Voting for the common good

Director Chris Bain calls for a vision of the future based on the common good [CAFOD/Adrian White]

CAFOD director Chris Bain explains why, wherever we put our cross on the ballot paper this election, we must look for a vision of a future based on the common good.

Last week an army officer spoke on BBC radio about the UK elections. On behalf of fellow soldiers serving in Afghanistan he told how devastating it would be if once again voter turnout showed the British public to be politically apathetic.

He explained that to be "fighting hard" against those who repress the human rights we take for granted and then see a lack of interest in those rights at home, would be a devastating blow to the morale of his troops.

Regardless of whether one supports or questions the continued presence of British troops in Afghanistan, or other parts of the world, the point is worth reflecting upon. This officer was not giving advice on who to vote for, but was urging us all to see as precious the voting rights we have, and that millions of citizens around the world are still fighting to gain. In not acting upon that right, we, at best, disrespect those who risk everything to bring about the germination or flourishing of democracy.

Upholding democracy

This year sees elections, not only in the UK, but in many countries in the developing world. The results of the Sudan election are already being disputed, while ballot preparations are ongoing across many other African countries including Rwanda, Nigeria, Cote D’Ivoire, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Tanzania. Sri Lanka’s presidential elections in January led to calls for electoral reform, and Brazil, Colombia, the Philippines and Burma all go to the polls in the coming months.

These elections have in the majority of countries been hard won and the violence, protest and coercion that sometimes accompany the right to vote are testimony to how vital this system is to equality and justice.

New and fledgling democracies are brittle and fragile. Through our partners worldwide, we continue to uphold and support enfranchisement in general, and of the poorest in particular.

Sudan went to the polls a fortnight ago for the country’s first multi-party national election in a quarter of a century. Following 20 years of devastating civil war between northern and southern Sudan, that left two million dead and four million homeless, the majority of people from the southern regions were voting for the very first time.

Sudanese citizens faced a complicated process of up to 12 different ballots to elect national and regional executives and legislators, yet more than 75 per cent of the population in southern Sudan cannot read or write. And with the country being Africa’s largest, access to information was vital to election participation.

The Sudan Catholic Radio Network worked all-out to address this challenge. These community radio stations, in partnership with CAFOD, broadcast election information across seven dioceses in southern Sudan for up to nine hours each day.

The programmes addressed voter education, offered impartial news and promoted peaceful polls. As one listener, carpenter Thomas Wiri from the remote town of Ikotos, told CAFOD: "Without education things cannot stand right."

Tackling corruption

Where elections have become more established, there is still often back-breaking work to be done on corruption, transparency and accountability. This is a sentiment our Brazilian partners at the Justice and Peace Commission take very seriously. For the past two years they, and others, have collected 1.6m signatures from Brazilian voters in support of the Ficha Limpa Law to exclude convicted criminals from politics.

In this relatively new democracy, one of the biggest hurdles to more inclusive and equal development is corruption and abuse of power. But imagine trying to get a law passed in a country where the very existence of the legislation would put up to 30 per cent of politicians out of a job. And now absorb the fact that the Justice and Peace Commission, its partners and the 1.6m signatories are making significant progress on exactly that. It is not expected that the law will be passed in time for Brazil’s October elections, but it is certainly now a presidential election issue.

In more than 50 countries CAFOD, through our Catholic partners and others, works towards the idea of the common good, where the social conditions in which people live allow them to flourish. At the heart of the common good is the understanding that all are responsible for all, not only as individuals, but collectively at every level.

The Common Good

As the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales states in ‘Choosing the Common Good’, "integral human development…requires that people are rescued from every form of poverty, from hunger and illiteracy; it requires the opportunities for education, creating a vision of true partnership and solidarity between peoples; it calls for active participation in economic and political processes and it recognises that every human person is a spiritual being with instincts for love and truth and aspirations for happiness."

At present the UK election build-up is being analysed through many lenses: from economic recovery and care for the elderly, to TV performance and leaders’ wives. But one area that none of the major parties is touting as a vote-turner, is our responsibility to the poorest people in developing nations.

There is a paradox here. All parties have agreed they will legislate for 0.7 per cent of gross national income to be ring-fenced as aid, and we welcomethis cross-party consensus as a huge stride in acknowledging the need to maintain unwavering support for the poorest communities.

But in working towards the common good, which is at the heart of the Christian message, and Catholic Social Teaching in particular, we must look beyond the amount of aid given to how well it is spent and how it really transforms the lives of those most disadvantaged. This could reinforce in the public mind not just the moral case for aid but that it is also money well spent in working towards a fairer and safer world.

There is also cross-party support for new UK laws, such as the Bribery Act and Debt Relief Act, passed in the pre-election wash-up, and the Climate Change Act of 2008, that will see governments tackling the damaging man-made cycles that push the poorest deeper into poverty.

With the Bribery Act, new legislation will mean those who bribe foreign public officials, or companies that fail to prevent bribery, can face prosecution in the UK courts. While the Debt Relief Act will halt private companies suing for repayment of poor countries’ debts on inflated terms. Laws that help move business towards serving society rather than profit is essential; it is social capital, not financial capital that must drive the markets.

The Climate Change Act put in place strong domestic policy on the reduction of greenhouse gases, but the solidarity of the common good – the all for all concept – means that climate change must be addressed by the next government at a globally communal level.

Without cross-party commitment to international legislation to reduce the emissions of industrialised nations, and agreement on financing that is above and beyond the pledged aid budget, much of the good work that has been done to improve the poorest people’s ability to flourish, will be undone. The common good not only embraces the human race but also future generations and the ecology of our planet.

On May 6 we have the opportunity to cast a vote that will affect people in the poorest countries in the world.

Some of those developing nation communities are fighting right now to gain their own say in political systems. ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish’ (Proverbs 29:18), so let us make sure that wherever we put our cross on the ballot paper, it is for a party with a vision of a future based on the common good.

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