Perverse perspectives

Manny Valdehuesa

 IT was fiesta in Cagayan de Oro, all right, and the street scene conjured the excitement produced by the advent of elections. Even now the streets are festooned with politically motivated posters, banners, and such—reminders of the terrible state of politics in our society.

Watching and contemplating the festivities fills one with foreboding about what may ensue after what will certainly be a circus-like conduct of the polls and the usual spectacle of cheating and corruption.

One wonders why, in the face of so much that is wrong with our system, there is no appropriate civic education, information, or communication program to rectify or straighten things out.

It should  be obvious to all by now that all the hoopla organized by Namfrel (National Movement for Free Elections), PPCRV (Parish People’s Coalition for Responsible Voting), the lawyers’ group Lente, and other so-called election watchdogs, are not making a dent on the conduct of misguided or ignorant voters.

• •

It is simply unacceptable that after a century of a supposedly democratic order, Pinoy voters still carry on with perverse perspectives about electoral politics.

We can no longer afford to have voters behave like ignorant sheep or puppets on election day. They sorely need to know what a vote means or represents; that to vote for anyone bestows a special honor, status, respectability, and privileges upon him or her.

They need to appreciate the meaning and value of their vote and the importance of honesty in casting it to favor anyone.

There must be an effort to cure their cavalier attitudes. Formal and informal education must address the problem, with affirmative lessons about honesty, fidelity, wisdom.

• •

Time and again, dubious characters get elected on all levels—starting with their own barangay, where intimate knowledge of their neighbors ought to steer them away from traditional politicians (trapos) and others with unworthy motives and corrupt habits.

The continuing presence of the corrupt and the blithely corruptible in positions of responsibility in the community and higher levels is an indicator of wrong political values and reckless attitudes in the neighborhoods. Such values and attitudes should be addressed by everyone in the field of education, religion, law, and ethics.

We are damning ourselves in not addressing the problem; the latest poll on corruption and impunity among a hundred or so countries has established the Philippines as unquestionably the worst of the lot.

And the problem is most manifest in the conduct of our political campaigns and elections. When will we face the reality and do something to promote morality and honesty in our democracy?

 (Author of books on governance, Manny Valdehuesa is national chairman/convenor of Gising Barangay Movement Inc.  valdehuesa@gmail.com)