Tufton
PRESIDENT OF Generation 2000 (G2K), the professional youth arm of the opposition Jamaica Labour Party president, Senator Christopher Tufton, says a majority of youth shy away from politics because they suffer the brunt of society's failures. He says the lack of employment opportunities and the failure of the educational system have left many disgruntled with the level of governance.
"There is evidence to indicate that we are not properly preparing our young persons. As a consequence many of them reach maturity or a stage at where they want a sense of independence, [but they are] still dependent because of a lack of opportunities, partly ... because society has not prepared them adequately, but partly also because of a general malaise in the economy," he says.
DISPARAGING COMMENTS
People's National Party Youth Organisation (PNPYO) president, Andrew Okola, adds that young people often dissociate themselves from politics because they are tired of political tribalism. As such, he says the PNPYO tries to refrain from making disparaging comments about the opposition and have established satisfactory relationships with them.
"Political youth organisations are generally seen as just being interested in the end result of a poll or the end result of an (election)," he says.
Both political organisations have embarked upon moves to change young people's perception of politics, especially in light of an anticipated general election next year.
Okola says the PNPYO will be targeting young people in their respective areas across the nation, to change the perception of politics and get more youth involved.
"There is one way the PNP has been known to organise itself ... I think we need to get on the ground more and I think we just need to get in touch with young persons on the ground in their own environment," he says.
WILLING YOUTHS
PNPYO has been working with youth through community outreach initiatives to target young people who really want to serve, Okola says. The organisation has been doing this through the National HIV/ AIDS and STI programme and other initiatives that deal with national disasters.
Come next year the organisation will focus more on advocating for further youth involvement in the political process. The organisation will be partnering with a number of corporate and government entities to achieve this goal.
"I think there needs to be a greater appreciation of young persons participating in politics and having young persons who are participating recognised for the contribution they are making to the development of the country," he says. He says new holistic approaches to garnering youth participation politics need to be looked at both at the
secondary and tertiary level.
NON-POLITICAL MEDIA
The G2K has already begun its efforts to bring more youths into politics and will be sprucing their machinery come next year. They have been employing tactics similar to the PNPYO, targeting youths through non-political media such as sports, in order to engage them in other areas, Senator Tufton says.
"We believe the first thing you have to do to re-engage young people is to be honest about some of these [societal] failures and address the issues which are of great concern to them. They want to be able to function in a society where they can provide for themselves, where they feel they can have a sense of well-being. So you have to speak to the issues of education, you have to speak to the issues of job creation. You have to speak to the issues of training, you have to speak to the issue of crime," he says.
Senator Tufton says though these are not long-term solutions, they allow for dialogue that may ultimately lead to more youth participation.
RAISE DISCUSSION LEVEL
"With communication you can then raise the level of discussion to issues related to governance and politics," he says.
The youth organisation is also busy engaging young people in tertiary institutions and those with tertiary education, who are similarly turned off by the political process. Tufton says this group of youths are critical agents of change by virtue of their educational attainments.
"What G2K does, we target that group as a matter of priority because that group separate and a part from the importance of them seeing the need for changes in governance, they are also important change agents because they have the luxury of training and ultimately economic power," he says. This group already makes up 50 per cent of the organisation's members across the country. The organisation has about 5000 members.
Next year the youth organisation will intensify discussions on education and unemployment through the G2K's various parish chapters across the island.
