I am able to write this piece not because of democracy but in spite of its absence.
The past weeks, thousands of protesters took over Thailand’s main airport to force the resignation of Prime Minister Somchai, brother-in-law of former Prime Minister Thaksin who was ousted on charges of corruption. They did not destroy a single airport equipment. A Thai court dissolved the ruling party and banned Somchai from exercising powers as Prime Minister after a party executive was convicted of electoral fraud.
Asked to comment on the events in Thailand, presidential mouthpiece Anthony Golez declared that the Thai experience will not happen in the Philippines "because our people have reached a high degree of political maturity whereby our people respect due process and the rule of law."
What gumption! Kulkumut Sinharana Ayudhaya, Thai Ambassador to the Philippines, was quick to demand an apology from Golez. He said, “The protest is only an indication that the Thai people are free to exercise their political right based on democracy.”
Golez should be red in the face until now. Kulkumut’s retort is a veiled rebuke on the state of the Philippine political climate. Philippine democracy is an illusion. Our human rights record states it in the plainest language. The Thai envoy knew he was standing on a moral high ground when he demanded an apology from Golez.
Contrary to Golez’s claim, there is no rule of law in this country. His boss who mastered sinister Machiavellian tactics placed herself way above it. We have a Rule of Arroyo characterized by repression. The Constitution which says that the Philippines is a republican and democratic state, that sovereignty resides in the people and that all governmental authority emanates from them, is just a scrap of paper. How can authority emanate from people who shiver in fear of their government? In a democracy, people can dethrone officials who seriously violate their trust even if they have to seize control of airports to do it. If officials betray the public trust by stealing votes, by bargaining away part of Philippine territory for political expediency, or by ordering the murder or abduction of political dissidents, the people may oust them. It is not only an act of political maturity, it is also an act of sovereignty. In fact, when people revolt against a despotic regime, they do not violate the Constitution. To assert sovereignty is to uphold the Constitution.
The Philippine political climate hinders political discourse which thrives in democracy. A friend serving as a Philippine Consul-General in Europe said to me: “You cannot say that the Philippines is not democratic. You are still free to speak out.” In a democracy, you say the truth without fear of the whip or the gun. In this country, you do so conscious that you invite great peril unto yourself. You condemn corruption in the military, you are court-martialed. You protect the rights of indigenous peoples, you are forcibly disappeared. You fight for the rights of peasants and laborers, you are indicted for rebellion. You expose the involvement of the First Family in corrupt acts of unparalleled magnitude, your father gets booted out as Speaker of the House of Representatives. You defend human rights, you are targeted as a terrorist. This is democracy? This is totalitarianism. And it is flourishing in a country that ratified most core human rights instruments enshrining political participation and which was one of the first 48 UN members to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948. The rule of law means nothing to Golez’ boss. Philippine democracy has been purged of spirit.
Close to a thousand activists and journalists have fallen victims to extrajudicial killings and hundreds became desaparecidos during the eight-year Rule of Arroyo. This shames the record of the Marcos dictatorship which lasted for over two decades. The Philippines remains unbeaten in its record as the most dangerous place in the world for journalists. According to the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines, Areteo Padrigao is the 62nd (not 52nd as I earlier wrote) journalist killed since 2001.
Journalists and scribes in Manipur, India went on protracted strike over the murder of their colleague, Konsam Rishikanta on 17 November 2008, the same day Padrigao was killed. Publications suspended operations to demonstrate their righteous indignation. Lawyer Babloo Loitongbam of the Manipur-based Human Rights Alert furnished me a record showing that Rishikanta is the fifth journalist to be killed in that state since 1993. Padrigao is the sixth this year!
And yet, how is the Filipino nation responding? Not with political maturity because unlike the Thais, we are not “free to exercise (our) political right based on democracy.” Except for the privilege speech of Senator Richard Gordon, the murder of Padrigao did not stir up a hornet's nest. Has the spate of killings desensitized us that one more name added to statistics on the murdered no longer shocks us?
Prof Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions said: "(N)umbers are not what count. The impact of even a limited number of killings of the type alleged is corrosive in many ways. It intimidates vast numbers of civil society actors, it sends a message of vulnerability to all but the most well connected, and it severely undermines the political discourse which is central to a resolution of the problems confronting this country."
The political atmosphere is ripe for protests if not a popular uprising or a revolution. But the Filipino people have been rendered politically immature. If one death is enough to send a chilling message, consider that there are more than 900 deaths and hundreds of disappearances under the Rule of Arroyo.
Mr. Golez, the Filipino national apathy is not sign of political maturity; it is symptomatic of alienation, of resignation, of hopelessness, of many other things, not least of all the death of democracy.
Your boss has been presiding over its wake and you are a pallbearer.
(This article also appears in The Northern Dispatch under my weekly column Smorgasbord.)
10 comments:
it is not so much that political discourse thrives in a democracy..but democracy can not thrive without political discourse...hereabouts,people get to speak their minds not so much from Arroyo's guarantee of our freedom of speech but because we have dared to cut our chains to be able to speak...
Ma'am Chyt, how you write is how you deliver your lectures in class. You are always entertaining to listen to. I am learning a lot from this site.
Jepoy
5-6PM
TThS
COMMENTS received via email:
From PHILIP WEN A. BOMBITA, R.N.
I wholeheartedly agree with the analysis, Ate Cheryl. Personally, I hate Gonzales in an objective manner in fairness to him. But with his illogical thoughts, I find it hard to believe that he was not admitted to the psychiatric hospital. Kidding aside, that is the reality that all of us Filipinos are experiencing. Not just human rights violation per se but denial of our constitutional, statutory, and mandatory rights. Our republic is old, but we as a nation are so immature. Kudos to the thought of your message and to you. I was once again refueled. Greetings from The Outstanding Students of the Philippines Alumni Community - Region VI! More power to your column.
From DARLENE TAN:
Hi Chyt,
I think we kinda have the same views... :)
See you on the 14th, venue is now RFM rooftop.
God Bless.
To Anonymous:
"It is not so much that political discourse thrives in a democracy...but democracy cannot thrive without political discourse."
This is very succint. And yes, we dared cut the chains. That is why in the early part of the article I said I am able to write not because of democracy but notwithstanding its absence.
To: Jepoy,
Keep dropping by. I hope you are not only entertained.I hope I am making sense. See you in class.
To Philip and Darlene,
Thanks for the comments. More power to the Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines awardees. May we continue to regard our education as an education of purpose and for societal transformation.
I promise to attend the reunion.
See you.
COMMENT received via Facebook:
MYRNA H. BUENDIA at 1:03pm December 10
Nakakainggit ang mga Thai.
In 1986, when we ousted marcos, everyone looked up to us. Everwhere I went - in conferences in Europe and Asia, my foreign friends expressed their great admiration for the Filipino people. Ngayon? Ewan ko lang, nakakahiya, we are condoning a dictatorship. How can we keep silent over almost one thousand ... Read Morepeople abducted and killed by this administration? The silent majority acknowledges that Gloria Arroyo is corrupt, that she cheated in the elections, that she is a liar, that she's bent on extending her term, etc. but still they remain silent. Are we a nation of cowards? Or are most people so hungry that they've lost the will to take their destiny into their hands? The middle class people are not hungry, are they? Or are they too comfortable kaya ayaw na nilang makialam? Wala ba tayong lakas? Tigreng papel lang yan, kaya natin yan. We are a great nation! Or aren't we? Maybe I'll just go abroad and change my citizenship (joke lang).
Off topic Chyt: Received an email from my friends in Seattle, Washington informing me of Melicia Daytec Pekas's passing. Both her and husband are believed from my father's hometown of Payew, Besao. Reckon also Melicia is your relative. She will
be brought home to the Philipines by her husband Rafael sometime next week. My sincere condolences to the families concerned.
TruBlue,yes,Mng Ellis is my cousin. My Dad and hers are brothers.
We are waiting for her body. We were told that it will arrive Tuesday or Wednesday next week.
Thanks, TruBlue.
Hello Ms. Chyt.
I so agree with you. We are not only immature, we as a people have been rendered benumbed, even cynical so that a lot of our countrymen are now apathetic.
Sadly, the ugly face of totalitarianism is visible to the rest of the world except for many of us Filipinos still deluding ourselves into believing that is our collective will is being followed.
This is the Marcos legacy to the Philippines, perpetuated by all those who came after him. Like Butch Dalisay says, what we have now is a shameless state-sponsored, systematic moronization of the Filipino.
But thank God for those like you who recognize the cancer that still afflicts our society and is willing to stand up and fight for what is right. Bravo!
Lisa, yes we have shameless state-sponsored, systematic moronization of the Filipino nation.And this moronization is accomplished through state-sponsored hungry. People are too hungry to think of concerns other than food on their tables.In that sense, hunger is also a form of political repression, because it is a roadblock to meaningful popular participation. And without popular participation, there is no democracy.
Thanks, Lisa, for visiting.
COMMENTS posted on PerryScope (http://perryscope.org/?p=672) which posted the article:
From MARLOWE CAMELLO 09 Dec 2008 at 7:30 p
Reasons why Philippine democracy is an illusion:
1. There is no rule of law. It is ruled by a few and headed
by the president;
2. We Filipinos in the Philippines do not know the reason
behind government corruption. We know government graft
is the cause of wide spread poverty in the Philippines
but we do not know the cause “behind the cause” of
government corruption.
To both reasons for illusory Philippine democracy, there is ONE
FUNDAMENTAL CAUSE and that is Government Monopoly of
Justice. This monopoly is the very means to protect powerful
government grafters. The basic solution is implementation of
Article II, Section 1 of the Philippine Constitution through the
adoption of the Grand Jury and Trial Jury systems, the means
by which the common and private citizens are enabled to decide
in justice as an exercise of their sovereign power and authority.
The Grand Jury is the means by which the common people
are able to SECRETLY investigate and indict in court serious
crime offenders such as money launderers, plunder and extortion
by powerful public officials over entrepreneurs and merchants.
The Grand Jury shall shield government prosecutors from the
dictates of powerful government characters like the president,
senators, congressmen, as well as by provincial, city, and
municipal executive officials who are backed by their private
armies. Grand jury members shall serve anonymously which
shall be given their respective security identity code names
for use in performing their jobs so that they cannot be
identified and subjected to harassments by powerful corrupt
elements of Philippine Society.
The Trial Jury is the device by which the common people, under
the supervision of a presiding judge, are able to INDEPENDENTLY
to deliberate and render verdict of accused serious crime
offenders to send them to jail. Like the shield for prosecutors,
the jurors shall serve likewise as shield against the influence
and intrusion of powerful public officials over the functions of
judges and justice officials inasmuch as the people - not the
judges - will become the deciding authority in justice.
In the U.S., the judiciary is the most powerful branch of the
government than the legislature and executive officials. In the
Philippines, it is the opposite. The judiciary is the weakest
of the 3 government branches because its official acts does
not come from the direct supportive decision of the people in
justice.
The rule of law in the United States is “dictated” and controlled
by the people through jury systems. In the Philippines, the
rule of the few is dictated by the presidency and its cohorts.
Being private citizens, they are not afraid to render a verdict
against any accused high government official because their
livelihood or employment with private enterpreneurs is not
under the control and sabotage by any government official.
This writer has drafted a proposed “People’s Jury Initiative”
wherein a grand jury is empowered to indict the president
for serious crimes and obstruction of justice. It is found in
Article III, Section 28, of the proposed law. By email at
mcamello299@gmail.com to this writer, the reader of this
article may request for a copy of the proposed initiative.
It also provides a statutory basic trial jury instruction which
will require the presiding judge to read and issue to the
jurors without deviation. Violation of this rule by the presiding
judge to favor or discriminate a party to a case will be liable
for secret investigation and indictment by a grand jury.
From JOSE SAMILIN on 09 Dec 2008 at 4:38 p
The Filipino Nation’s reaction on 800 plus extrajudicial killings is charcterized by Ms. Daytec as political immaturity because the people are not free to exercise based on democracy. This is true, but the irony is our political leaders are of the best intelligence and great dynamism in many issues of the country and they even belong to elite of great debaters. But what we do not know much is it seems that they were all banded and cohorts of the Arroyo administration in the monopoly of power.
We have many ongoing projects to solved the problem but the truth is they only mitigate. Unless we were able to put in reality of the people to freely exercise their soveriegn power and that all government authority emanates from them as granted by the Constitution under Article II, Section 1 which is fully rationalized by Marlowe Camello in his above commentary, the Democracy in the Philippines will remain to be illusory.
Protest at EDSA is not the solution. The state of poverty among our people is so fragile, and if they do not work for a day the whole family will suffer much starvation. We have a very effective solution to start with as proposed by Marlowe Camello, the adoption of the grand jury and trial jury for the Philippine justice system. The Congress is ineffective to take this proposal because certainly they will lost their ducks laying golden eggs. Through Peoples Initiatives we will expect a good result.
From PAUL DALDE posted by Perry Diaz on 10 Dec 2008 at 9:44 p
It is not that democracy is an illusion but rather the government headed by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who is illegally usurping the Presidency. As a result every elected officials, appointed including the Judiciary are supporting this illegal occupier. The supreme court is composed mostly of dishonorable people who are ready to defend her, any case that threatened her Presidency is crushed from Congress and in the blue ribbon committee of Senate. All attempts rendered ineffective, all road blocks are erected to insure safety of Gloria’s Presidency, government men are even trying to extend the term of Gloria for life.
Filipino people lack the courage of Thailand, Korea, Japan and other Asian, and others people in the world who are determined to stand against corruption, excesses and tyranny of the few who are connected and the government that pretend to function as legal. The fact is the above only follow The People’s Power invented by Filipinos, they are gone now, remained only in the pages books and during time of memorial.
Paul Dalde
Care Taker OFW Solidarity Movement
Steering Committee
http://www.freewebs.com/ofwsolidarity
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