HOW NOT TO WASTE VOTE

Through Untrue

By FR. ROLANDO V. DE LA ROSA, O.P.

I HAD an argument with a friend the other day. He asked me who my favored candidates are for the coming election. I said I am tempted not to waste my vote on any of them because of the following reasons:

First, why vote if our choices are limited to those whom we do not want to win? It is a case of “whoever wins, the country loses.” I asked him to look at the list of candidates. These are mostly recycled politicians, hyped-up media and movie personalities, and scions of political dynasties.

Second, we cannot fix a flawed system by “more of the same.” Past elections have not improved the system of government or the lives of majority of Filipinos. Several electoral reforms were introduced but politicians and their lawyers always find a way to circumvent or manipulate these to their advantage. The logical course is to take a radically new direction rather than maintain a process that has outlived its usefulness.

Third, in an authentic democracy, voters must conscientiously choose their leaders. This is the norm. But today, what deviates from this norm has become “normal.” Most voters rush to the polling precincts brainwashed by the media and political advertisement and fooled by the lure of political patronage. If this is the normal majority, to vote is to expect a castrated cat to beget kittens.

Unconvinced, my friend insisted: “Your refusal to vote is a remedy worse than the disease. Perhaps tolerance is a better alternative than outright rejection of a flawed process.”

I replied that tolerance could be a clever disguise for neutrality bordering on indifferentism. Tolerance can be the result of moral laziness; an unwillingness to assess a traditional way of doing things because it is presumed to be the only and best way. I have only a limited time on earth, and because of this, I am not expected to tolerate that which I am convinced is wrong. To vote is to be an accomplice in perpetuating an unjust and expensive process.

Still adamant, he said: “Granting that all the candidates are unworthy of your vote, there may still be some who Filipinos think can hurt our country least. Why not vote for them?

I replied that the Filipinos’ idea of the candidate who will hurt them least is the candidate with the ready smile for everyone, the beautiful face, the ever-ready handshake, the movie star, or the TV news anchor whose only talent is reading verbatim from the teleprompter. Such an image is often a put-on. Scratch the surface and you see a scheming Machiavelli or an idiot.

To make my friend think further about the issue, I told him: “Number is power. Imagine if conscientious non-voters banded together. They would be a force to reckon with in the coming elections. The rest of the electorate might finally see the futility of this senseless masquerade that reinforces the belief that the Filipino is easy to fool and easy to buy because of his ignorance and poverty.”