A New Hope

Today we are happy to present a guest post written by Dia Montgomery, Law Rep on AMS Council.

The strongest democracies flourish from frequent and lively debate, but they endure when people of every background and belief find a way to set aside smaller differences in service of a greater purpose.

BARACK OBAMA, press conference, Feb. 9, 2009

It is a new year and the beginning of a new decade. January rains have helped settle the dust after last November’s high-charged UN complaint debacle. In the end, AMS President Blake Frederick & VP External Tim Chu retained their roles, largely due a legal memo advising councillors against severing our errant leaders from their positions. And so, between the tuna sandwiches & paper nameplates, a sort of normalcy has returned to AMS Council meetings.

Yet, after such bitter schisms between Council members, we who serve as AMS representatives must ask ourselves how to work productively for the good of all students. Perhaps the solution is to continue the ban on slates. While it is natural for students to want to organize and operate within groups, the dark side of human nature prevails. As with established political parties, there is a danger that slate members will seek to gain more power than their rivals and take revenge on political opponents. Such posturing and politicking takes away from student representation.

However, a continued ban on slates is not a surefire path to AMS unity. Even without slates, members of AMS Council, either deliberately or inadvertently, wear their larger political leanings on their proverbial sleeves. Our council chambers are often divided by NDP or Liberal affiliations. This divide distracts us from our duties by creating animosity between members and promoting petty jealousies.

But there is a way forward. Our AMS could benefit from something so clichéd, old fashioned and ridiculed that it just might work: teamwork. Hackneyed though it may be, we need to be grown ups and forgive each other for last year’s hurt feelings. Yes, we felt betrayed. Yes, we feel as though the other side did not understand our good intentions and would not really listen to us. But that was last year. Like it or not, we are still the AMS Council. We still have the responsibility to work together.

There continue to be real problems facing students at the University of British Columbia and we must get behind each other’s efforts to solve them. We have to collaborate and create a culture of teamwork. From this point on, no one councillor should completely own an idea or process. Instead, we should seek out ideas and opinions differing from our own. We should be open and receptive to ideas and input from others. We should interact with each other, despite past animosity, and maintain the willingness to engage even when things are not going the way we planned.

While we have had difficulties with each other in the past, these skirmishes should not be allowed to define us. This is a new year, an Olympic year, and we can rise to the challenges ahead together. What do you say, fellow Councillors?