Voting – the most significant right of free persons

May 12, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Voting can be traced back to ancient Greece, Rome and throughout the medieval period. It is a right of all eligible voters in any country and throughout history, has been considered to be the most important exercise of a responsible citizen of a democratic nation.
In his famous 1863 Gettysburg Address, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln referred to democracy as “government of the people, by the people and for the people.” His message is both profound and well-informed: the purpose of a government is to serve its people and it is those people who have the right to decide which government will represent them. The means by which we exercise that right is by casting our ballot, i.e., voting – the most significant right of free persons, for it is that right which makes us truly free, by giving us a voice and an opportunity to stand up for what we believe in.
While many of us, purposefully or not, tend to carelessly cast aside the significance attached to the right to vote, it must be recalled that throughout history countless have fought for and even sacrificed their lives in an effort to achieve the full realisation of this right. A natural inclination is to think: “does my single vote even matter?” My answer: yes it does!
A single occurrence of such thought would probably not inhibit true democracy, but imagine the cumulative effect of dozens, hundreds, even thousands of persons, in their aggregate, proceeding on that basis. Would our right as free citizens be affirmed? Would there be true democracy? I think not.
Take away the right to vote and what remains is a totalitarian state, since in so doing, it eliminates “the will of the majority and replaces it with the will of the minority.”
The next time you are considering whether or not to exercise your right to vote, ask yourself: what would ensue if I didn’t have this right? Beyond this, it is painstakingly clear that the government elected makes the decisions which affect our day-to-day lives – taxes, health-care, religion, education, etc. Elected leaders also may appoint other government officials such as ministers.
For this reason above all, it behooves us to participate in the well-being of our communities and our nation by voting, since this is the single most effective way by which every citizen may influence the composition of our government, through voting for persons or policies which reflect one’s personal views.
In addition, it is crucial to recognise that by voting today, you are directly influencing the future of your children, grandchildren and successive generations to come.
Also, you are conveying the respectable message to our youth that we, as free citizens, have a choice in who governs us and how they govern us.
To conclude, I offer several meaningful statements by renowned politicians, historians, philosophers and human rights proponents concerning the importance of voting:
1. “The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke
2. “Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual — or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.” Samuel Adams
3. “A share in the sovereignty of the state, which is exercised by the citizens at large, in voting at elections is one of the most important rights of the subject, and in a republic ought to stand foremost in the estimation of the law.” Alexander Hamilton
4. “Should things go wrong at any time, the people will set them to rights by the peaceable exercise of their elective rights. Thomas Jefferson
5. “Impress upon children the truth that the exercise of the elective franchise is a social duty of as solemn a nature as man can be called to perform; that a man may not innocently trifle with his vote; that every elector is a trustee as well for others as himself and that every measure he supports has an important bearing on the interests of others as well as on his own.” Daniel Webster
6. “Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them; and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too. Wherefore governments rather depend upon men that men upon governments. Let men be good and the government cannot be bad.” William Penn
7. “Those who wish well to the State ought to choose to places of trust men of inward principle, justified by exemplary conversation…[And t]he people in general ought to have regard to the moral character of those whom they invest with authority.” John Witherspoon
Let’s be responsible Guyanese citizens by participating in the well-being of our nation.
Let’s directly mold our present and future by standing up for what we believe in. Let’s protect the will of the majority by voicing our choice. Let’s educate our youth by providing them with a respectable lesson from which they may carry with them for future generations. Let’s affirm our status as free persons by exercising our most significant right. Let’s not devalue the struggles many have endured to provide us with our rights. Guyanese people, let’s vote!
Cheddi Bharrat Jagan II, Esq.

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