FINDING ANSWERS

By  FORMER SENATOR ATTY. JOEY D. LINA

As the campaign heats up for the May 13 elections, many can’t help wondering if the electoral exercise every three years is doing the country good, or if the situation is worsening, and if trooping to the polls for the right of suffrage is really worth it.

After all, despite all the elections in the past decades that paved the way for the emergence of countless politicians who have promised to effectively address grinding poverty, the gut issue affecting millions of Filipinos still remains the country’s most daunting challenge.

It’s not surprising if many voters have become disillusioned with elections. That many unsavory characters easily get elected is a testament to the sad state of our political dysfunction and the many ills it nurtures: patronage politics, vote-buying, fraud, election-related violence, overspending, alliances of unprincipled opportunists, nonchalance to issues, and many more.

Philippine politics remains dominated by personalities, some of whom are motivated not by love of country but purely by selfish interests. Ours is vastly different from other democracies, where candidates undergo rigid public scrutiny in town hall meetings, primaries, and public debates where issues are threshed out and discussed thoroughly, and where their character can be more keenly assessed.

It’s unfortunate that no real honest-to-goodness political party system exists here whereby political groups present the electorate with clearly differentiated platforms, policies, and viewpoints on vital matters which enable voters to sufficiently scrutinize proposals before making an informed choice on election day. Our brand of politics remains personality-driven without a clear and coherent party platform of governance.

If we had a truly functioning party system in the Philippines, political parties or political movements would analyze and propose solutions to national and local problems, and present voters an array of programs and platforms of governance, as well as highly qualified and principled candidates embodying the party’s principles and who have undergone the party’s stringent process to select competent and compassionate leaders.

As it is now, many feel the situation is hopeless and bleak. An analyst has described it in terms of good and evil whereby “many good men refuse to get involved in designing a better country for our children” while “plenty of evil politicians continue to bully their way into the future of this nation by way of political machinations.”

But should those of us aspiring for a better Philippines just give up? In a recently published “A Mom’s Open Letter to First-Time Voters,” these were asked: “If we are all to give up, who will care for our beloved Luzviminda? Who will fight off the vultures and crocs in government? Who will expose the transgressions and evils in society? Who will serve as the voice of the voiceless and the marginalized?”

I think a deep and unwavering sense of patriotism would not allow us to lose all hope. I’m reminded of England’s distinguished novelist and essayist, Julian Barnes, who said in one of his novels that “the greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously.”

And besides patriotism, enlightenment is essential. I firmly believe that prosperity for all Filipinos lies in an enlightened citizenry willing to fight systemic corruption and widespread poverty, and willing to work towards a government that will be instrumental in achieving a vision of prosperity for all.

The enlightened citizenry must reach out and touch the lives of fellow citizens and help them transcend their desperate situation. The enlightened few must be agents of change to influence and lead the people to use the power of the electoral process to transform and uplift the nation to a higher level of nationhood.

These enlightened Filipinos must act now so that the coming national and local elections will produce a majority of government leaders who will serve honestly and competently to solve poverty and corruption.

This may sound simple, but it is not easy because those who benefit from the present economic and political system will do all they can to hold on to their power and wealth. Experience tells us that these politicians, especially those belonging to political dynasties, thrive on economic inequality as they exploit a defective system to perpetuate themselves in power.

Indeed, the current system has become a “self-perpetuating mockery of democracy” as power and wealth, and the means to acquire more of it, are concentrated in a few.

The key to fixing a defective system that perpetuates economic inequality is to break the prevailing vicious cycle whereby power begets wealth and vice-versa. Breaking this vicious cycle is certainly difficult, but it needs to be done. It is imperative to transform the electorate into a potent force capable of discerning right choices and not falling victim to our political dysfunction.

Changing the face of Philippine politics is essential if our country is to overcome all the seeming hopelessness that abound.

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