An appeal to the young, particularly next year’s 18-year-olds, who can influence the outcome of the upcoming elections
(The author is a college junior taking up BS Information Technology Entrepreneurship at Ateneo Manila University. He is the vice president and secretary-general of Kythe-Ateneo, and the founder of The VoterFeed Philippines).
I get it. Elections can be a waste of time. I would get so caught up in an election cycle, rooting for my own candidates, sometimes giving impassioned speeches for them in campaign sorties, only to find out they either win but have such limited power to change things, or they just straight-up lose. It really sucks. Imagine investing every day from January to May of an election year just watching the polls and keeping up to date on the newsreels, only to see the outcome of the election down the tubes. I’m not talking about the outcome for a particular candidate or a particular party, I’m talking about the outcome for this country, the Philippines, our beloved motherland.
It’s easy to get numbed by all the negative press covering the government. You will see jargon like “corruption,” “oppression,” “anti-poor,” and “human rights violation,” in the headlines. You know this isn’t normal, you know something’s up, you know something’s wrong—but it just doesn’t make you feel anything anymore. All the bad news creating emotional distress easily turns into numbness—nothingness. Your heart aches and your mind explodes in all the drama and chaos, until they just float in thin air in a state of apathy and detachment.
You’re cancelled
In those cases, people will tell you that one line we all dread to have said to us: You’re so privileged. You have such a comfortable life. You’re sheltered from all the suffering out there. You don’t care because you’re blind. You choose not to see, and that makes you an oppressor—you’re cancelled!
While it is worth noting that, yes, you probably are living a comfortable life, isolated from all the noise outside, or yes, you probably are ignorant and you choose not to care for the sake of pissing people off, I’m not here to reinforce this pa-woke doctrine of “neutrality helps the oppressor.” The cliché equates a simple behavioral flaw, perhaps maybe even a moment of weakness, to actively suppress groups of people on a systemic level, —which is flat-out ridiculous and illogical. It also defines the political divide in binary terms—oppressor versus oppressed, right versus wrong—which we all know is an unfair description of our current political landscape. It also narrowly characterizes a person based on one moment, one behavior, one thought, while discounting all past and perhaps future experiences of zeal and passion for justice.
I would never call someone “oppressive” just because he, one day, decided to stop reading his daily dose of news to guard his mental health. For the most part, this vilification of the apathetic does not correspond with the values of peace and justice for which we anchor our search for social justice on. You cannot respond to othering with othering.
I feel for you. I do know what it feels like to just dread for a pause. I know what it feels like to just want to leave this country. It’s hard to keep caring about something you’re almost certain will not end in your favor.
Real talk
As much as I empathize with you and your struggle, I implore you to reconsider that position. The past year and a half has shown us how vital the government is in so many aspects of our lives. With RA 11332 giving the President emergency powers in the state of a Public Health Emergency, and with the imposition of various lockdowns around the country, it is clear that the government’s decisions do, in fact, affect our mobility and our ability to do daily tasks—like going to school, seeing friends, or picking something up from the grocery. With the unimaginable amount of money allocated for the COVID-19 response, the money that could’ve gone to saving your friend’s relative, or perhaps your loved one, could end up in the pockets of officials. With the mandatory face shield policy and the connection being made between this and deals with shield manufacturers, this crisis has presented, in the spirit of possibility, a clearer role self-interest can have in policy-making.
Therefore, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessary expansion of government powers, one thing is certain: We need a good government. We need a good government to address the public health crisis with speed, efficiency, and honesty, so that we can slow the spread of the new variants, boost daily vaccination rates, ease unnecessary burdens put on businesses, and be more efficient with managing our resources. We need a good government to create policies based on science and logic, and neither on emotion, nor the question of “mananalo ba ako sa halalan?” And in the long-term, we need a good government that will address the issues we care about so deeply, like those about protecting our democracy, human rights, the environment, jobs, infrastructure, and, yes, preventing future pandemics.
Register now, choose sides later
This may seem like a call to vote for someone, or perhaps not to vote for someone. It is not. Right now, pre-election season politics is heating up. Some are confident about their candidacy, others are still thinking. Some are signing petitions, even holding motorcades, for their desired candidate. Everyone is gearing up their efforts for 2022, whether in the halls of the Senate, or their respective officers and city halls. Nothing else comes out of the news anymore, other than accusations, mudslinging, and cheap fat-shaming. Let’s not let chaos decide.
For now, all I request from you is to register to vote. I urge that you go on https://irehistro.comelec.gov.ph/cef1 to start your application, and submit this to the office nearest to you. If you need any assistance, my friends and I started The VoterFeed Philippines (Facebook: facebook.com/thevoterfeed.ph; Instagram: instagram.com/thevoterfeed.ph) to present to you the basics of voter registration.
We don’t have to let the unregulated political antics of today sway our positions just yet. After all, the election is still in seven months. Candidates have not yet been officially declared by the Commission on Elections. And we know far too little about most candidates right now, so let’s just sit back, register to vote, and learn more about those who—and I say this with all optimism—will let us out of this circus.