Editorial: Avoiding a stagnated society

The American President, Harry S. Truman once said, “In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still”.

As the Cayman Islands prepares to assess its current and future leaders sometime in the next 14 months or so, a major test for the electorate is to determine the suitability of those offering to lead.

New entrants to the arena will be scrutinised with an intensity not akin to anything they have experienced at any point in their lives. Any pageant contestant would have undergone a crash course for this.

People putting themselves forward will need to demonstrate that they have a track record of performance and delivery away from the public eye. Buzz words like accountability and integrity will fill the air like silk cotton blowing from a tree in a storm.

The people in the various districts will need comfort that these new hopefuls will be able to deliver if given the mandate. So too will it be for those who have occupied seats in the white building on Fort Street, whether for four years or longer.

With an increasingly enlightened electorate, time will tell if distant and recent transgressions will be forgiven. If, as has often been the case throughout history, that forgiveness comes easy or temporary amnesia sets in inside the voting booth, then those casting ballots to determine the future of Beloved Isle Cayman have but themselves to blame if a few years down the road, they realise their society has failed to advance but remains stagnated without solutions to modern day problems.