Is there hope for reforms?

Manny Valdehuesa

NOW that all the festivities of Cagayan de Oro’s fiesta are over, quiet returns to the neighborhoods. But the street scene remains festooned with posters and banners that exploited the fiesta spirit.

The mood in the neighborhoods reminds one of post-election periods when the community returns to business-as-usual, bad governance as usual, and… maybe corruption as usual?

One would hope that in the face of so much that is wrong with our political culture, the community would be abuzz with appropriate activities design to mitigate matters, e.g. civic education, information, or communication programs to rectify or straighten politics.

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 voters.

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We Pinoys have lived through a century of a so-called democratic order. Still most of us behave perversely in the arena of politics, whether as candidates or as voters.

Our voters behave like ignorant sheep or puppets during elections, easily led astray or easily bought. They don’t seem to know or care what a vote means or represents.

They need badly to know that to vote for someone is to bestows a special honor, status, respectability, and privilege 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.

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

It is very bad that too many dubious characters get elected on all levels, including in one’s own barangay. Intimate knowledge of one’s neighbors ought to steer a person away from traditional politicians (trapos) and others in the neighborhood with unworthy motives and corrupt habits.

The dominance of corrupt and the highly corruptible in positions of responsibility in the community or higher level is an indicator of wrong political values and reckless attitudes in the people.

Such values and attitudes need to 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? Is there hope for reforms?

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