DURING the 1992 British general election campaign, I watched a TV programme about categories of people falling outside the normal exercise of the franchise. There were interviews with homeless people and citizens who had refused on principle to pay the discredited poll tax and who, therefore could not vote.
There were also interviews with British expats, living in faraway climes, who still had votes and continued to use them. One interview was with a couple who had been living in South Africa for almost 20 years, and had not been back to the old country in much of that time.
They were interviewed on a beach, sipping martinis or some such. The woman was asked whether she would be voting in the impending election. She replied that, yes, indeed she would of course be voting as usual. And who would she be voting for? Why, the Conservatives, of course. "Why is that then?", inquired the interviewer. Because, she replied, what with all this homelessness and unemployment and all this inflation and so forth none of that would be happening if the Tories were in charge.
At this juncture, her husband jabbed her sharply in the ribs with his elbow. "Ow!" she said. He whispered something in her ear. "Oh!" she said. "Have they? Well, anyway, I don't care. I'm still voting Tory."
This was the best exposition of the only reasonably persuasive argument I have ever heard against emigrant voting rights. It illustrates why some people might find the idea of giving votes to expatriates so alarming.
The spectacle of stakeless deserters idling on a faraway beach while ignorantly interfering in the affairs of the state they have abandoned is one calculated to drive most taxpaying citizens into rages. Perhaps rightly so. If this were an accurate pen picture of the average Irish expat, then the objections of those who oppose voting rights for emigrants would have merit.
HOWEVER, this parody bears not the slightest resemblance to the average Irish expat. In the first place, Irish emigration is not, by and large, a voluntary process.
Irish people are culturally conditioned to pack their belongings and head for the harbour. The great mystery is why so many people, despite this conditioning, do not leave.
To stay is to accept complicity in a process of cultural culling which allows the State and society to function in their present ineffective and absurd fashion, unquestioning of the inbuilt means by which mediocrity and delusion are perpetuated.
Therefore, while the expats of other countries might be deemed to have relinquished any stake in their societies by departing, the Irish emigrant has arguably an in creased interest in the running of the Irish State by virtue of being forced to leave it.
As regards the other much favoured "no tax, no votes" argument, the truth is that emigrants from Ireland pay the heaviest taxation of all. Apart from the fact that their bank drafts and postal orders have kept the Irish economy above water for most of this century, there is the additional taxation of loneliness, alienation and rootlessness which all emigrants pay by virtue of being in exile.
It is fear of the anger of emigrants that creates the present political resistance to emigrant voting rights. The recent decision to defer a referendum on the proposed paltry concession of allowing emigrants to be represented in the Seanad and to refer the issue to the All Party Committee on the Constitution is a disgraceful abrogation of this State's duty to its own people abroad.
Only through fundamental changes in the nature of Irish society can most of our emigrants: hope ever to regain the metaphysical entitlement of home. But while emigrants remain voteless, such changes remain elusive. This Catch 22 is the kernel of the issue about emigrant voting rights.
Close scrutiny of the Constitution will not reveal any requirement that voters be well informed about politics. Article 16:1:2 of the Constitution states that "All citizens, and such other persons in the State as may be determined by law, without distinction of sex who have reached the age of eighteen years who are not disqualified by law and comply with the provisions of the law relating to the election of members of Dail Eireann, shall have the right to vote at an election for members of Dail Eireann".
Let us not dwell on the fact that the Government, by virtue of denying the franchise to Irish citizens abroad, is already in breach of this Article. Let us concentrate instead on how this Article defines the would be voter.
There is nothing about voters having to pay taxes or keep abreast of political developments. There is no system for testing indigenous voters on their knowledge of politics. Voters are not obliged to spend a statutory length of time reading newspapers or watching Prime Time.
POLITICIANS, even the ones who create the invisible resistance to extending the democratic franchise to emigrants, are each given to making speeches about the Irish diaspora. In fact, the only thing they appear to like talking about more than the importance of the diaspora is the importance of modem technology.
They are delighted to be able to remind us that we live now in a smaller world, in which travel and communication are much easier than heretofore. Therefore, they imply, young Irish people should not be in the least bit shy about spreading a wing upon every tide.
But there is in this a trap which I suspect such politicians have not yet seen, and which will yet be sprung to expose their twin pieces of cant. For if we live in a world being reduced every moment by the advances in communications technology, are we not approaching a time when it will make no difference, from an information point of view, whether the would be voter lives in Hammersmith or Harold's Cross?
Even at the present moment, RTE radio programmes are available throughout Europe via the Astra satellite. In North America, Irish news, music and sports programmes can he received via satellite and short wave radio.
The South African Broadcasting corporation currently broadcasts an hour of RTE Radio programmes nightly. In addition, RTE Radio One is contributing six hours of programming daily to a 24 hour English language channel which broadcasts to Africa, Asia, Australasia and Europe.
It is estimated that, within 10 years, it will be possible to receive satellite broadcasts anywhere in the world on a portable transistor radio. Next month, Tara TV hopes to begin supplying about 10 hours of Irish TV programmes each day on cable to Britain.
Very soon the Irish emigrant abroad will be able to claim equal access to information about Irish society and politics, thereby exposing the dishonesty which has deprived them thus far.