{"id":9109,"date":"2015-09-06T07:52:48","date_gmt":"2015-09-06T11:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=9109"},"modified":"2015-09-06T07:52:48","modified_gmt":"2015-09-06T11:52:48","slug":"defending-my-non-voting-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=9109","title":{"rendered":"Defending my non-voting rights&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><I>By Jamille Broome<br \/>\nSeptember 06, 2015 &#8211; <A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.newsday.co.tt\/commentary\/0,216636.html\">newsday.co.tt<\/A><\/I><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=9109\"><img src='http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blogimg\/vasantbharath.jpg' width='150' height='100' border='0' class='alignleft' alt='Vasant Bharath' \/><\/a>Last week, the Minister of Trade, Industry, Investment and Communications decided to trample on the Constitutional rights of the non-voting section of the electorate, by saying: \u201cI think as we mature as a society, we\u2019ve got to take a more active part, otherwise, you are not in a position to complain subsequently or to demand anything.\u201d Or, in colloquial terms, \u201cvote or hush allyuh damn mouth!\u201d Of course I\u2019m not surprised by Vasant Bharath\u2019s irreverent spiel because his party has been known to disregard the rule-of-law and violate human rights, left, right and centre. Cue Bail (amendment) Act, \u201cSection 34\u201d, and the State of Emergency .<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nNevertheless, according to our (which includes those of us who choose not to vote) Constitution, section 4(e) gives us the right to join political parties and to express our political views. In jurisprudence, this is what we refer to as the \u201cclosure rule,\u201d which embodies the concept that everything not forbidden by law is permitted by law .<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, the right to join and express, is just as valid as the right not to do either .<\/p>\n<p>Voting is a right, not a duty. It is not compulsory like it is in 22 countries around the world. And there\u2019s no \u201ccivic duty\u201d of an individual to vote for the betterment of society. Voting is a highly subjective experience, comparable to one\u2019s sexual orientation, religious beliefs or absolute autonomy over his or her body. If I choose to be promiscuous or have an abortion, that\u2019s my business. If I choose to lead a life of meditation, self-chastisement and celibacy, that\u2019s my business .<\/p>\n<p>Equally, if I choose not to exercise my right to vote, that\u2019s my business. And no one should be berated, devalued, coerced, humiliated, or bullied for taking a stance. But again, Vasant\u2019s party is known for this kind of behaviour as well. Cue Keith Rowley\u2019s rape allegation and expulsion.<br \/>\n<I><A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.newsday.co.tt\/commentary\/0,216636.html\">Full Article : newsday.co.tt<\/A><\/I> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jamille Broome September 06, 2015 &#8211; newsday.co.tt Last week, the Minister of Trade, Industry, Investment and Communications decided to trample on the Constitutional rights of the non-voting section of the electorate, by saying: \u201cI think as we mature as a society, we\u2019ve got to take a more active part, otherwise, you are not in &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=9109\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Defending my non-voting rights&#8230;<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[310,1,178,396,30,7,142],"tags":[359,1015,49,407],"class_list":["post-9109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-general-tt","category-general-tt","category-media","category-peoples-partnership","category-pnm","category-politics","category-unc","tag-newsday","tag-politics","tag-tt-govt","tag-vasant-bharath"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9110,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9109\/revisions\/9110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}