undertake a full diagnosis of what may have gone wrong for incumbents, I believe the time has come for us as a people to seriously examine the current state of affairs in our respective countries, not to cast blame or point fingers, but to try and find solutions to steer our ships of state in the right direction and out of troubled waters.
To do so, we should begin with a few serious questions.
When it comes to the economy, for instance, is the level of unemployment, the extent of crime and violence, and social decay the direct result of a worldwide economic situation or lack of effective domestic policies?
Second, every political party makes lots of promises to its electorate during election campaigns but find it increasingly difficult to fulfil those promises once elected – could it be a case of growing disillusionment among populations since much has been promised but little delivered?
Third, could it be that the electorate is growing more and more impatient with what it perceives as a laissez-faire attitude of government, particularly when it comes to responding to the real burning issues facing the country?
Fourth, is it the case that the electorate is frustrated by what it believes to be the wrong policies put in place by governments and untimely policy decisions made at a time of increasing global uncertainty?
These indeed, are but a sample of the questions that we as individuals, businesses, civil societies and governments have to ask ourselves and find answers that will determine whether or not the winds of change, as they relate to election outcomes, continue to blow across the Caribbean.
Time alone will determine if we are up to that challenge!
