Technology Cannot Restore Public Trust: Only Delivery Can, says Brown, Opposition Science And Technology

Declining voter turnout is not apathy but a deliberate verdict delivered by citizens who have concluded that the system does not work for them regardless of who holds power, Opposition Spokesperson on Science, Technology and Digital Transformation Christopher Brown warned during his sectoral contribution in Parliament.

MP Brown, delivering his contribution as Shadow Spokesman on Science, Technology and Digital Transformation, noted that voter turnout fell to 37 per cent during the COVID-19 election and recovered to only 39 per cent at the most recent general election held under normal conditions, a figure he described as a measure of disillusionment rather than progress.

"A growing number of Jamaicans, especially young Jamaicans, have concluded that it does not matter who is in power because the system does not work for them regardless. That is a verdict delivered not at the ballot box but by staying away from it. Every person in this Chamber, on both sides, should find that deeply troubling." stated Christopher Brown, MP, Opposition Spokesperson on Science, Technology and Digital Transformation.

Grounding the argument in constituency life, Mr Brown described daily calls from residents of South Eastern St Mary about uncollected refuse, burst water mains, street lighting failures, and impassable roads, and argued that these are not extravagant demands but the basic expectations of the social contract between government and citizen.

He warned explicitly that no digital transformation programme can substitute for the trust that only consistent delivery builds, and that the same culture of announcement without execution visible in Jamaica's technology policy is experienced by ordinary citizens as part of the same broken system.

"Technology alone cannot restore that trust. Only delivery can. Consistent, visible, measurable delivery that reaches ordinary people in their ordinary lives. Jamaica has to get it right." Brown said emphatically