Adriano Miguel Tejada, chief editor at Diario Libre, makes a plea today for Dominicans to become better citizens. He comments that the Central Electoral Board (JCE) every election, stirred by the parties, wants to change the voting system. The Cardinal is urging us not to vote for the bratty, those who insult, and those who are dishonest.
For the decided voter, it’s not a problem. He just goes and marks his vote. But the undecided voter has problems because now all the parties seem the same, they only have different colors, he explains. But Tejada writes that they play by the same internal rules, make the same promises, draw the same cards.
Academics say that is a sign that the party system is ill, but Tejada feels differently. He says that the sickness is not to be found within the parties, but in society that has given birth to those politicians and allowed them rampant impunity, to the point when they fail to fulfill their promises, Dominicans justify this saying that “they are politicians.”
He writes that the problem is that we do not have citizens in this country. He describes a citizen as an administrator and supervisor of public affairs. He said that in Greece one had to serve one year in the management of the city so as to understand the other side of the coin.
He writes that the objective of private business is to reduce costs and achieve maximum yields. But the administration of government is different, and the objective should be the common welfare, which sometimes means to increase costs and minimize yields for those in government.
He concludes that when the country has citizens, it will not be necessary to change the voting system.