Judge Before You Vote

When I am asked whether I am boycotting the polls or not, I say that “no”, but in a sense “yes”. I am not boycotting, because I intend to vote, because I believe in the power of vote, and I believe in the democratic process. Boycott is what I will be doing in the coming elections because I have judged all the candidates in my constituencies and I don’t find any one remotely resembling to what I think a candidate should posses in order to get my vote.

Judgment is crucial when it comes to electing our future leaders. And we only get this chance once in a while, so it’s better to save it rather than waste it. Good judgment could be taken to subsume all of the other characteristics a candidate should posses.

So how do we judge? I mean what’s the definition of the good judgment? It’s sort of like illegal intercourse as we can’t define it, but we know it when we see it. It’s different for different people. And what you might think of as good judgment would be considered terrible by someone else. Good judgment comes under the first bit before deciding to vote for someone, and is easily the most important competence related skill of the voter. But without education and awareness, can one have a good judgment? Can experience of so many previous elections, if not education, would provide enough good judgment to our voters?

In the end, I would like to quote Dee Hocks:

“Hire and promote first on the basis of integrity; second, motivation; third, capacity; fourth, understanding; fifth, knowledge; and last and least, experience. Without integrity, motivation is dangerous; without motivation, capacity is impotent; without capacity, understanding is limited; without understanding, knowledge is meaningless; without knowledge, experience is blind. Experience is easy to provide and quickly put to good use by people with all the other qualities.” – Dee Hocks