Election Ramble

 With all the other things going on, I forgot that this is an election year. Hooray. 

I remember reading a Social Studies textbook in grade school wherein democracy was described as "the greatest gift" the Americans gave us. Nowadays, the whole system has lost its lustre and the idea that it was a gift bestowed upon us by Uncle Sam will probably draw vitriol from the anti-colonial chic. 

I learned more from my teacher than from an obviously slanted book. He said something to me which I thought was profound and has stuck with me ever since. To paraphrase, he taught me that it is not the system of government itself that was important but that the ends of the state are achieved. It was an odd statement to tell a grade schooler and certainly runs contrary to prevailing idea that democracy is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Thinking about the "ends" of the state really gets the mind going. To what end is the Philippine ship of state careening toward, I wonder. What's the point of it all? For what reason do we hold this bodabil every four and six years? 

Ask any man on the street what the purpose of the government is and you'll be told it is to provide "services". Ours is a transactional arrangement as befits the history and culture. Forget ideology and principle, Philippine politics is a clash of clans and a clash of interests. The common folk just want the best deal they can carve out for themselves. Nobody talks about what the candidates stand for and nobody cares really. The truth is that they're all interchangeable and all promise fundamentally the same things, if they even deign to promise something specific at all. It's usually motherhood statements about livelihood and more social programs. Say what you will about Duterte but his spiel on crime was at least about an actual specific issue. 

So now we have Leni Robredo and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as the choices the hidden hands have decided for us. I refuse to refer to the later as "Bong Bong" as I find that moniker intolerably puerile, even by Philippine standards. I'll just call him Fred. I don't like either of them and these people, along with the other jokers like Pacquiao running around, only reassure me that I'm right in not even participating in the process.

When looking at Leni and Fred, the thought of the People Power revolution comes to mind. Leni is with the "yellow" crowd, for lack of a better classification. The events in EDSA nearly half a century ago casts a long shadow over us from which we may never escape. Playing the part of Cory as humble woman/housewife is Leni. Playing the part of the devil is Freddy, who also cannot escape from his father's shadow.

By the way, calling her supporters the "yellows" is not a lazy term in my opinion. It's not like Philippine musical chair political parties are based on policy platforms. You might as well just use a primary colour to describe them like a kindergartener would. Why not? That's the level of the political discourse.

I don't care much for Leni so I don't have much to say about her.

Fred on the other hand, I find interesting. I find him interesting in the same way I find lead poisoning interesting. After EDSA, the Marcos line and all their cronies should have been lined up and shot like a right and proper revolution should have done. Yet, they stuck around like a lingering poison. Of course Freddy would be in the running for the presidency. It seems destined almost.

So what do I think about Fred? I've already concluded that it's practically impossible to form an opinion about him. It's bad enough that he's ultimately unknowable as is the nature of a politician but there's so much emotional energy swirling about him. He's either Jesus or the devil to people. That people hate him I can understand but why people love him I can't quite.

 I think people like Fred in the same way that people liked Duterte, more as a "fuck you" to the establishment, never mind of course that Freddy is himself the establishment. Really, the problem with the Philippines is all these elite cliques in the upper strata setting the terms for the rest of us. That's Philippine history in a nutshell. Our precious democracy is not one at all. It's top down, not bottom up. What's the point in choosing our leaders when the choice itself is from a small pool of the rich and connected? Politics on the local level are a disappointment but that's a whole other topic.

Freddy is no different from Pnoy. They're privileged scions, cut from the same cloth. Think about it. You know it's true.

Whoever wins, we lose.