It is time to look to the future! Minority voices in a democracy.
In Finland, we talk a lot about why minorities do not participate in democratic processes. There might be many reasons, but we have to ask ourselves, does the current council represent us all?
Many candidates belonging to minorities are running this time. As always. But it remains to be seen whether we get a more representative council elected.
Even though running in the elections has been made as easy as possible at least in theory, getting elected despite all the structural barriers, such as prejudices, hate speech, election compasses, budget constraints etc. is a whole other story.
Does this mean that by electing a more representative council, we will get all our problems solved immediately? No, but nobody should be left outside of decision making processes just because they belong to a minority!
It is especially worrying, that despite being widely known that we do not listen to minorities enough, candidates belonging to minorities are forgotten already during the campaign stage.
But isn’t electing minority candidates just identity politics? No. Representation is the cornerstone in a democracy. So this is in fact justice based politics!
Ok, it is worth considering voting for others than just candidates belonging to the majority. But what else needs to be remembered? 1) These are still party elections. So one should choose the party closest to one’s values first. 2) Checking the candidate’s expertise and values is still important.
Fine, but will a candidate belonging to a minority actually be able to handle issues relating to society in general? Maybe even better than others, because they know from experience where there is room for improvement!
Alright, what next then? Nothing other than voting a more representative group into the council!
