Dear Editor,
Many voters will be challenged to cast their vote in a manner that they are sure that they have selected the candidate most likely to advance their interests in the upcoming elections. This is because they will be unable to predict what the available options are likely to achieve.
There is some evidence based on the past that will give some indication as to what they should be looking for to achieve their goals and I hope to summarize as follows.
Most important is that they realize that they are really voting for a party and within this party they have individual options, but it is the party and its leadership that will ultimately decide what the position of the party might be and the executed policy. A nice guy on the with a high number in a party and apparently great intentions is not going to be as relevant as ones on the top of the list. An organized party with candidates with a common vision is an essential criterion if any political vision is to be achieved.
There has been much written that St. Maarten politics has been dominated by an older elite and that young candidates are needed to break out of the rut that the country is in. But the evidence has been that young candidates have also suffered from a lack of integrity as much as older or have turned out to not be productive as legislators. Being young certainly has advantages but it has not been the magic factor in St. Maarten in the last decade.
Deep knowledge of public administration is an essential. Law or public administration degrees are hugely advantageous. Education in finance or public policy would work. Candidates with huge plans and no content on how the huge plans could be achieved within our complex governmental structure are the perfect solution to repeating the poor governance we have seen.
Many candidates claim that they will “fight” for the electorate and the common man. History has shown that “bawling “ more loudly than others has not produced much in the way of results and in fact some “bawlers” have been particularly unproductive and counterproductive. It is not a “fight”, it is about effective representation.
But what are the characteristics that are likely to produce the best legislators? I would argue that a personality that can resist the heady pressures of the political elite is one of the most crucial characteristics that should be targeted. I recall the late Vance James whose life goals and moral compass were so strongly in place that there was no chance he would be dragged into the compromising situations that others fell prey to and he did not. Are there more Vance James replicas on the candidates list ? If yes, choose one of them.
And finally there is the choice of a candidate who has privately promised the voter something in return for voting for him. That rationale undermines the entire democratic process and truly undermines the voters’ long term interests not only because the candidate lacks integrity but because it throws the entire political system into a turmoil as we have seen recently, which in turn affects all of our interests. Those candidates should be avoided at all costs.
Robbie Ferron
