It was already 1:30pm and I was in MB 329, waiting for Ms. Fabios, our Math professor when a magazine on my seatmate's table caught my attention. Its cover is this huge hand illustrating the Laban sign which is prevalently used during the time of Cory and under it reads “Culture in POLITICS”. I got curious so I borrowed it and dashed downstairs to have it photocopied and when I went back, our teacher was already there. haha That’s another story.
Many have discussed and tried to give reason to the People Power Revolution being the most powerful tool for governmental change but come to think of it, after three EDSAs ( if we will consider the after-Erap rally as EDSA 3) we are somewhat in the same state as we are in the past and maybe worse. From where I see it, it’s only the personality that is changing, not the corrupt acts, the culture of tolerance nor the flawed system of patronage and political dynasties. When will we learn?
EDSA used to represent the promise of freedom and democracy but as its afterglow fades along with the return of traditional politics and the recycling of discredited figures from the old regimes, its promise has been whittled away by disappointments, failures at seizing revolutionary initiatives and the repeated fraudulent acts involving the people’s money and trust.
Since the First EDSA, many features have sprouted in our political landscape even as the old forces continue to strengthen their hold on the spoils of power. Let me point out at least two new elements in our political culture that have quietly surfaced and need close watching.
“One is the quite novel sight of the poor getting politicized, whether as grassroots communities experiencing a degree of empowerment through civil society interventions, or as an electoral base for politicians that are quite savvy in manipulating traditional values for their own ends. The other is the rise of religious movements that by their sheer number have muscled their way into gaining political clout.”
Looking at history, people who have less have tended to be distant, alienated for the centers of power and were seen to be politically static but with EDSA Tres, as extremely combustible and manipulable, serving as crowd-for-hire for unscrupulous politicians and movements of various stripes for the destabilization projects of those personalities who know their way into the culture of the poor.
The increasing empowerment at the grassroots level looks like a really good news for governance in this country but it has yet to impact the larger, more powerful structures in the society and it is worth noting that such gains at the micro level can get easily wiped out by political disasters at the macro level.
During elections, the people are not exactly ignorant, nor do they vote for merely mercenary reasons, as recent researches of the Ateneo Institute of Philippine Culture and others show. Voters were generally aware of the track record and level of competence of the candidates. It was just that their preferences had little to do with such factors but mostly with the candidates’ capacity for empathy and ensuring order. On the whole, people choose leaders according to their emotional identification with the candidates and the level at which they are perceived to be potentially responsive to their needs.
Another new element is the increasing influence of religious movement whose vast number has attracted the notice of politicians. We have the most high-profile movement in the last Presidential elections, Jesus is Lord Church which provided grassroots to the failed candidacy of Bro.Eddie Villanueva and Bro.Mike Velarde’s El Shaddai which is said to have been lined up behind the candidacy of the now-deposed president Joseph Estrada.
I personally experienced the influence of these religious movements last Midterm Elections when I served as executive assistant to my tito, who was running for public office in our province. He asked me to draft a plea letter for support addressed to the head of Iglesia ni Cristo because aside from the followers’ 20% salary donated to the Church, they are also encouraged to block vote. This also happens even in the Catholic Church but of course, in different and dirtier forms.
With all these religious movements, we can denote that there is an incipient force of highly committed religious elements who, with sufficient motivation, can be mobilized towards a political cause,vision of transformation or personal advantage of the candidate.
A great deal of the frustration of our hopes in the political arena has to do with the lack of congruence between formal political structures and actual electoral processes. It accounts for the informal pressures exerted on the system by things such as kinship, cronyism or the dense network of loyalties nurtured by the padrino system.
Our recurrent political crises require that we finally pay attention to developing structures that truly fit and provide solutions that will not just cut the problem in the surface but will grab it from its roots.
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