The Philippine Online Chronicles

Or are the Pinoys so fucked up so as not to care anymore?

The 2010 elections will most probably be a rehash—again—of experiences of elections past. Save for automation in the coming election, the storylines and the characters in Philipppine elections will hardly change. Vote-buying, election related scandals and anomalies, election related violence and many more—you get the picture? The Hello Garci tapes and the stronghold of the Ampatuans in Maguindanao are only side stories to the bigger picture of the kind of politics we have in the country.

There is something grievously and monstrously wrong about how our political system works and our collective mentality towards politics, which we consider always in conjunction with the adjective “dirty,” though the Greeks who coined the term “politics” never intended it to be so associated. The mockery we make of our electoral processes prove this point. Countless of times have we seen it in the national and local elections—the popular, the rich, the powerful, and the well-connected and oftentimes even the incompetent candidates win! We are practically run by “trapos” and political dynasties bent on seeking and keeping power over and above the collective good, thus leading to and feeding off of systemic and pervasive corruption in government and all levels of our society, much to the detriment of the Filipino people.

Our own collective mentalities further entrench this rotten system. We only elect the “winnable” candidates to our national and local posts. Yan ang Pinoy—the Pinoy loves a winner! As things stand, to win a Philippine election, you have to have guns, goons, gold, immense popularity and a powerful network of people at the grassroots and higher echelons of society. It will take nothing short of a Herculean feat for a resource-strapped candidate to win against such odds and against a well-entrenched mentality bordering on traditional politics.

How many of us will go out on a limb to campaign and vote for an unpopular though competent candidate? Not too many. And those who do so are scoffed at for being too idealistic and rebuffed because their choice of a candidate who will not win anyway, and who have no political party of their own and no political machinery to back them up. Case in point in this instance is Nicanor Perlas. Our legal system makes it possible to exclude even competent people like him—even a candidate like him who has crafted a very good intentioned platform of government which other candidates have not even done so yet. I am not a lawyer, but what I do understand is that Perlas was disqualified from running as President because he has no political party and could not show he could muster a national election campaign. Sure, lawmakers and the Comelec can determine who nuisance candidates are but isn’t it unfair to lump the likes of Perlas and Danton Remoto with the sorts of those who run for office based on the alleged will of God Himself? As an aside, maybe we should rethink our definition of nuisance candidates.

Even JC delos Reyes who himself has a political party to back him up—the Ang Kapatiran Party, is scoffed at by the high and mighty ones. He has not even been invited to recent forums (well, at least he was invited at ANC’s Harapan) and those that are currently being organized. It’s like he is left out. Well, at least Bro. Eddie Villanueva got his share of votes in the last presidential elections, but I suppose this can be credited partly to his religious affiliation.

If we want a truly clean and peaceful election, we as a people must free ourselves of our traditional concepts of winnable candidates—a hard thing to do because mentalities don’t change overnight. We really should stop voting for the sake of choosing the lesser evil and for pragmatic reasons because this has always led to trouble. We should focus on the track record, personal merit and trustworthiness of electoral candidates and their platform of governance and once we elect them, we must be vigilant to hold those in office to their promises. We should strictly enforce laws on election spending. We have no dearth of brilliant minds to craft better election legislation and willing bodies to serve.

When it comes to Pinoy Big Brother, American Idol, PBA, Wowowee, reality shows, or any Pacquiao fight for that matter, why is it that the Pinoys are very enthusiastic to the extent of spending a lot of time infront of the television, falling in line to the extent of being in the middle of a stampede just to be given access to a television show, discussing intrigues endlessly, and looking forward to every episode, to every eviction, and to every awarding of the winner in a reality show or contest.

What is ironic, too, is that Pinoys are spending a lot of money on text votes to keep their chosen contestants, players, to kick out the ones they do not like or whatever name it is in the game but are not willing to spend a single centavo or perhaps spend a moment or two to think, have a look, listen or study what these guys have to offer. Reality shows, talk shows, etc., are I guess are the bigger and more important concerns of Pinoys.

Why is it then that when it comes to the welfare of the country, to the good of the current gneration and to the future of the next generation—the Pinoys don’t care at all? Are the Pinoys so fucked up that they don’t care anymore?

Sure the traditional politicians are hugely responsible for the mess we are all in, but we had a hand in it too because we let it happen. We allowed it. We didn’t care at all, in the process. WE created traditional politics. It’s about time we gave birth to a new kind of politics. But again, the question is—are the Pinoys ready? Are the Pinoys up to the challenge? Now, tell me.

Photos by Noemi Lardizabal-Dado. Some Rights Reserved.