Democracies and Dynasties

Americans just reelected Barack Obama for President of the United States of America. While I'm not a fan of Obama, the American people have spoken. It's going to be an interesting four years ahead.

Speaking of elections, if only ours were even half as exciting or interesting as the U.S. elections. It's not very exciting when it's the same familiar names running nor as interesting when we don't even talk about issues as Americans do. Nevertheless, with the Philippine Senate elections coming up in May of next year, a certain topic, that seems just as often recurring as the candidates themselves, has once again surfaced. The topic of "political dynasties".

It's funny that our constitution, as trite and verbose as it is, contains a section in article two that states quite bluntly that: "The State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law." (Article 2, Section 26)

 

I'm sure the problem is obvious by just reading the article. Political dynasties are prohibited by law once they are defined by law. As of this writing, Congress has yet to pass any law defining political dynasties. It's mind-boggling how our lawmakers can rush a poorly crafted cybercrime law and railroad an impeachment complaint for a Chief Justice and yet ignore an article that has been needing a law since 1987. The problem is that political dynasties infest the political landscape of the Philippines and its stupid to expect the members of these dynasties to pass a law that would undermine the nice racket they have going on.

 

What is a political dynasty?

 

A dynasty is a succession of rulers that belong to the same family. When one mentions the word "dynasty", what often comes to mind are the kings, queens and emperors of old. I think its redundant to call a dynasty "political" since we are talking of rulers and its necessarily implied.

 

What a political dynasty, in the Philippines at least, seems to mean is when public offices are occupied by members of the same family. It could be the same office occupied by family members successively. It could mean a political unit like a province with many offices that are held mostly by members of the same family. It could mean anything until we officially define it but the common thread going through this tangled web is the idea of officials, using their advantageous position and influence, to get their family members elected or appointed to positions of power. After all, article twenty six is about equal opportunities. Which is why political dynasties are seen as an evil; the reasoning being that the family of the powerful have an advantage over regular Juans who want to run for office.

 

Its disturbing how the admirable Filipino trait of "close family ties" could be turned on it's head and corrupted.