For decades, some Jamaicans who live overseas have advocated for the right to have a say in the electoral process of electing governments in their birth land.

The right to vote from a Diaspora perspective is a multi-pronged issue, filled with variables.

Jamaica’s population stands at somewhere in the region of three million people. By any stretch of the imagination, that number is dwarfed by the number of Jamaican nationals who live in the Diaspora. Jamaicans have been migrating from the island before the advent of the Windrush generation. In every major US city there are bustling populations of Jamaicans. The same is true in Canada, Japan, Germany and just about any country across the globe. Anywhere there is a place to inhabit, there will be Jamaicans.

Should all those Jamaicans living overseas be allowed to have a say in who represents the people of North Central St Andrew or any other political constituency?

The arguments for and against are many.

However, while the contribution by the Jamaican Diaspora may be significant and aids in propping up the Jamaican economy, it is the view of this writer that those who live in Jamaica and face its harsh realities day after day should be the ones who decide their ultimate political fate. After all, we who live abroad only visit. We do not take the robot taxis or the snail-paced Jamaica Urban Transit Company yellow buses to and from work. It is not our garbage that is being failed to be collected and we certainly do not face the daily task of hoping to survive a gunman’s rampage simply because we are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Jamaicans in the Diaspora do care for Jamaica. We want the best for our land. The remittances we transfer daily is to our direct loved ones and the fact that it bolsters the economy is but a bonus. We would have done it anyway.

It is my view, however, that we have rescinded the right to cast a ballot in the polls of Jamaica by virtue of our absence. There are many other ways in which we can contribute positively to nation building and assist in saving our country from the quagmire in which we now find ourselves.

What we need is for the Jamaican state to recognise that many of us can contribute positively to Jamaica’s growth.

As a country we have a serious problem with sexual offenses. How many Jamaicans at home and abroad are aware that the head of the New York Police Department’s Special Victims Unit is Jamaican born Micheal King, a Montego Bay native and Cornwall College alumnus who was appointed in 2020.

READ: Cornwall College alumnus heads NYPD Special Victims Unit

King was shunted into the job after the city decided enough was enough. By all reports he has been working assiduously to rid the Big Apple of the proliferation of sexual predators.

Why won’t Jamaica recognise people like King? Why won’t wont we offer him a reasonable package and utilise his expertise in order to bring those errant Jamaicans to account and help restore our national pride?

I have always maintained that it is due to the lack of swift and sure dispensation of justice that has led to wrongdoers growing in confidence in the belief that every bad deed goes unpunished.

After all, Jamaica paid European nationals Mark Shields, Leslie Green, Justin Felice and other foreign nationals good money to aid us in fighting crime and still our murder rate continues to climb. But when it comes to recognising and rewarding our own people who have fought racism and many other adverse conditions abroad, we brush them off with scant regard.

Instead of us clamouring to vote for sometimes corrupt and misguided political hacks to adorn themselves in fancy garb and engage in false posturing at the expense of the now drained Jamaican people, members of the Diaspora should instead advocate for the country to recognise and utilise the skills we have acquired.

King is but one of many in the Diaspora who have persevered to rise above the mire and hold the country’s flag up high. Many of us have the expertise and are willing to return home to assist in turning this great land around.

Instead of clamouring to vote we should advocate for the archaic laws which prevent many of us who work in countries which are not a part of the British Commonwealth to be allowed to serve.

The argument that the Diaspora should be allowed to have a seat in the country’s House of Representatives as proposed by Opposition Leader Mark Golding needs to be perused thoroughly and may well be viable. But for now Jamaicans at home and abroad need to come together to build our beloved Jamaica.

Karyl Walker is a veteran journalist who served as the Jamaica Observer’s Crime/Court and Online News Editor. He now resides in Florida, USA