It's election day Jamaica, and if you’ve ever cast a ballot you’re familiar with the sense of empowerment that accompanies voting. Often times when discussing political engagement the conversation begins and ends with voting. While voting is important and remains highly essential to the democratic process, there are many other opportunities to become an active and politically engaged citizen.
Here are four ways you can effectively participate, beyond election day:
1. Ask For The Receipts
The day-to-day activities of our government isn’t a mystery if you know where/how to ask the right questions. The Access to Information Act (2002) is a keystone for many of our investigative journalists and advocates, but the truth is that it’s available for everyone. Making an Access to Information (ATI) Request It’s a very simple process that gives us all a general right of access to official government information. You don’t need to know the specific document you’re looking for, you can make a general request for “all documents related to…”, including financial statements, meeting minutes, policies for whatever issues or topics you’re interested in. With very few exceptions, these documents should be made available to you.
Having more information about what your MPs, Ministers, Councilors etc. are (not) doing day to day about particular issues makes it easier to hold them accountable and raise pointed questions in-between election campaigns and is crucial, yet often overlooked tool in participating in our democracy. So go ahead and make your ATI Request and find out exactly what our elected (and selected) officials are up.
Useful Links:
Access To Information Act (2002)
Guidelines on making ATI Requests
How To Guide from JFJ
2. Help Make Decisions
One of the most powerful ways to engage with parliamentarians in between elections is through parliamentary submissions as they directly help to shape our laws and legislations. In Jamaica, the public is frequently invited to be part of the review or design process of our legislation parliament. Think of it like crowd-sourcing ideas on our laws. Parliament says “hey we’re reviewing/creating this thing, any suggestions?” and you can jump in with our ideas. You can even propose new laws, or suggest reviews even without being prompted by parliament. The best part is, you just need to read the bills being reviewed and send an email to clerk@japarliament.gov.jm with your suggestions.
Many persons are unaware that we can do this and it’s time we take advantage of this tool and get our voices heard. You can make submissions as an individual or you can team up with others to write one.
A few of our Rebel Women Lit book club members have made submissions and presentations to parliament on Offences Against Persons Act, and Sexual Harassment Act, and our sister-project - Abortion Monologues - has even been included in parliamentary discussions on our abortion laws here in Jamaica.
Recently there have been calls for submissions around laws and bills we’re expecting many more to reappear in parliament after the elections. So keep your eye out for calls for submissions, or even take the initiative to make propose your own bill or review to parliament.
Useful Link:
How To Make A Submission to Parliament
List of Bills Currently Being Considered by Parliament
3. Understand & Use The Media
Our opinions about the world are definitely a reflection of how media portrays or presents that issue and how we dissect the media deliberations to form our own opinions. And in the age of fake news and click-bait outrage, it’s even more vital to understand what motivates the creation of the media we consume and inquire into what is left out or marginalised. The media has traditionally been used by a few voices to represent many, but we can take advantage of these existing platforms, and create our own, to get our voices heard beyond election.
We can raise awareness of important issues through traditional methods of writing letters to the editor, and calling into a radio talk-shows, to more non-traditional media-creation such as creating a blog, podcast or youtube channel.
For Inspiration
Listen to Lest We Forget history podcast to learn about a wide-range of Jamaican histories rarely spoken about (Also Davey, the host for the show, is super funny).
4. Self-Educate & Organise
We know everyone knows this, but it’s very important to accept personal responsibility to educate yourself, then use your voice and access to educate others. Identify an issue that you feel strongly about and pursue it. Research it from multiple perspectives and find methods to advocate for it when possible.
This means reading about our history with an issue, understanding core reasons why it may not have been fixed yet, what the issue is linked to, and how we can incentivize change for a better society. This also means putting in a lot of work to read, think about, and critique big systems that may be centuries years old, and imagine a new future for us. Move beyond tweets, and dig deeper than our newspaper articles. Read essays and academic journals on what you’re passionate about, attend public lectures and workshops (a lot are now available online for free and we a few we’re interested in in our newsletter).
Once you’ve begun your journey of self-education, bring others also interested with you and be open to meeting and engaging others who are also passionate and working hard to become engaged. Hold grounding sessions, share resources, prepare to unlearn and learn frequently, and practice radical care as your organise around issues you care about.
Useful Links
Learn basic civics
Visit the National Library of Jamaica Archives
Use the Rebel Women Lit Free Community Library
The idea of a strong democracy is intrinsically linked with the idea of active participation which is not a random activity but a deliberate one. This isn’t easy but it’s necessary if we want true freedom and self-governance.
P.S.: If you are voting you should pay attention and get involved in local and by-elections as well! And don’t knock people who aren’t voting, beyond it being a personal choice, voter apathy =/= political apathy.
About Rebel Women Lit
Rebel Women Lit is an open book club, turned literary community, based in Jamaica. We focus on stories from women, non-binary persons, queer persons, and other voices that have been tradtionally marginalised in publishing. Yes, everything we do is political and deliberate. We have a podcast, book store, free community library, youtube channel and a few awesome projects.