The political process is always a hot topic for discussion whether with reference to partisan divisiveness, lack of full public participation or the universal dissatisfaction with the nature of the politician.  Politicians are our favourite people to hate and provide fodder for our favourite jokes and calypsos. The Mighty Chalkdust is only one of the many calypsonians who has become famous with such hits as the qualifications of a politician, and we know what those are.  Politics along with religion remains among the few things that it is still impolite to discuss in polite company. This is not surprising given that these topics arouse fierce passion in even the most prosaic of personalities and have spawned wars and revolutions of every kind.

Despite this however, politics is a necessary and important part of the public discourse that each individual ignores to his peril. Too many people have the erroneous idea that politics is limited to the issue of elections and voting for particular parties but the truth is that politics, in its fullest sense describes the entire business of governance in any context. It encompasses everything from the obvious campaigning for office to the public discussion of issues of general importance whether these are crime, the economy or electoral reform. It is political to form a neighbourhood watch, or a support group for teen mothers or to get up, stand up, stand up for your rights. As the Greek philosopher Aristotle observed, "a truly ethical life can only be lived by someone involved in politics." Only a fool is not interested in politics.

It is precisely because politics is so integral to the maintenance of a civil society that political power must be as dispersed and devolved as is possible for efficiency. In our own experience here in St. Kitts & Nevis we have the example of a constitutional system that has been designed to safeguard the rights of the smaller partner in the Federation exactly in order to devolve power. Some may still ask; why is it that politics is so important? The answer is that it is because of the fact that the entire purpose of society is the need for collaborative work to bring about a decent standard of living. We need to live in communities in order to benefit from technological advancements which elevate us from primitivism and because of the inevitable conflicts that arise from proximity we need laws to preserve us from barbarism. As we have seen from the history of Governments whether the social experiments in communism during the last century that enveloped the world from Russia to China to the Eastern Bloc, or the long experience with monarchies of every kind, when power in concentrated in the hands of only a select few, the masses of people suffer tremendously and social and cultural development are stifled. The fruit of this bitter experience is the proliferation of representative systems of government of some sort throughout the world in an attempt to spread power around.

 However, even democratic systems have proven themselves problematic as vehicles to ensure the widest scope of public participation in the political process. The late Sir Winston Churchill had cause to remark that "democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others!" It has been observed that despite having regular elections that sometimes change the personalities in the powerful positions democratic systems often become elitist and the power structures themselves can become ossified and perpetuate a system where only those who already wield influence in society have access to political power. We all know how expensive it is to run an election campaign so we understand that it is usually only feasible for rich people to run for office. Often once individuals gain office they become deaf to suggestions from the people who they purport to represent and assume autocratic airs. The individual sees his political power diminish almost immediately after elections have been completed.

It is for this reason that non-governmental organizations have developed in democratic societies. The individual appreciates the need to create a body that can serve as an interface between him and the government in that time between elections when the affairs of state are conducted so that public views are not relegated to the campaign season. The Rotary Club, Trade Unions, religious organizations, commercial organizations and others serve to mitigate the harshness of the representative system of government. They ensure that the views and expertise of particular sectors of society inform policy decisions that affect those sectors in particular and public policy in general. The recent events in our society, especially with regard to the pressing issues of crime and electoral reform, have served to bring into sharp relief the necessity of effective non-governmental organizations. The last few years have seen an alarming number of social pathologies manifest themselves especially among our young men. This state of affairs has made visible the excruciating extent to which our social fabric has disintegrated. As is proper the public at large has looked to the Government to exercise leadership on this issue but in many ways our elected officials have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.

As the undercurrents of tension have strengthened among the populace it has turned to civic society for assistance. Civic society is supposed to function as safety valve to enable communities to let off steam without melting down into mob violence. That is why we have sports clubs to vitiate the effects of unfair decisions in matches by using formal grievance procedures to make the complaints plagued the football fraternity last year. That is why we have unions to discuss and bargain with employers about industrial issues so that the country can function while grievances are addressed. That is why we have churches and girl guides and path finders so that adults and youth can have outlets through which to appropriately deal with the crises in life. The legitimate authority of government can and does degenerate into authoritarianism and that is why we have the Christian Council and others to exercise moral authority. This is why persons have so often and angrily expressed their disgust at the deafening silence on the part of civic groups that has distorted the public discussion of crime. It has been very difficult to observe that as our murder rate has skyrocketed our civic groups have mainly spoken out publicly only when invited to do so by the Government.

This same state of affairs has also characterized the Electoral Reform process. For several years there has been a public campaign for Electoral Reform instigated mainly by one political party. For this reason civic society groups have taken the cowardly route of claiming a desire for political neutrality on the issue and have failed to make the necessary independent contribution to the discussion of the issue again until invited by the Government to do so. One would expect that an issue of such public significance would impress itself upon civic society groups and lead to their acknowledgement of the need for a wide ranging debate about it, but one would be wrong. Until very recently civic society has allowed itself to almost descend into irrelevance and earned the public criticism that has been meted out through the airways. It is simply shocking for example that the Bar Association has not taken it upon itself to educate the public about the electoral system. That is what one would expect from the legal community but instead all we have heard is the facetious "we don't want the issue politicized."

Civic society joined the government at the public launch of the official Electoral Reform process and extended the public seal of approval. It took an inordinate amount of time for the report of the Electoral Reform Consultative Committee to be officially published and that only after public outcry. Yet it took the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, a member of National Advisory Electoral Reform and Boundaries Committee, six months to comment on this anomaly. The popular aphorism "better late than never" applies here but we cannot let those months of silence go without censure. It is unfortunate that the Chamber only indicated its position on Electoral Reform long after it gave the appearance of approval of the current process, especially since the Federation is no closer to a reformed electoral system and current events have magnified the issue as a by-election pending. To date no civic group has taken the responsibility to buy space in a newspaper or on a radio station to make a public service announcement about the pressing issues of electoral reform and crime. I could not but be impressed by the advertisement that was bought in the SUN newspaper by a member of the British House of Lords to make a plea for the whales, nor could I help but feel chagrined that the whales have a public champion while no non-governmental organization has seen it fit to speak up for our murdered and murdering young men. I want to take this opportunity to encourage the Rotary Club of St. Kitts to take the bold step to jump into the fray and make its voice heard on these and all other social issues.

The public at large was buzzing recently about the outbursts made by members of the CIC during its annual luncheon on the issue of crime. Again one must say "better late than never" but again one must raise criticism of the fact that the situation had to get so bad that we had a shooting almost every day over a two week period that it forced this group to speak out. It must also be criticized that the force of the public statements had to be neutered somewhat by the fatuous platitude that politics and crime don't mix. If we don't involve politics we are left with religion or barbarism and religion, while helpful and necessary, is limited. Only political solutions are wide reaching enough to encompass educational, social and law enforcement solutions and we have to acknowledge that fact. It is troubling that we are still awaiting a public response on the issues from the other civic groups.

Non-governmental organizations invigourate public discourse because they offer independent views where political parties offer self serving agendas. We cannot remain on the sidelines while our civic groups are neutralized. We cannot allow political power brokers to squander the credibility of our non-governmental organizations to shield themselves from criticism, to claim consensus where there is none, while public debate is muffled and the necessary action is delayed or denied. The last two years should have been a wake up call to the non-governmental organizations here in the Federation and I must name a few: the Rotary Clubs of St. Kitts and Nevis, the Chambers of Industry and Commerce in both islands, the Christian Council, the Teachers Union, the Bar Association and the Medical Association but since most are still inert I will make it clear. The purpose of civic groups is to bring pressure to bear on those in power to effect sensible public policy that is informed by specific expertise and objective analysis. It is not merely to serve your discrete special interest. When civic groups pretend to refrain from the political process, again it must be emphasized political in the broad sense, it is then that they make a lie of the claim that they are not politicized. It is the main characteristic of partisan politics that it is divisive and self serving but partisanship is not the entirety of politics, not even close. In order to be non politicized civic groups must be political. An invigourating and informed public debate on the issues of the day and I must outline a few: crime, electoral reform, the CSME and regional integration and land use policy is long overdue and it must be led by our civic groups.