"Death to the 'Trapo' System" (Part Two of Three Parts)

Why 'Trapo' Politician Runs: "Because I can Win!"

. If the majority of students in the Philippines attend schooling and their parents break their backs in hard work just to send them through such schooling," it's because a college diploma has been generally viewed as a ticket to getting employed. More recently, the college diploma got to be acquired after years of simply getting passing marks at the end of every scchoolyear, without the students necessarily having learned anything, and has degenerated to becoming a different sort of ticket to employment; it has become a raffle ticket to employment.

. There is a disconcerting parallel between students in the schooling system (passed off as a real "education system") and candidates for election to public office. Why so so many candidates run? Because they believe they can win -- by fair means or foul -- because they can win! Okay, let's review the implications of that.

. A certain movie actor got sick and was hospitalized for weeks. When he got well, he couned the number of visitors in his hospital room's guests log book and concluded: "With this number of people who cared enough to visit me in the hospital, i could run for a national position in government and win. Sure enough, he decided to run for senator, and as he had accurately predicted, he won and was even reelected. Clearly a success story? No, actually, it wasn't the complete story. He had no preparation for the important position he ran for. No one cared to ask him why he wanted to shift from movie-making to law-making. No one cared to expect him to file any bills, let alone high-quality bills that would address the problems of the nationwide constituency, and, having won as predicted, no one took him to task for non-performance. They even rewarded his bloodline in a very similar way-- validating a prediction that his son would also win, win again, do not much else.

. So here we have a big bunch of applicants for public service positions without any convincingly articulated motivations for the aspiration, without having to articulate plans, without having to actually perform to deserve their pay and perquisites, and just maintain their winnability. And the voters, although ever-complaining about the low quality (generous term) of government performance, apply the same sole criterion for giving them the vote: they are highly predicted to win. And the criterion a lot of voters view as an indicator for political maturity has been the ability to predict and side with sure "winners."

. They'd laugh at you, with full arrogance based on their supposed political savvy: "Him??? why did your candidate decide to run? No way can he win! He is clean, sincere, even skillfull, but without money and the support of the super-rich, he cannot win! So, why would anyone decide to waste their votes on him?" How about "because he is the best-motivated and the best-prepared for the post"? It doesn't matter at all to a large number, perhaps even the mojority of voters.

. Irresponsible voters and ever-complaining citizens are not supposed to be the same majority within in the same constituency base. But, defying all logic of common sense, they are. And while pursuing narrow small-group interests by demanding special favors and special treatment from the winers, the voters are largely the ones spoiling and corrupting the politicians they would treat as kings (precisely because of the favors) instead of remembering that the second word in the term "public service" indicate that they ought to be servants of the people as defined by our Constitution.

. "Constitution? Who cares about the Constitution? Whatever it mandates or prohibits, I can win, can't I? And after I get hold of power, jurisprudence will be in my favor."

. Is there still hope? Let's be encouraged by this ongoing process of our people gradually learning about the essence of democracy beyond the formalities of going through the motions of a real election process. There should be hope based on the people's determination to start holding elections beyond their usual entertainment and recreational value.

. Taking the long view on this matter should allow us to win and appreciate incremental progress in the prevalent thinking. More and more people should be thinking and talking about qualifications and platforms. In a few more decades, these matter can really begin to matter in planning and decision-making during election periods. Still further on in our history, deserving the people's mature political support would be the main premise of winnability.

ding reyes of zambales
02-27-2010

(in a few weeks i will be uploading in my website some significant sections of my book last published in 2004, titled Odyssey of the Filipino Voter: Exciting Adventures; Little Progress. An announcement and a link will be placed in a posting in this blogsite. )