By now maybe everyone with a cellphone and Internet access — I suspect that is the vast majority of our population — has seen that Television Jamaica news item in which supporters of the People’s National Party (PNP) who were interviewed during the party’s recent demonstration at National Heroes’ Circle exhibited total ignorance of what the protest was about and, by extension, why they were protesting. The ignorance that was displayed by the PNP supporters is a great tragedy that must not be silenced by laughter.

For donkey’s years the PNP and the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) have had an unwholesome practice of loading ordinary Jamaicans into vans, trucks, and buses, and dispatching them to political mass meetings all over the country. Sometimes these vehicles are packed like sardines, as we say in local parlance. This is not an exaggeration.

PNP supporters were bussed into National Heroes’ Circle to demonstrate. Media reports say that. I have seen some of the footage. No well-thinking Jamaican should feel comfortable that in 2025 Jamaica citizens are still being so used and staged.

Some will holler, “But, Higgins, how come you are just saying this?”

Not so! In my The Agenda column of October 6, 2024, entitled ‘The JLP has been caught trying’, I noted among other things: “The base of either party is very unlikely, by themselves, to secure the political bacon in a general election. Annual national conferences, therefore, have to adopt a big tent approach in tone, tenor, and theme. The political parties have much work to do in the coming weeks and months. I believe that work will have to include, among other things, more, much more, community-type engagements, and less, much less, motorcades and big rallies. Big rallies and motorcades are important political ingredients, but based on feedback which I gathered on my most recent road trips, there is also a longing for a return to touchy-feely-type connections. By this I mean church hall, community centre, town hall-type engagements, and related upfront and personal meetings.”

I don’t like motorcades and big political meetings. Anyway, I will soon present here my forecast for the next general election based on findings from the most recent road trips into 19 marginal seats.

INDICTMENT ON OUR POLITICS

But, back to the PNP’s recent Monday morning, first day of the workweek demonstration at National Heroes’ Circle: Except for those who have recently landed here from Mars, we know that political party supporters are often paid to board vehicles that transport them to rallies, etc. These supporters also oftentimes receive lunch, liquor, and related support. I don’t believe there is anything wrong with that per se. This kind of support to party-faithful is common all over the world, in fact.

I think it should also be a basic requirement too that supporters who are loaded into buses and other vehicles are also told why. This does not require an outlay of millions, either. As soon as the vehicles are comfortably occupied, one or two leaders could simply board each and have a short talk that outlines who, what, when, where, why, and how.

The preservation of people’s dignity is important. Some of the supporters, doubtless, are not able to read and write, but that does not mean they are fools and should be disrespected. Supporters are the bread and butter of the parties. Some among us who are only concerned with the acquisition of power, in particular State power, and maximising of it for themselves and those close to them have preyed upon the ignorance of people in this country for far too long. It’s a grave injustice.

Oscar Ameringer, German author, famously said: “Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other.” Some among us are evidently disciples of Ameringer’s dictum. I am not. Politics must mean the preservation and promotion of people’s dignity.

Some years ago former Prime Minister P J Patterson described — note I did not say prescribed — our politics as, “A fight for scare benefits and spoils carried on by hostile tribes perpetually at war.” We still have not totally rid ourselves of that awful skin. I don’t expect our politics to be Pollyanna-like and/or exist in a Goldilocks-type atmosphere, but there must be guard rails which protect human dignity. These must never be impaired.

Politics must always serve as an accessible ladder of mobility for all. Our reality is that some among us draw up the mobility ladder as soon as they climb atop. It’s an injustice. It is wrong to use people as footstools to facilitate personal successes and, thereafter, discard them like chaff. We must stop investing in ignorance.

Believe it, “A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep,” said Saul Bellow, Nobel laureate. The abysmal level of ignorance that the PNP demonstrators recently exhibited regarding what they were protesting about and why, to me, illustrated an abuse of people.

Some will say, “But, Higgins, if people allow themselves to be used and abused, as happened at the National Heroes’ Circle, they have no one to blame but themselves.”

Again, politics is supposed to make our lives materially better. Those who are elected and/or selected to manage our local and/or national affairs have not just a responsibility, but a duty to ensure that they “do no harm” to the citizens who have entrusted them with power.

Note, I am not for one moment categorising some people as helpless and or automatons. The fact is many of the PNP supporters who were transported to National Heroes’ Circle were smartly/slyly using/abusing those who took them there. Still, leaders must lead.

DO YOUR CIVIC DUTY!

Democracy dies in broad daylight when our leaders prey upon the ignorance of especially ordinary Jamaicans and or weaponise ignorance to promote deceitful objectives. This is a staple in Jamaica.

An informed electorate is the lifeblood of a functional democracy. Democracy also dies in broad daylight when those of us especially who have benefited from education at great public expense divorce ourselves from the electoral process and, in so doing, allow especially those who are blinded by loyalty to party to decide Jamaica’s future.

Jamaica has suffered dearly for decades because too many among us are simply too lazy, or maybe too “stoosh” to go to a polling station and do our civic duty. What has happened as a consequence? Those whose votes can be bought and sold, they decide the direction of Jamaica. Those who are arrested by ignorance, suffer with rabid adherence to their political party and/or sometimes worst, decide the direction of Jamaica. This is how democracy dies in broad daylight.

I believe voting is a civic duty. Those who embrace the mistaken notion that not voting is the best form of protest against corruption and bad governments are “cutting off their noses to spite their faces”, as we say in local parlance.

I agree with noted American novelist David Foster Wallace, who famously said: “In reality, there is no such thing as not voting; you either vote by voting or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some diehard’s vote.”

Consider this: “There was a time in Jamaica when only those with property of a certain value had the franchise. Those who met the deliberate and racist criterion of property value invariably were white and male.” (Jamaica Observer, December 19, 2014)

In the September 3, 2020 General Election there were 1,913,410 registered electors on the voters’ list, but only 713,082 felt sufficiently motivated to cast their ballots. In that general election the JLP won 49 seats and the PNP won 14. The 37 per cent turnout on September 3, 2020 was a decline from 48.37 per cent in the February 25, 2016 polls, in which the JLP won 33 seats and the PNP 30.

“Higgins, the COVID-19 pandemic and its deadly impact was the reason for the historically low 37 per cent turnout,” some will doubtless say.

I am sure dozens of Jamaicans did indeed stay away from the polls on September 3, 2020 to avoid increasing their exposure to the deadly and highly transmissible novel coronavirus. But this fact, for obvious reasons, cannot be proffered as a credible explanation for the reality that voter turnout has been falling steeply over the last 35 years.

Noted pollster Don Anderson, in an insightful piece titled ‘Is Jamaican democracy at risk? Significant declining voter turnout suggests so’, noted among other things: “Voter turnout has shown significant decline since the election of 1989. Prior to that election voter turnout averaged a healthy 82 per cent per election up to the election of 1980. The 1983 election was boycotted by the PNP and, in the next election of 1989, 78 per cent turned out to vote. Between 1992 and 2020 the average voter turnout was 56 per cent, with an all-time low of 38 per cent in 2020.” (The Gleaner, March 12, 2023)

Over many years I have been using this space to, among other things, draw attention to spiralling voter disinterest in our national elections. Others have also been sounding a similar alarm. We all need to wake up before it is too late.

I take a dim view of people who do not vote. Among other things, they seem not to appreciate that the right to vote in this country was secured through the shedding of the blood, sweat, and tears by our ancestors. There was a time in this country when our election apparatus was severely fragmented and corrupt. Patriots like the late Professor Gladstone E Mills, the first chairman of the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC), expended a tremendous amount of time to ensure that Jamaica’s electoral process became fit for purpose and respected globally. The selfless work of individuals like the late Ryan Peralto, former chairman of the JLP, who served the EAC for more than 20 years, was crucial. He played a key role in the electoral reform process.

INFLECTION POINT

Jamaica is at a crossroads. Soon eligible citizens will be asked to decide the direction of this country; indeed, the future of this country for generations to come.

That choice, as I see it, is between an unusable past and continued modernisation of our roads, education systems, health system, courts, social and physical support systems, crime management, environmental protection, the macroeconomic direction of the country, relations with our major trading partners, and I could go on. This decision requires all well-thinking Jamaicans to vote, so that when our children and grandchildren ask us about the part we played in the state of this country we can give a positive account.

“I copped out,” that must not be the response. If we want continued record low unemployment, a stable dollar, low inflation, low and no new taxes, continued lowering of debt, readily available foreign exchange, upgrades in the social and physical infrastructures, etc, then we must go and vote. We cannot just hope for a better Jamaica. We need to vote for it.

LOW-CALORIE POLITICS

On the matter of hope for Jamaica, this does not evince hope: “We are going to protest every day until that change… It is a fundamental point about who we are as a country,” said Campbell.” (
The Gleaner, June 3, 2025)

Dr Dayton Campbell made this threat while speaking at a PNP meeting in Croft’s Hill, Clarendon, on June 1, 2025. I think this is a big tactical error by the PNP. The centre-ground or undecided voters (32 per cent), who the most recent Bluedot poll says are still seeking a political home, are simply disgusted by this type of politics.

The undecided are the kingmakers. They are interested in solutions to especially long-standing problems.

The PNP has massively overestimated the reach of the politics of anger and boorish attention-grabbing, which is fuelled by memes and vibes.

And the JLP needs to remember that poll findings are not like money in the bank. More anon!

Garfield Higgins is an educator and journalist. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com

People’s National Party protestors in Heroes’ Circle recently. (Garfield Robinson)

People’s National Party President Mark Golding addresses protest at a recent demonstration. He is flanked by former party President Peter Phillips (left) and party General Secretary Dayton Campbell. (Garfield Robinson)

Growing voter apathy has affected Jamaica’s democracy.