Is Our Student Government Based on Merit or Popularity?
The idea of democracy is to have the population choose their leaders. Kamehameha High School Kapālama campus does this method when it comes to electing the student government and it proves to not be an effective way to lead the student body.
The idea of democracy started in Greece and was a way for people to directly vote for their leaders and representatives. If we really break down the idea of democracy, it becomes a contest of who is the popular candidate out of all the options. The candidate that leaves the biggest impact on the voters and is the most likable will most of the time be the candidate elected.
In national and local elections, grown voters ponder what a candidate promises to get done if elected, the candidates credential, and what they do to try and connect with voters. A lot of consideration goes into electing politicians. In high school, however, students arenʻt aware of what candidates promise or even their credibility. Candidates for ASKS election rarely offer promises to students that are actually policy proposals.
As we have seen this year with our student activities, ASKS has failed to announce their events effectively to students and staff and lacks input from students. To protect their privacy the students who mentioned the following will remain anonymous. I was approached by a few students who have mentioned that the dances have declined drastically since the school year 2016-2017. They have also expressed to me their disappointment in the actions of our ASKS leaders in bullying other students and not being good role models. A merit-based election would allow the student body to have strong, organized, and morale students to represent us. I understand that we as students should be able to choose the students that represent us when it comes to meeting with administration, but are we making the best decisions or are we just doing a friend a favor?
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My name is Joby Lum, some know me as Mateo and I am a senior and a first-year member of Ka Moi. I came to the hill during my Freshmen year. I have many interests that range from photography to politics and medicine. I am the president of the KS Lifesavers Club and the KS Aviation Club. My dream is to become a paramedic and be able to serve those in my community. I chose to join Ka Moi because I love to write and be able to show the other side of a story. I feel that Ka Moi will help me become a stronger writer and expose me to the world of journalism.
