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Candidatitis
I first published this article in 2007 and then, slightly
amended in 2016. And again last year. We are only a wee while away from the
local government elections in the North. Sinn Féin is standing its largest
number of candidates ever in this contest including the most first
candidates. So I thought this would be a good time to republish it
again, slightly amended once more.
It is my tribute to the majority of candidates who won’t get
elected. Think of them as you digest all the outcomes. Good luck to
them all. Good luck especially to Sinn Féin’s candidates. I hope we have a
great result.
That’s all in the gift of the electorate. So I thank all
the voters as well as all the candidates.
Opinion polls have become an integral part of every election
campaign. Every newspaper and every broadcast outlet tries to second guess the
electorate by commissioning polls. And then their columnists or pundits spend a
huge amount of time analysing the poll they just commissioned.
So do many candidates. And their supporters. This can lead to
mood changes and other character changing tendencies. This can be very
stressful. So every candidate and everyone else should be mindful of the
particular and peculiar stresses and strains that come with being a candidate.
It’s a form of ailment called Candidatitis. It begins with
the candidate coming to believe – with a certainty known only to the prophets
of old – that they are going to win.
This syndrome is capable of moving even the most rational
aspirant or shy wallflower into a state of extreme self belief. It strikes
without warning, is no respecter of gender, and can infect the lowly municipal
hopeful, the aspiring Parliamentarian, as well as the lofty presidential
wannabe.
I believe this is due to two factors. First of all most people
standing for election see little point in telling the voters that they are not
going to win. That just wouldn’t make sense. Of course not. So they say they
are going to win.
That's when Candidatitis starts. As
the 'we are going to win' is repeated time and time again it
starts to have a hypnotic effect on the person intoning the mantra. By this
time it’s too late.
Which brings me to the second factor. Most people
encourage Candidatitis.
Unintentionally. Not even the candidate’s best friend will say hold on,
you haven't a chance. Except for the media. But no candidate believes the
media. And most candidates are never interviewed by the media anyway.
So a victim of Candidatitis will take
succour from any friendly word from any punter. Even a 'good luck' takes on new
meaning and 'I won't forget ye' is akin to a full blooded endorsement.
So are we to pity sufferers of this ailment? Probably
not.
They are mostly consenting adults, although some parties
occasionally run conscripts. In the main these are staunch party people who are
persuaded to run by more sinister elements who play on their loyalty and
commitment. In some cases these reluctant candidates run on the understanding
that they are not going to get elected. Their intervention, they are told, is
to stop the vote going elsewhere or to maintain the party's representative
share of the vote. In some cases this works. But in other cases, despite
everything, our reluctant hero, or heroine, actually gets elected. A friend of
mine was condemned to years on Belfast City council years ago when his election
campaign went horribly wrong. He topped the poll.
That’s another problem in elections based on proportional
representation. Topping the poll is a must for some candidates. But in PR
elections such ambition creates a headache for party managers. If the aim
is to get a panel of party representatives elected they all have to come in
fairly evenly. This requires meticulous negotiations to carve up
constituencies. Implementing such arrangements make the implementation of
the Good Friday Agreement look easy.
It means only placing posters and distributing leaflets in
specific areas with clear instructions to the electorate on how we would like
them to vote. In some elections I have noticed that some candidates (not Sinn
Féin candidates folks) putting up posters in their colleagues territory.
Not a good sign.
It requires an inordinate amount of discipline on the
candidates' behalf not to fall into this trap. Many do. Some don’t. Some get
really sneaky. Particularly as the day of reckoning comes closer. Panic attacks
and an allergy to losing can lead to some sufferers poaching a colleague's
votes. This is a very painful condition leading to serious outbreaks of
nastiness and reprisals and recriminations if detected before polling day. It
usually cannot be treated and can have long term effects.
So dear readers all of this is by way of lifting the veil on
these problems which infect our election contests. Politicians are a much
maligned species. In some cases not without cause.
So the next time you look at a poster or get a leaflet through
the letterbox or are confronted at your door by a wild eyed candidate –
occasionally accompanied by a posse of cameras – then take a more
tolerant and benign view of the sometimes strange behaviour of those citizens
who contest elections .
When you are accosted by a pamphlet waving candidate, as
you shop in the supermarket or collect the children at school or are minding
your own business as you walk down the main street, try to see beyond the brash
exterior. If they get carried away with themselves it’s not really their
fault you see. Big boys and girls make them do it.
Most candidates are decent well meaning civic minded
citizens. It’s a pity some have awful politics. So your votes should
not encourage them. They will have difficulties enough dealing with defeat as
well as the outworking of Candidatitis. But they will
recover eventually.
If they get elected they or we may never recover. Please spare
us from that.
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Solidarity with Palestinian people
I want to extend my solidarity and
condolences to the Palestinian people and especially to the family of Khader
Adnan who died on the 2 May last week after 87 days on hunger strike. His death
in an Israeli prison, coming just three days before Irish republicans
commemorate and celebrate the life of Bobby Sands, was especially poignant.
As I read the reports of Khader
Adnan’s death I recalled Bobby’s words from his prison diary in which he wrote
about the battle between hunger, the lure of food and the desire for freedom. On
17 March 1981 Bobby wrote: “I
was thinking today about the hunger-strike. People say a lot about the body,
but don’t trust it. I consider that there is a kind of fight indeed. Firstly
the body doesn’t accept the lack of food, and it suffers from the temptation of
food, and from other aspects which gnaw at it perpetually.
The
body fights back sure enough, but at the end of the day everything returns to
the primary consideration, that is, the mind. The mind is the most important.
But then where does this proper mentality stem from? Perhaps from one’s desire
for freedom. It isn’t certain that that’s where it comes from. If they aren’t
able to destroy the desire for freedom, they won’t break you.”
And so it was for Khadar Adnan. The battle between
the temptation for food and the demand for freedom is one that he had fought
before. Adnan had previously been arrested 12 times by Israel and interned. On
several earlier occasions he had undertaken a hunger strike, including in 2015
when he was 55 days without food.
Last week the father of nine was one of more than
one thousand Palestinian internees scattered in prisons across Israel and the
occupied territories. Every day there are reports of systematic abuse by
Israeli forces against the Palestinian people.
In our time 12 republican prisoners died on hungers
strike. Others died in previous generations. This Friday as we remember Francie
Hughes who was the second republican hunger striker to die in 1981 let us also
remember those others around the world, and especially living under Israel’s
apartheid system, who also struggle for freedom.
To his
wife Randa Mousa, his children and family I extend the solidarity of Irish
republicans.
Gaza
As I wrote this week of the pain of the
Palestinian people I recalled a visit to the west Bank and to Gaza in 2009.
Three years ago I published Poems for
Hard Times - a short selection of poems including one that I wrote during
that visit. It is an appropriate reminder this week of the horror of Israel’s
apartheid regime.
Gaza
Rubble on rubble
Twisted metal
And ghosts
Everywhere
Ghosts of little children
Playing in the ruins
Little ghosts
Páistí bochta
Laughing
Shouting
Crying
And dying In Gaza.
Gaza City 8 April 2009
Poems for Hard
Times available from An Fhuiseog 55 Falls Road Béal Feirste BT12 4PD
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