The Editor, Sir:

The rhetoric on the political campaign has become so rife that sometimes one has to question the level of thinking employed by leaders of the process before they make utterances. Recently, a senior politician was heard instructing a crowd at a political rally to come out in their numbers and vote for his party. He went further to say that whoever did not intend to vote as he instructed should stay home and don't bother to waste their vote.

I find this quite disheartening. Until political leaders, from both sides, stop treating supporters from the opposite side with disdain, then the followers will continue to fight and destroy each other. Leaders need to accept the fact that everyone has a right to determine who to vote for. Jamaica has been a democratic country for so many years, yet so many of our nationals do not have the capacity to make their own choices on a simple matter, such as who to vote for in an election. And this is why successive governments continue to hoodwink them to gain or retain power.

It is because of this why I am agreeing that as a country, we need to make educating our children the number one priority. We need to ensure that resources are found to equip the next generation with critical thinking skills.

A wasted vote

In my opinion, a wasted vote is one cast by someone who was told/instructed so to do but he/she cannot rationalise, especially to him/herself, why he/she voted for one party as against the other. A critical role of political leaders must be to bring the issues to the fore, and enlighten the prospective voters on these matters of national importance, so that they can make informed decisions.

As a people, we need to progress to a level where we use issues to determine who we vote for. Political tribalism is destroying our country and we need to halt this destruction.

I am, etc.,

PAT BIGNAL

wilbig@cwjamaica.com