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
BusinessWorld
Posted by Bulatlat
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.
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
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