The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Call me naïve and idealistic, but I voted “yes” to all the questions in the recent referendum. It was my first time voting.  I thoroughly listened and sought after information for both sides addressing the issue.

Upon conversation with some of my friends, I realised I was one of the only ones doing this type of research. In fact, some of them did not even know what the bills were about and did not care to know!

I know the Vote Yes campaign felt that up until referendum day the educational process that they had completed all over the islands was sufficient and adequate, but it was if many of my fellow young people did not understand these bills at all, and either decided to vote against the bills or not vote at all.

Though I decided to exercise my right to vote and vote in the affirmative, I had already predicted months prior that this entire process would be a calamity and result in a majority “no” vote.

This referendum should have been discussed in public and private high schools from at least 2013 comprehensively, which was a year after that CEDAW document was released. The forums the Vote Yes campaign held were not mandatory, so if you didn’t care, you would never find out about it. The information should have been planted right in front of the people’s faces. That way, the young people now would not be so clueless as to what these bills were about, even today.

A recurrent feeling among my generation also is that “The government is just going to do what they want to do anyway, so I don’t care. They don’t care about us.”

They referenced the failure that was the multi-million “opinion poll” that was the gambling referendum, and said that it was the same thing about this referendum. When I explained the difference between this referendum and the 2013 one, the truth dawned upon them, but the polls had already closed.

Though I have supported a “yes” vote, I tried to be objective during this entire process.

Critics like Dame Joan Sawyer brought up very pertinent and well thought out counters to the bills, and it may have been her critiques that swayed a mass number of people to the opposing side. Also, the yes campaign was heavily funded by the government, while the No campaign was not funded at all, making the whole situation seemed politically biased in favour of the yes vote. The fact that the government campaign fully supported a yes vote created a “us or them” mentality in the minds of the people.

The campaign should have been strictly educational instead of pushing an agenda which appeared to be biased.

Sites like Facebook became a battleground for both sides, and it was always an ugly fight, most times with neither side relating or understanding the other.

Personally, I was not perturbed by any of the arguments against, save many of the critiques presented by Dame Joan Sawyer which I thought were quite strong. 

However, the basis on which I voted was because of my strong belief in the principles of the proposed bills, not because I necessarily was pleased in the way they were being handled and relayed to the people.

When the PLP chairman released a press statement regarding the defeat of the bills, I was incredulous. The unofficial results had not been released to the public yet!

And why was the process taking so long?

Some attribute it to the fact that Nassau has more citizens than the Family Islands. Fair enough. But why is it that the United States primaries have calculated their results within hours, when they have millions of voters? We have a much smaller population.

Why don’t we transition to electronic voting? Wouldn’t it be much more efficient and quicker than the antiquated pen and paper process?

Nevertheless, it is apparent that the vast majority of Bahamians have voted against the bills, largely I believe because of their mistrust of the government.

The same fervour and passion in which we addressed this referendum is the same way we need to address other issues facing our little nation as well.

This referendum was truly historic indeed.

“A CONCERNED

YOUNG BAHAMIAN”

Nassau,

June 8, 2016.