THE VIEW FROM RIZAL
Last Sunday, we watched as social media and international cable news played footages of what the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officially declared was an “assassination attempt” on former United States President Donald Trump. We are glad that the former president escaped death and emerged from the incident with only minor injuries.
As we write this column, US authorities are yet to fully uncover the motive behind the attempt on President Trump’s life. Meanwhile, the incident involving a global political figure has reminded us of a stark reality in politics: some elements are more than willing to resort to violence, including the use of guns and bullets.
Not too long ago, we also watched on social media and cable news the gruesome gunning down of the respected former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by an assassin. He was shot in broad daylight while addressing a crowd during a political sortie.
President Trump is not the first US chief executive to have been the target of an assassination attempt. It is unfortunate that the country recognized as a “beacon of democracy” would have a history of political assassinations involving the highest-ranking political official of their land.
The most famous was the killing of President John F. Kennedy. There were also failed attempts on the lives of former Presidents George Bush, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. Much earlier in American history, the late Presidents Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, and William McKinley died from assassins’ bullets. The late US Presidents Harry S. Truman and Theodore Roosevelt were luckier and survived the attempts on their lives.
The Philippines has its share of attempts to kill sitting Presidents. Our elders in Rizal Province told us that the late former President Jose P. Laurel was shot at the famed Wack-Wack golf course in the mid-1940s (during the Japanese occupation). He survived the attempt and in a magnanimous and noble gesture, would later grant absolute pardon to the man who attempted to snuff out his life.
We are no stranger to this particular aspect of politics. To this day, the faces of would-be assassins who were allegedly hired by our political nemeses still haunt us.
It will be recalled that in 2013, a kill plot targeting us and former Rizal Governor Ito Ynares was uncovered. Accounts given by the widow of one of the hired guns who was mysteriously killed after several failed attempts to pull the trigger on us showed that our lives were spared only by a miracle. It appeared the hired guns were just a few meters in front of us on several occasions and could have easily taken a shot at close range. For some reasons which we can only attribute to divine intervention, the shots were never fired.
The surviving hired guns later confessed and bared the personalities behind the failed assassination plot.
These events and experiences have given greater meaning to the statement that “political violence is an assault against democracy.” The democratic space is inherently noisy and chaotic. It is designed to be a “marketplace of ideas” where people can listen to all protagonists and freely choose which side they would want to be in.
We have stood on the political stage and campaigned for votes several times. During those moments, it was clear to us that we were standing there to represent an idea – a vision of the future and the means to attain it. Our political rivals had their idea of what that future should be and how the people could get there. It was clear to us that the final decision as to which idea should triumph in the marketplace are the people – the voters who, in the free exercise of their right to vote, decide for themselves the kind of future they want.
Sometimes, in this free market of ideas, the “noise” can take the form of the language of hate. When it does, the debate in a free market of ideas can deteriorate into name-calling, labeling, and other forms of speech that could arouse anger and draw lines that divide people.
That is the “ugly” feature of democracy. But that is democracy’s very foundation.
So, when a proponent of a school of thought, an advocate of change, or a champion of an opposing ideology is silenced by an assassin’s bullet, it is democracy that suffers death.
We pray that political violence in times of elections will come to a halt. We include in our prayers the polls in the US. Some analysts say that the recent incident at the Trump rally could trigger further violence. We pray that this will not happen. The US is a showcase of democracy. We hope that, amidst the crescendo of political noise in that part of the world, sobriety will triumph so that through its example, the world may continue to keep its faith that, despite its serious limitations, democracy works.
(Dr. Jun Ynares is the current mayor of Antipolo City, former Rizal governor, DENR assistant secretary and LLDA general manager. For feedback, please email it to [email protected] or send it to Block 6 Lot 10 Sta. Barbara 1 cor. Bradley St., Mission Hills Subd., Brgy. San Roque, Antipolo City, Rizal)