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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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