Youth Involvement in Politics

“My daddy is a PLP, so I is a PLP!”

This is something I heard often when I was in high school and thought little of it. The two parties were indistinguishable to me beyond their colors and I only had a glancing understanding of how the government worked anyway. My response to things like ‘Senate’ or ‘House of Assembly’ was…‘I’ve heard those words before!’ I knew there was a Prime Minister who was normally surrounded by controversy and scandal and that things were rarely going well anywhere. ‘Minister of’ something or other would also come up in the news from time to time followed by names of people I could half-recognize. I would look back at those times and laugh but I think my political ignorance is indicative of a larger problem.

Information online was scarce (part of the motivation behind this site) and whenever political issues came up my friends and I would often shrug, say ‘C.V.A.’, and let the topic die. The concept of “Can’t Vote Anyway” is certainly not unique to the Bahamas, nor is political apathy beyond sensationalist headlines and scandals.

As things worsen, people naturally look to their leaders for solutions. For many, their dissatisfaction with the status quo led to the rising numbers in the DNA (founded in 2011) and their ‘Young Democrats’ group.

For me, I wanted at least a way of consolidating the knowledge I could find online or overheard from older Bahamians about the country’s political past and present. I would have enjoyed learning more civics in high school and participating as a young adult. In a society truly invested in their youth, I would love to see a centralized opportunity for Bahamians under the age of 30 to manage projects aimed at solving the country’s most pressing issues.

I believe in young Bahamians.