ONCE AGAIN, the recent election in Trinidad and Tobago has reinforced the Commonwealth Caribbean as a region in which the practice of the people exercising their democratic right to vote and to change the government of the day, as an established right which is deeply respected.
That election followed closely on that held in St Kitts, and earlier elections were held in Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda, where governments were turned out of office because the voters took the view that there was time for a change,.
In all of these instances the elections were held and the results were generated without any reports of the kind of violence which occurs in other parts. Minor skirmishes between supporters of opposing parties are, naturally, par for the course.
So that even in situations where smallness of size militates against some of the more effective counterbalancing aspects of our system of governance, the sanctity of the ballot box appears to be a major fixture of political life in the region and that the people regard elections as their powerful constitutional right which gives them ultimate power over the elected governors.
Attempts in other parts of the world to plant democratic ideas have been spectacularly ineffective and in fact, the mad rush to establish features of western-style democracy may have led to greater instability than existed previously. We are therefore the successors to an honourable and peaceful tradition which we must do everything in our power to protect.
The game of cricket is another inheritance of our colonial past but the people have a more detailed knowledge of the rules of that game than they have of their system of government. This is borne out by the high quality discussions on technical aspects of that sport by local fans.
What is good for the sport is missing from discussions on governance, and it seems appropriate to call for enhanced opportunities to improve the mass of common knowledge about how we are governed and how the processes and structures of governance are used in the day-to-day practice of our democracy.
Participation by the people of the region in governing themselves is about a half-century old and there are many still alive who will remember a system when some adults could not vote as they failed to qualify to do so, because, to put it bluntly, they were too poor.
Thankfully those days are long gone, but we must never forget that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, and that information and discussion about our politics is the right of every one and that the battle for the rights and freedoms which we exercise today was long and painful and cost many lives.
The right to vote is at once a simple and a complex idea. It recognises our common equality, and gives everyone an equal right to determine how a country is to be governed.
As another anniversary of our Independence is celebrated in two months’ time, it is vital that we seek to enhance the practice of our democracy. Greater efforts are necessary to deepen the citizens’ knowledge of and appreciation for our system of democratic governance.
Our democracy cannot be taken for granted. It is a tender plant, and like any other plant in our garden it needs watering for its healthy growth and development.