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 The elections held in late October and early November of last year were
marked by a surprisingly low turnout.
All of the October 27 by-elections which decided fiver seats of the Lower
House and two of the Upper House ended with a record low turnout, and in
Okinawa, the gubernatorial election in November had a record low voting
rate of 57.22%. The Mayor elect in Amagasaki City, Hyogo, who is a forty-two
year old woman, won the election against an incumbent mayor who was backed
by five parties including the LDP. Many say that independent, nonaffiliated
voters should get the credit for creating these ripples in the still waters
of Amagasaki politics, but another factor in the surprising outcome was
that the turnout for the election was only 32.5%, another record low.
What are these low voting rates hinting at? Of course, voting is considered
a civic duty, but it is not required by law in Japan. Voting is a voluntary
action. It is ultimately an individual’s decision whether he or she
exercises the right to vote or not.
The recent elections illustrate that more and more the general public is
distancing itself from the existing political parties. It seems that distrust,
disappointment, and lack of faith in those parties has led to a total abandonment
of politics itself; the lack of voter participation is due to the feeling
that it is a wasted effort.
When did we lose our enthusiasm? I think it was in those painful moments
when we as individuals came to believe that, “even if I state my
opinion or take action, in the end nothing will change”. Perhaps
we lost our enthusiasm as a result of the growing sense of powerlessness
fostered by our unresponsive politicians.
One ex-elementary school teacher told me that “there is a high tendency
for teachers to stop speaking out and suggesting challenging new activities
after their third year of service because they become discouraged by frequent
opposition or lack of cooperation from their colleagues – even if
they made positive contributions at staff meeting during their first year
of service.” One civil service worker offered this marginally encouraging
advice to his junior colleague: “If you present no daring objections
or do not start any new projects in your first year, you cannot change
anything later on.” While it’s true that every individual is
different, it seems that we human beings as a whole are creatures who are
easily discouraged.
As it is often said, grassroots organizations and their members as individuals
are very active and motivated to make a difference. Therefore, the people
of those organizations are the antithesis of the nonvoting population:
they have a strong sense of what they are aiming for and are acting upon
that sense to achieve a common goal. They feel that their opinions and
activities are appreciated that their performance is useful to their organization,
and so on. More specifically, the power of grassroots organizations originates
in the firm belief that they can make a difference, a belief that is in
direct contrast to thought that “in the end, nothing will change”.
However, there is no guarantee that a particular grassroots organization
will always continue to exert the needed energy to make a difference. If
we were to think that grassroots organizations could maintain an effective
vehicle for change based only on their involvement in social issues or
by attracting a large number of new volunteers, then we would be believing
in a great illusion. Their vitality can only be maintained through ceaseless
efforts to let all members know about current activities and administrative
performances, and more importantly, letting members know that each and
every opinion is valued.
The vitality of most organizations still in their first years stems from
the newness of the organization and the zeal of the founding members. But
as the organization expands, new challenges are presented. It is at the
stage of growth in both membership and activity that the organizations
should reexamine its governing and decision-making system. The organization
needs to be flexible in dealing with such things as how the board, steering
committees, and staff are chosen, how individual meetings are conducted,
how information is shared, etc. If an organization has stayed completely
unchanged for the past three years, I would say that it has most likely
been creating a discouraging environment for its members.
For grassroots organizations, it is absolutely vital to insure that each
of the members have a sense that their own individual opinions and activities
are directly connected to the visions and projects of the organization.
But this must not be the limit of a grassroots organization’s significance.
They must strive to make the public aware of the relationship between citizens
as individuals and society as a whole – something rarely felt these
days – by giving people the feeling that they are closely connected
to a socially conscious grassroots organization. This would rekindle the
notion of civic responsibility and make the public feel once again that
each voice and each vote does make a difference in society.
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