This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VII, No. 2, Feb. 11-17, 2007
STREETWISE
Elections: A Critical View
Mrs. Arroyo and other
reactionaries are bound to fail because they overestimate their own strength and
underestimate the people's intelligence, determination and capacity to take
destiny in their own hands.
By Carol
Pagaduan-Araullo Not a few friends and even fellow activists
have asked whether the right thing to do in the coming May polls is simply to
boycott the darned thing what with the numerous signs that bode ill for an
honest, fair and clean elections that would give a fighting chance for the
electoral Opposition, to win a significant number of congressional and local
government seats. © 2007 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
BusinessWorld
Posted by Bulatlat
The discredited head of the Commission on Elections refuses to relinquish the
job while failing to undertake any major reforms such as the dismantling of the
entrenched cheating mafia that has taken hold of the supposedly independent
body. This “dagdag-bawas” machinery was allegedly run by the infamous
Commissioner Garcillano who is said to have manufactured Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s
spurious win in the 2004 presidential contest.
For her part, Mrs. Arroyo has not heeded calls from the Catholic hierarchy,
concerned citizens and its many critics that she, as a gesture of good will,
appoints new commissioners to vacant positions who are above reproach and can
restore the requisite modicum of impartiality and credibility to the Comelec.
Mrs. Arroyo’s new Defense Secretary is widely perceived to have been involved in
the “Hello Garci” high-level and wholesale cheating including its cover-up, with
his latest appointment to a coveted post both a reward and political insurance
for Mrs. Arroyo. He has, contrary to pronouncements by his predecessor,
announced that the armed forces will continue to play its controversial role in
“securing peace and order” during the electoral exercise. This is interpreted
by many quarters as a flimsy cover for the rampant use of the military once more
in favor of Mrs. Arroyo’s candidates.
Some people have been turned off, to the point of giving up any hope in the
electoral process, due to the facile switching of sides by supposed anti-GMA
opposition figures, who have opportunistically hopped onto the administration’s
senatorial wagon. Furthermore, they exclaim in exasperation, don’t Filipinos
deserve a better choice than candidates of the pretender-president Gloria versus
those anointed by the ousted president Erap?
Many quarters are correct in asserting that the call for Mrs. Arroyo to resign
or face ouster still rings true given the illegitimacy of its lying, cheating,
stealing and, may we add, murderous and puppet presidency. But the fact that GMA
is still in power shows that conditions are not ripe for her
extra-constitutional removal given the remaining, formidable forces propping her
up vis a vis the current strengths and weaknesses of the broad anti-GMA united
front.
A reckoning of GMA’s support would start with continued U.S. backing for its
pliant, eager-to-please puppet regime that is deathly afraid of being found
wanting in serving the Superpower’s interests in the country and the region. On
the other hand, the Bush administration is a lame duck government facing
heightening resistance to its policies at home and abroad.
The AFP/PNP, while wracked by dissension among its rank and file and young
officer corps, remains loyal to Mrs. Arroyo who has found the right mix of
higher budgets to feed the hungry maws of the extremely corrupt and wasteful
military and police institutions, abetting illegal gambling and other criminal
activities of the generals and senior officers and whipping up their appetite
for a bloody counter-insurgency war disguised as part and parcel of the U.S.-led
“war against terrorism”.
Big business is still torn between judging whether Mrs. Arroyo is good or bad
for business with the former apparently having the upper hand. The Catholic
Church hierarchy is still in the process of developing the moral courage and the
political maturity to take on its appropriate role in leading its increasingly
restive flock mired in poverty and an unrelenting political crisis.
The traditional Opposition in the form of anti-GMA senators, congressmen and
local government officials are shackled by their actual and perceived narrow and
self-serving interests to be able to present an alternative center of leadership
acceptable to the majority of our people and the broad spectrum of organized
anti-GMA forces.
The Left for its part has still not been able to muster the muscle of gigantic
and paralyzing mass actions to compel the government to heed its calls for
pro-people measures much more making Mrs. Arroyo step down from power. In a real
sense this situation of the anti-GMA alliance of political forces serves as a
passive prop despite an extremely weakened Arroyo regime.
It is only right that those who are working hard for the genuine overhaul of
oppressive and exploitative conditions in Philippine society should not
contribute to the spread of illusions that electoral exercises bring the renewed
promise of resolving the political crisis in this country nor ushering in
genuine reforms. Thus any participation in the May polls must be attended by a
critical viewpoint, always mindful of exposing the basically reactionary
character of said electoral contests, even as the openings for using the
exercise as a means of raising awareness, steeling the fighting will of the
people, preparing them for the coming political battles with the U.S.-backed
Arroyo regime and, wherever possible, scoring some electoral victories, is
seriously attended to.
For indeed, despite the odds stacked in favor of the incumbent’s candidates,
what weighs in favor of the progressives and the anti-GMA candidates is that the
regime is so isolated and deeply immersed in the muck of corruption, fraud and
anomaly that it tends to commit blunders while desperately staving off criticism
and scheming to maintain itself in power, e.g. the debacle in its bid to
railroad Charter change. All sides are drawing road maps and war plans to get
what they want in the coming electoral circus.
The ruling GMA faction wants to win more seats in congress to remain in power
and kill any new attempts to impeach it. The electoral Opposition wants to win
enough seats to be able to impeach GMA and eventually take over the reins of
government. Progressive party lists and their base of support among the masses
and middle class are participating without illusions of becoming dominant and
wielding power but to have a broader forum for reaching out to the people,
exposing the real situation, and calling for participation in a democratic
movement for genuine reforms. Other influential voices are calling for a
boycott.
In politics, while material resources and positions of power are important, they
are not always the decisive factor in the outcome of particular engagements.
The accuracy of the roadmap – that is, the correct reading of the situation in
relation to one’s goals, whether one’s plan corresponds to reality or not --
will ultimately determine success or failure in achieving those avowed goals.
Mrs. Arroyo and other reactionaries are bound to fail because they overestimate
their own strength and underestimate the people's intelligence, determination
and capacity to take destiny in their own hands.
BusinessWorld/Posted by Bulatlat
*Published in Business World
9-10 February 2007