Lisa Mc GregorTHROUGHOUT THE last decade, all over the Americas, people have been voting for political change. In many countries, the citizens have shown that they have been fed up with the undelivered promises of the traditional political parties by voting for new or little-known parties or candidates. They have done this with the hope of a better future - economic, political, and/or social. Here are some examples.
In 1990 Peruvians surprised the world by electing Alberto Fujimori, an unknown of Japanese parentage, as president. Fujimori turned out to be a controversial president. He staged a self-coup a year after his election and became a dictator. Then due to international pressure, he eventually held elections in which he ran for president again and was democratically elected. Then earlier this year, he ran for a third term (though it is unclear whether this third term bid was constitutional) and won again.
Despite the controversy, however, there is no doubt that President Fujimori "rescued" his country. Not only was he able to stop hyperinflation and promote economic growth, but he also curbed the once rampant guerrilla movements that had plagued the country.
In 1991 the Haitian people elected a Catholic priest, Fr. Jean Bertrand Aristide, as president in that country's first democratic elections. The main attraction to Aristide was his grassroots background and his promise to stamp out corruption, which had plagued the country for over a century. He was ousted by a military coup after less than a year in office, but is now set to make a comeback later this year.
In 1999 Panama elected its first female president, Mireya Moscoso. Mrs. Moscoso was a former secretary and coffee farmer with a junior college degree in interior design. She had never held an elected office, but had been married to a former president of Panama (they were married when he was no longer in office), Arnulfo Arias. Many doubted her ability for the job, but she won over the majority of Panamanians with her campaign promises to end corruption, privatise the economy, improve social services, and protect the agricultural sector. In the end 44% of the Panamanian electorate decided to give her a chance to instigate change in the country.
Also last year, Hugo Chavez, an ex-army lieutenant and former leader of a failed military coup in Venezuela, ran for and was elected president of that country. His platform was based on constitutional changes needed, in his words, to bring about a "political revolution" that would remedy social inequities and halt corruption and the squandering of the economy. After a year in office, he managed to push through his proposed constitutional changes (which included extending the presidential term from four to six years), and called a new election last month, that he easily managed to win. He too has been a controversial leader so far, making overtures to Cuba and Iraq, but it is still too early to tell if he will be able to carry out the rest of his campaign promises now that he has his new constitution.
The election of these, and other non-traditional candidates throughout the region has not necessarily guaranteed positive results, What it has done, however, is to send a message to the established parties that they are no longer effective, and that the people are no longer prepared to put up with their nonsense. When the non-traditional candidates have succeeded in carrying out their political programmes, and these have given positive results, it is considered an added bonus.
Jamaica, so far, has not followed this voting for a change trend. A non-traditional or third party was indeed formed in the 1990s, and contested the last general election, but apparently failed to excite the people with their plans for change, and made a very poor showing. Even though complaints about the state of the country's economy, crime and infrastructure were and are widespread, the majority of the people still stuck to the traditional political parties. The question is why. Is it that our citizens are a long-suffering group; is it that we once believed that "better must come" and then were seriously disappointed; or do we simply prefer to migrate rather than to attempt to bring about change?
Lisa McGregor is a regular contributor who writes on inter-American issues.
