Dear Editor,
From growing up in the 60s, I recall complaints about absentee politicians who would turn up at our gates the day before elections to beg for our votes, reminding me of the absentee babyfather who appears in his child's life only when he thinks there is something in it for him.
Back then we had no electricity, no water, and had the worst roads. But during election time politicians would turn up in the district with promises of better infrastructure, bearing 'things' to distribute. It was like a giant barrel had arrived from foreign for voters.
Not much has changed in five decades and some citizens are still gullible. Nowadays some voters are exchanging cash for votes. Called the 'inarticulate' majority, they can be depended upon for their willingness to forgive and pretend that they feel the love.
One generator in my district gave way to electricity through the Rural Electrification Programme, but today, roads are worse and the bridge that connected St Thomas to St Andrew, near Mavis Bank, has long crumbled. Whenever there is heavy rainfall "nobody cannot cross it". We remain cut-off until the water subsides. Education has been the avenue for some us whose parents made great sacrifices for us to attend high school and university; it enabled us to be "articulate".
Can politicians ever be sincere? My question is not original, yet is as relevant today as when writer David Runciman first asked it in his book, Political Hypocrisy: "What kind of hypocrite should voters choose as their next leader?"
The question seems utterly cynical but, as Runciman suggests, it is actually much more cynical to pretend that politics can ever be completely sincere. The most dangerous form of political hypocrisy is to claim to have politics without hypocrisy.
I agree with Runciman that in dealing with politicians we ourselves have become hypocrites. When they lie to us, we pretend to believe, knowing full well that we will never have paved roads to go home to our districts, for example. Left to them, we will still have pit toilets in schools and our farmers will still watch their harvest rot away because trucks, vans and taxis refuse to smash up their chassis on the designer pot-holed dirt roads.
Is Jamaica overwhelmed with political hypocrisy? Where is the promised sincerity, openness and truth in politics? What about the promised accountability? I cannot be blamed for my cynicism because I have listened to too many speeches being well aware at the time that the words slid out of the politicians' mouths, they knew it to be as insincere as a Rush Limbaugh apology.
So what's a citizen to do with her cynicism? Let us all collectively pool and convert our energies of distrust and stand up strong against deceit and misconduct. Let us use the energy to expose disingenuousness and all forms of wrongdoing, and never give up hope for a better crop of politicians and a better crop of citizens to call them out and not blindly accept recklessness.
Sandra M Taylor Wiggan
sandra_wiggan@yahoo.co.uk
Political hypocrisy
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From growing up in the 60s, I recall complaints about absentee politicians who would turn up at our gates the day before elections to beg for our votes, reminding me of the absentee babyfather who appears in his child's life only when he thinks there is something in it for him.
Back then we had no electricity, no water, and had the worst roads. But during election time politicians would turn up in the district with promises of better infrastructure, bearing 'things' to distribute. It was like a giant barrel had arrived from foreign for voters.
Not much has changed in five decades and some citizens are still gullible. Nowadays some voters are exchanging cash for votes. Called the 'inarticulate' majority, they can be depended upon for their willingness to forgive and pretend that they feel the love.
One generator in my district gave way to electricity through the Rural Electrification Programme, but today, roads are worse and the bridge that connected St Thomas to St Andrew, near Mavis Bank, has long crumbled. Whenever there is heavy rainfall "nobody cannot cross it". We remain cut-off until the water subsides. Education has been the avenue for some us whose parents made great sacrifices for us to attend high school and university; it enabled us to be "articulate".
Can politicians ever be sincere? My question is not original, yet is as relevant today as when writer David Runciman first asked it in his book, Political Hypocrisy: "What kind of hypocrite should voters choose as their next leader?"
The question seems utterly cynical but, as Runciman suggests, it is actually much more cynical to pretend that politics can ever be completely sincere. The most dangerous form of political hypocrisy is to claim to have politics without hypocrisy.
I agree with Runciman that in dealing with politicians we ourselves have become hypocrites. When they lie to us, we pretend to believe, knowing full well that we will never have paved roads to go home to our districts, for example. Left to them, we will still have pit toilets in schools and our farmers will still watch their harvest rot away because trucks, vans and taxis refuse to smash up their chassis on the designer pot-holed dirt roads.
Is Jamaica overwhelmed with political hypocrisy? Where is the promised sincerity, openness and truth in politics? What about the promised accountability? I cannot be blamed for my cynicism because I have listened to too many speeches being well aware at the time that the words slid out of the politicians' mouths, they knew it to be as insincere as a Rush Limbaugh apology.
So what's a citizen to do with her cynicism? Let us all collectively pool and convert our energies of distrust and stand up strong against deceit and misconduct. Let us use the energy to expose disingenuousness and all forms of wrongdoing, and never give up hope for a better crop of politicians and a better crop of citizens to call them out and not blindly accept recklessness.
Sandra M Taylor Wiggan
sandra_wiggan@yahoo.co.uk
Political hypocrisy
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