Philippine Democrazy: The First Layer

Our history books typically divide Philippine history by periods of colonization. When it comes to the American period, there's always a bit about their contributions to Filipino society. Aside from the Thomasites and their legacy of education, the books typically proclaim, almost proudly, that the greatest gift Uncle Sam ever gave to his little brown brother was the gift of democracy.

Getting over the notion that democracy is a supreme good is a difficult step on the road to understanding what makes this society tick. Filipinos are taught that democracy is sacrosanct, noble and all other flowery adjectives you can think of. Here's the thing: democracy isn't perfect. In fact, there's plenty of things wrong with it. Once you disabuse yourself of the delusions and examine the system carefully, you can begin to determine which pieces of the machine are causing problems and, hopefully, how it might be fixed.

This is going to sound brutal but democracy has its work cut out for it in the Philippines for two reasons. Firstly, the vast majority of Filipinos are stupid. Secondly, the population is not united in one identity and is instead subdivided into several special interests that compete with each other for scant resources. Since we're dealing with the whole body politic, let's call this the first layer.

On the first issue, the average Filipino is quite dumb. This is not his fault; circumstances are what they are. Perhaps, dumb and stupid are too harsh terms. "Politically unsophisticated" might be better. The average Filipino does not understand how his government works and what is demanded of him to make it work. He cannot be trusted to make intelligent choices neither for his own life nor for the good of broader society. Chances are he'll just sit back making more babies and wondering why the government won't give him more free money to support them. A good leader can never arise from this part of society. A mango tree cannot bear an apple. Perhaps the worst belief our society has is that if you this large group of dumb people together; they'll start acting smart. That's simply not true. Misplaced idealists often think that the Philippines is collectively what the Filipino is not individually. Hence, our politicians often promise European levels of welfare in a country that can barely print driver's licenses.

On the second issue, I've written about this before. Filipinos are not one collective. They are divided by religion, culture, geography, language and blood. On the city level, they are also divided by interests according to several other factors such as economic wealth, political allegiances and patronage. Democracy is at heart a numbers game. He who can bring up the numbers wins. Guess what's the largest group of voters in the country. Poor dumb people. Dependent. Easily manipulated. Again, they cannot be trusted to make the best choice so instead they will vote based on simple greed. Who can make the goodies flow at the expense of the other? The good of the whole is often ignored in order to cater to the most numerous or the most organized. You might think that this is not necessarily bad since the interests of a large part of society is catered to. Is that not the point of democracy? That's true but again, do the stupids really know what's best for them? They cannot be trusted to make the most intelligent decisions. They cannot be trusted, period.

Here's a question: Does the average Filipino really care if a politician is corrupt as long as said politician is feeding them their daily bread? Think about that. Let it stew. Weep.

Sometimes they aren't even motivated by selfish interests. Sometimes, the people seem to act at random. How can you explain the election of President Estrada, a know-nothing actor? The almost-victory of Fernando Poe? How about the persistence of the Marcoses and other martial law era crocodiles? How about you point to your local idiot kleptocrat and wonder how he even got there?

The sad fact is this: the Philippines is a tyranny of the stupid.

However, this was foreseen by our forebears and measures were taken. Our salvation does not lie with the people at large so let us leave the first layer. Obviously, pure democracy would be a disaster. Fortunately, our democracy has a fail-safe. The vast unwashed don't directly control government. Instead, the system works through representatives elected by the people. By necessity, these representatives would have some process of vetting to ensure some standard of quality. Perhaps through republicanism, the worst could be filtered out and the morons could only pick from the most qualified among them. 

Perhaps.

Next time, let's examine the representatives - the second layer.