7-year-old is newest political media star
Tired of all those political ads on your local television newscast? No comment here, but if I asked you to name your favourite spot, which one would you choose? I put that question to my colleague, Jacqueline Woods, and have to say that I agree.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
The first election he’ll be able to vote in probably won’t come until 2014 at the earliest, but seven-year-old Jaime Perera is already a political veteran. In a crowded field of seemingly endless election advertisements, Perera’s testimonial for his dad’s independent run for Belize City Mayor is perhaps the freshest pitch in town.
It took young Perera only five minutes to learn the script but, as he explains, there were other reasons why he wanted to do the ad simply beyond helping his father.
Jaime Perera
“When people have no father or daddy and they are poor, have no money and food to eat and dogs that have to go on the street and they don’t have owners, then animals get hurt and no one care for them.”
Young Perera has certainly become a celebrity at school. His parents, Eneyda and Estevan Perera, believe the ad is a refreshing break from the increasingly negative campaign of the two major parties. The idea for the ad, they say, came from Jaime.
Estevan Perera, Independent Mayoral Candidate
“It’s my son who came up and looked at it and said, “Daddy what you doing?” I said, “I’m doing and ad babes, an ad.” He said, “let me do it for you.” Then my wife was right beside me and she said, “let him doing Steve, let him do it.” So I said okay, let’s change the format a see if we could do something simple. And that’s where we started writing it out for him, but he couldn’t read our handwriting, so he said, “dad let me write it and you just say it and I will write it down myself.” And that’s how I came up with the ad with him doing it for me.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Some people might criticize the ad by saying that you’re using a child to gain votes and this is wrong, you should not get children involved in politics.”
Eneyda Perera, Mother
“Well let me say something. I think from they’re small we have to let them know that that we have to look after our country an step forward so that they know the love their country and they would do anything for their country. So it’s good to train them, because just doing this ad, my child has learned how many independent candidates there are, how many running for City Council. He knows who is running for mayor for the red, who is running for mayor for the blue, and then he knows what City Council is involved, that you have to fix the streets, the drains. I think it educated him a lot.”
Young Perera is already working on his second ad, which is schedule to air soon. However, he admits the script is longer and he has been having some difficulty remembering the words. The TV spot will basically tell people how to vote in the March fifth City Council Election.
Jaime Perera
“The last part, I have trouble pan that.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Why cause it’s a longer ad? A lot more words to remember.”
(Shakes head, yes)
Jaime Perera
“Dah bout City Council and hard workers…Victory to the people, power to the people.”
Whether the people of Belize City will elect his dad mayor is far from certain, but one thing is clear: no matter who wins the election, Jaime Perera has a bright future in broadcasting. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
