Points to ponder during a political crisis

AFTER a dictatorship, three People Power attempts, a series of failed coups and a mutiny, the Philippines remains in the throes of yet another political crisis, according to University of the Philippines sociology professor and Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Randy David.

David was among the first to be arrested without a warrant under the state of emergency declared by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last February. He is one of Arroyo’s most vocal critics.

“Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s contested presidency is but a tiny footnote in this still-unfolding narrative of comprehensive societal failure,” remarked David last October 14 in a keynote speech during the opening of Akbayan‘s third national assembly.

Terrorized by the thought of yet another popular movie star becoming president, the middle and educated classes — David uses the two terms interchangeably — rushed to elect a highly educated economist.

However, “we have completely overlooked Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s political biography — her penchant for changing party affiliations whenever it suited her political ambitions, her assiduous courtship of local leaders, her clever use of her father’s surname and political connections, even as she abandoned the party that Diosdado Macapagal once led,” David added.

Aside from this, Arroyo also cleverly projected herself as a Nora Aunor look-alike in campaign posters in order to appeal to the masa, and assumed “an image of Catholic piety and moral conservatism in order to attract the bishops.”

These bishops were among those who affirmed the results of the 2004 presidential elections, which they perceived to be generally fair and honest, according to David.

When the “Hello, Garci” tapes were made public, Arroyo apologized for a “lapse of judgment” on national television. The taped apology took 42 takes to record, said David. First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo went abroad on voluntary exile, but soon returned after the Hyatt 10 resigned from the Cabinet.

Early this year, PCIJ dubbed the President “Survivor of the Year” for weathering the “Hello, Garci” scandal and impeachment proceedings.

“As a survivor in the ruthless world of Philippine politics, she has shed the moral shield and now deals with her enemies only with two choice weapons: coercion and renumeration,” said David.

He believes that the middle classes find the president’s actions to be morally offensive. “But I think, in the long run, this is good, for the resolution of the political crisis, because it forces us to resume the quest for intelligent political action to our problems, and to forgo the instant satisfaction offered by idle moral labeling.”

Impatience has kept the country’s “political system trapped in cycles of instability,” said David. This impatience has led to sustained political disillusionment for many Filipinos. “A series of intense upheavals has consumed the political energies and functions of our people, and raised their expectation to very high levels…only to let them down every time.”

David said that romantic utopianism is a middle-class instinct that has led to extra-contitutional means of changing leaders, such as people power and coup attempts. Although the motives behind these may be pure, he believes that these are eventually counter-productive, as these are not “anchored on the active support and engagement” of the people.

“Could it be that we have been expelling the incumbents in order to prolong the life of a dying system?” David asked near the end of his speech.

When it comes to identifying the kind of political system that will work for us, David himself is uncertain. But he believes that “we have not really given democracy a chance to work in our society.”

Regardless of the political choices that we have made, we cannot ignore the following basic points, he said:

• We cannot hope to gain anything unless we can first unify our people around a clear vision and engage their energies and enthusiasm in pursuit of these goals.

• Development has to start from the development of the people, through the provision of the minimum living conditions for sustained personal growth, through quality education, and the meaningful inclusion of our people in various aspects of the national life

• With regard to the private sector, those who have more in life are called upon to help those who have been excluded and opportunity without waiting to be prompted by the government.

• Corruption is not the most important of our problems but rather an expression of our most urgent problems: mass poverty and ignorance, patronage politics, expensive elections and an underdeveloped economy.

• Our private initiatives as citizens are valuable, but the crucial terrain of social change is still the public arena, where policies and programs are decided.

• There is no shortcut to development.

• Some of our problems require simple and straightforward solutions, but many are multi-layered and complex. Every initiative rests on certain preconditions.

• No nation can progress without first instilling national pride and love of country among its people. National pride is to nations what self-respect is to individuals, a precondition for self-improvement. We must arrest our people’s dangerous descent to demoralization, and appeal to those who have made good here and abroad, to help lift the morale, especially of our young people, in these critical times.