Does this sound familiar? History students should do some research to find out whether Mrs. Arroyo actually preceded her American Idol Bush in using this incredible line that only their inner circle of sycophants would still buy.
Now for Mrs. Arroyo’s own “shoe-in-the-face” episode.
The weightiest mass demonstration against the Arroyo regime in this last quarter was clearly the December 12 anti-Charter change rally simply titled, “Enough! Stop Gloria’s Chacha now!” The range of social classes and political forces that were present or expressed similar sentiments was clearly the most significant aspect, compared to the much bigger numbers of those who went out into the streets in the same venue on February 29, at the height of the NBN-ZTE corruption scandal.
And the “expletives” came fast and furious, raw or in more sophisticated form, from senators, a former government official, a stand-up comedienne, progressive politicians and numerous speakers and cultural performers from all walks of life. Three prominent rebel military officers — two of whom are highly-decorated and one, voted senator by a wide constituency — sent their solidarity messages from their prison cells.
Certainly the basis for a resurgence of mass protest is being fed by the Arroyo regime’s extreme aggravation of the country’s chronic economic crisis and the people’s misery by pushing neoliberal policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund/World Bank and World Trade Organization even in the wake of the most severe US and worldwide economic recession such policies have already spawned.
But it is in her thinly-disguised bid to remain in power beyond 2010, by orchestrating a Congressional railroading of Constitutional amendments in the Lower House, that Mrs. Arroyo herself has provided the occasion for another show of unity among the fractious opposition, from left to right of the political spectrum. It has also sparked discordant anti-Charter change voices from within her own ruling circle and among her most reliable defenders in Congress, the Catholic church hierarchy and the leadership of the charismatic religious movement El Shaddai.
The rejection of Mrs. Arroyo’s Chacha is broad because of a variety of reasons but the most incontrovertible one is that people want a change of leadership. They are fed up with this illegitimate, corrupt and obnoxious regime and will not countenance any form of prolongation of Mrs. Arroyo’s rule, especially by means that is grossly illegal and unjustifiable.
Should Mrs. Arroyo pig-headedly force through her Chacha, her political isolation will reach unprecedented levels. The volatile national situation could easily be ignited as opposition to her regime broadens and intensifies.
At the rate she is going, Mrs. Arroyo will have more than a pair of shoes thrown at her when she is finally booted out of Malacanang. Streetwise/Posted byBulatlat.com
