In just over a week’s time, we will awaken on a glorious sunny Spring morning, on the cusp of a wonderful new era of freedom, a glad and bright tomorrow. Our newly-elected government will lead us into a brave new world where all the ills of society will be tackled in a spirit of enterprise and co-operation.
Something like that, anyway.
Or are you cynical as to whether things will be any different at all after next week’s Assembly election, and you’re thinking of the line often wrongly attributed to Mark Twain: “If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.”
This is usually taken as cynicism of a political system; such cynicism about 2022 Northern Ireland is understandable.
After all, since the last election Stormont five years ago, the Assembly was shut down 60 per cent of the time, was resurrected two years ago and stumbled on until it collapsed again with an election in sight. The initial collapse was due to the disastrous handling of the RHI scheme which cost us, the public, a fortune.
And when they did agree to a 'New decade, new approach' to get things up and running again, the Westminster Government still had to go over their heads to legislate for marriage equality and abortion. And still we wait for a promised Irish Language Act.
Whatever you voted for in 2017, one gets the feeling this past five years wasn’t it. Indeed, whoever you voted for, there’s a high chance it wasn’t them either considering the number of MLAs co-opted by the parties without having to go to the electorate again.
No wonder there’s a chorus of 'We deserve better'.
In fact, many scholars believe the Twain quotation signifies the opposite; that it means we actually don’t appreciate the difference ordinary voters can make if they want to.
Whatever. The point is, however disillusioned voters in Northern Ireland feel in this crucial point in time, it is your mission, should you choose to accept it, to effect the change you want; to shape the future you want.
In a recent column I wrote about lies at Westminster undermining democracy, one Facebooker commented “Democracy is a danger, consider the illegal Iraqi war, one of many, orchestrated and led by so-called democratic countries".
It’s a fair point, perhaps, in one sense; but I would differentiate between the system of democracy and the “so-called” democratic countries who do not honour its principles.
Based on the Greek word demos, meaning people, in a democracy it should be the people who hold the power and those in authority should be held to account. It seems to me there is little accountability in Northern Ireland in the way we are governed and that includes all arms of authority.
This week, we read of the disturbing case of a civil servant in the Department of Agriculture, Dr. Tamara Bronchaers who raised issues with senior colleagues about animals suffering and livestock movement between farms being electronically deleted from the Department system to artificially inflate their value. A Government department complicit in fraud? Surely not?
For trying to do the right thing, her two male bosses made her life hell, she was belittled and eventually hounded out of her job. After a five-year court battle, she was awarded over £1 million, deservedly so.
Were the two men responsible disciplined? What do you think? In fact, one of them was promoted.
You may also be aware of the long-running saga over the O’Hara report into the hyponatraemia deaths of young children in hospital, which made damning criticisms of figures within the health service for their part in the tragedy including accusations of a cover-up. Aside from the fact that we await decisions on Justice O’Hara’s 96 recommendations, who has been held to account so far?
And have you ever tried to wade through the treacle of making a complaint about the failings of a public body which then essentially investigates itself?
The 'system' protects itself rather than working for the people.
This lack of accountability in public life goes right to the top, to our politicians. After the five abysmal years of governing, where else would politicians return to the electorate unashamedly asking for votes?
And they may well get them because they’ve campaigned on the old battle lines of fear and mistrust of “them ‘uns” and our political system of designation helps them.
All the while, people are struggling to pay for fuel and food, they wait inordinate lengths of time for hospital surgery and treatment, see our schools struggle for resources, and witness many shortcomings in our public services.
It’s hardly what Abraham Lincoln referred to as Government “of the people, by the people, for the people".
Democracy should be much more than parties winning elections to get a majority. It’s what they do with their mandate to create a better society that counts.
A better society should be about ensuring people have a decent standard of living for starters, but it’s much more. Such as protecting freedoms, protecting the rights of all individuals and looking after minority groups, otherwise it’s just a dictatorship where the majority indulges its own agenda.
For much of its existence, Northern Ireland was governed as a one-party state where minorities didn’t feel valued or even part of society.
Being a better and inclusive place should be, particularly in this part of the world, about tolerance.
As Mahatma Gandhi said: “Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.”
Do you see that democratic spirit of tolerance in this election campaign? Or, indeed, do you see an emphasis on the issues that you want addressed? That’s what you need to vote for, the voters at the end of the day have the power to make change and it’s concerning that many, many people feel there is no point in voting.
As always, an election is a point in time and it’s always interesting to have a 360 degree look at life, forward and back. We are in a very different place than even five years ago, and many of our young people in particular have different views than their elders about the importance of today’s social issues over the old tribal rivalries.
In another five years, there are teenagers now aged 16 for example who will have the vote then and the influence of that cohort of younger, more progressive voters will have increased even more.
But we are in the here and now, and everyone is entitled to vote as they see fit.
Next Thursday will produce intriguing results and we will see whether today’s electorate wants to move forward into that brighter, glad tomorrow. Or not.
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