Here, thanks to broadcast and print media, it caught the attention of some sectors of our society eager to get the picture of US political landscape. They engage in speculation or might be drawn into betting who would next occupy the White House. We Filipinos cared to know with interest because the election results could determine GMA’s policies vis-à-vis the US and also change in leadership would inevitably affect world affairs.
One of the lasting legacies of so-called American tutelage under McKinley’s “benevolent assimilation” is democracy. Election is democracy in action they say. If America is hailed as the “bastion of democracy,” the Philippines is touted as the “show window of democracy in Asia.” But elections Philippine-style is depressing to say the least.
Imagine a presidential candidate calling over the phone an election commissioner at the height of vote canvassing and counting; soldiers policing schools to ensure the win; ballot tampering; ballot box snatching; what comes to mind? Last May, Garci was back in Lintang Bedol, the perpetrator of the Maguindanao fiasco. Both have two things in common: both committed crimes of the same nature called “electoral sabotage” as defined by a new law and both are scot-free. In 2004, an Austrian described Philippine elections as “the slowest in the world.” Going back to the May elections with canvassing and counting lasting until July, so what’s new?
Are Philippine elections that bad? Yes but we are not alone and that’s our consolation.
Four years before the Garci tape scandal (it sounds like porn and indeed it is; hence, electoral pornography), that November, 60 000 voters were disenfranchised and more than a million of ballots mostly by Black voters were declared spoiled in that tight presidential contest. The number was critical in determining who would win that race and so, they petitioned the Supreme Court for a recount because they had sensed something amiss. Surprisingly and to their dismay, the Supreme Court stopped the recount as it accepted the verdict. In the end, the victor became the loser and the loser, the victor (again, what a coincidence!).
That took place in Florida, USA where thousands of Americans were not permitted to cast their votes. One thing then is sure that our bungling COMELEC does not monopolize the venalities of “democratic” institutions. George W. Bush Jr., that dim-witted guy, got elected with 537 vote margin over Al Gore and plunged America into a sordid misadventure in Iraq similar to their Vietnam.
They claim, and we foolishly accept it as true, that they taught us democracy in practice. Could we say they also learned from us? Maybe. Maybe not. Let us not hurry. Wait for November and see if any shades of Bedol comes out.
***
Dissent means to disagree, to differ in opinion. In this column, this being the inaugural issue, I will try to give you, dear readers, my point of view, judgment or whatever you call it on current events, local or international, against the backdrop of a limiting orthodoxy. Following the crowd can occasionally be positive but to be constantly carried away by conformity is dangerous. What is said by many does not direct you to the bottom of things but, almost at all times, to deception. I will not promise that much for to offer contrary belief can sometimes but not always lead to a real answer to a question. For comments, email me at dissentpdn@gmail.com.
[First published in People's Digest Newsweekly (Dagupan City) (July 31-August 6, 2007)]
No comments:
Post a Comment