A self-destructing nation?
A sinking feeling that our nation is in a self-destruction mode seems to be setting in among many of us, if remarks I now frequently hear or read are any indication. These invariably focus on how bad politicians are ruining our nation and its future, yet keep winning elections, nonetheless. Results of recent polls on senatorial candidates reinforce the seeming hopelessness of our political future. I constantly hear nostalgic remarks about how our senators used to be honorable statesmen/women, most of them lawyers and luminaries in their fields. Now we have clowns, misfits, and shady characters with no reason for winning votes other than having names voters can easily recall, owing to careers in entertainment, media, business, or even crime. Not even past records of incompetence, zero legislative output, or even convictions for crime have stopped them from winning elections.
All of that presupposes that election results truly reflect the people’s will. But many believe and can prove, that elections have been rigged and manipulated electronically—and persistent questions on our recent elections make such suspicions quite credible. It is widely believed that elective offices can be bought in the Philippines, both at retail, via direct vote-buying, and at the wholesale level, by buying election tampering. Either way, we seem doomed to keep getting the wrong kind of leaders elected into office—leaders who run primarily for the power and wealth the office brings, rather than out of desire to bring about positive change. And this breeds the political dynasties that keep growing in this country, even as they are diminishing in mature democracies elsewhere.
How could we have had only respectable men and women elected to our Senate in the past, and yet have a Senate composition now that suggests a retrogression in the political maturity of Filipino voters? Why did our voters’ political maturity seemingly move in the reverse direction over the last few decades? Most people would point to bad education and how it has deteriorated over the past few decades, on the reasoning that lack of good education is what leads people to vote for those candidates who are ruining our nation. It’s those same citizen voters who no longer seem bothered, much less enraged, at the blatantly self-serving behavior of people they have voted into power. Hardly anyone would dispute that the deteriorated state of our education system, hence the deteriorated state of education of the wide mass of Filipino voters, is what has led to our political retrogression.
But the story doesn’t end there. Our education system is in such a bad state because our elected leaders have neglected it, both knowingly and unknowingly. Most recently, our lawmakers knowingly cut the budget of the Department of Education (DepEd) just when the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EdCom II), whose members are also lawmakers, has called for stronger support for basic education. It also came at the exact time that their former colleague, who had been an active EdCom II member, and who thoroughly understands our country’s education challenges and shortcomings, is now at the helm of DepEd. We are trapped in a vicious circle of self-destruction where bad politicians’ neglect for education and other priority human development needs has bred voters that keep voting those same characters into power. Worse, the latter would have every motivation to keep us trapped in that vicious circle, because it allows them to perpetuate their families’ hold on power and wealth that political office brings.
I have written before about how frequent calls for voter education may be misplaced, even arrogant, and that it may be those who want voters “educated” that need to be educated by those they wish to “educate.” The country’s elite and educated middle class need to listen and engage more with the much-deprecated “bobotante,” who we have collectively failed and neglected, and better understand the supposedly “stupid” votes they cast. For some, persistent poverty leads them to keep looking for leaders who can promise immediate relief, including wads of cash and promises of more to come. For thinking voters, the motivation could be a long-simmering dissatisfaction with the existing order, and anyone who sounds like he/she can deliver drastic change would attract their support. Having seen little improvement in their lives across various leaderships, it’s natural for common folk to embrace leaders who break out of the familiar mold—or resign to the belief that all candidates behave the same way once elected anyway.
Meanwhile, our march to self-destruction continues, and our only way out is for the elite and middle class to take a direct role in shaping a better future for the nation, rather than wait for our elected leaders to do it.
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cielito.habito@gmail.com
