POLITICIANS IN THE REGION got it easy. The presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton is under pressure because of her careless use of her personal email account while she was Secretary of State.
Japan has had four Prime Ministers resign since 2007, citing their unpopularity as the reason. Politicians in the Caribbean are Teflon dons. Nutten doan stick.
It is said that politics is a dirty game. I don’t believe that. There is no such thing as a dirty game, only dirty players. If a game is dirty it is because the players like it so. It suits them.
Politics is as clean or as dirty as politicians and the people they come from are.
The perception that politics is a dirty game may be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Some people may feel they are too clean for politics and never enter. Only the persons who feel their character fits the game may end up stepping up.
If we accept politics to be a dirty game we will tend to expect and accept lower standards of political behavior. Because we believe that is just how it is.
One of the biggest barriers to changing anything is the belief that that is just how it is, and how it has to be.
Among people that practise female circumcision, the cutting is usually done by elder women. In the West we call it genital mutilation. Apparently, you can have a hard time convincing a woman that her daughter’s private parts should not be sliced or sown up.
That is her culture. As far as she is concerned, that is just how it is.
But it is not how it has to be and the practice is reportedly on the decline. Many women brought up in that culture have grown to question and challenge it. First someone asks, “Is this how it has to be,” then takes steps to see how it can be different.
When something stays one way for a long time there is the illusion that that is how it is and how it will always be. The low voter turnout in recent elections suggests that voters are either very comfortable with our politicians and take them for granted or very disenchanted with politics and take it for granted that it is how it is no matter which party is in charge.
What is normal is not necessarily natural nor necessary.
There is a parable of a tribe that lived near a lake. They were known as the elephant people due to their unusually large legs which resembled those of an elephant.
Where the legs of normal people got narrower towards the ankle the legs of the elephant people got wider, like tree trunks. The skin was thick and rough and cracked. The foot barely had a chance to peek out from the large mass of the lower limb, as if the toes were stuck on to the overgrown ankle.
As far as anyone knew, this is just how they always were. It was thought that this tribe was a unique branch on the human evolutionary tree. None of the surrounding villages knew them by any other name than the elephant people.
A visiting biologist taking samples of the water from the lake made a life-changing discovery. There was a parasitic worm breeding profusely in the elephant people’s lake. Once the worm got into the human body it would cause a blockage in the lymphatic system. This would then cause the legs of the host to swell.
This lake, polluted with the parasite, was the elephant people’s source of drinking water, food and hygiene. Once medication became available the elephant people’s characteristic swelling disappeared and they looked just like everyone else.
But many of the elephant people, especially the elders, refused to take the medication. As far as they were concerned, they had got along fine for generations the way they were and there was no need to change.
What was normal for the elephant people was not natural nor necessary except in the minds of those who had become accustomed to it.
When we get together to talk about the state of the country there is always the elephant in the room. It is the political culture. We talk about changing all kinds of things like the educational system and the business environment. All of these are products of the political environment.
It is a commonly held sentiment that the political waters are polluted and once you step in you are at a high risk of becoming infected. But this may not be normal, natural nor necessary. If politics is a dirty game the first step in cleaning it up must be the belief that it can be cleaned up.
Studies done by psychologists at Harvard University suggest that teacher expectations largely influence student success. Higher expectations lead to higher performance. Lower expectations lead to lower performance. It’s called the Pygmalion effect. We tend to live
up or down to other’s expectations of us. Maybe it can work for politicians as well. Maybe it’s time to expect more of politics and politicians. Politics does not have to be a dirty game. Or does it?
This now places the responsibility on the public to play its part in the political process by raising expectations of politicians and raising the standard for what is acceptable behaviour by politicians.
In Barbados, the two major parties struggle to differentiate themselves from each other on ideology or policy. Our politicians mostly seek to differentiate themselves with their charisma or by attacking the character of their opponents.
Maybe one bright day a politician will seek to differentiate by raising the tone and character of their own debate rather than by debasing the other. But this won’t happen on its own. The people must demand it.
A people will always get the government they deserve, or the one they demand.
Adrian Green is a creative communications specialist. [email protected]
