How many times have we seen incompetent candidates win in the Philippines? Seems like since forever isn’t it?
I can understand when people who perform to the best of their abilities and deliver outcomes become popular and win elections. But that happens in other countries – not the Philipines.
What I found hard to understand at the onset of the May 2010 elections is how incompetent lackadaisical candidates get to win in the Philippines. Then when the candidates PREDICTABLY conk out, the Filipinos go out to the streets demanding manna and ambrosia from the powers that be.
Why can’t Filipinos seem to get the process of elections right the first time so that they can just sit back and track the progress as candidates set about to deliver what they promised to do. Filipinos never seem to get out of this moment – to paraphrase Bono and U2 – stuck in a moment Filipinos can’t get out of.
Clues to what accounts for these behaviors can be found by looking at the interactions between the various dimensions of Filipino culture – collectivist, hierarchical, low avoidance of uncertainty, masculine, and short-term orientation.
Leverage Hierarchies
The hierarchical nature of Filipino culture makes it easy for the moneyed candidates to win. All they have to do is find the top dog and grease him up – and all the subordinates will follow – without thinking! Take for example, a typical government office in the Philippines. When the alpha bitch/dude barks the order that all employees should vote for Aquino – the rank and file will do so or else “magagalit si mam o sir”.
You will find the same phenomenon happening in the Filipino companies, too. A lot of employees voting based on who their bosses voted for – not because the boss made sense – but because the boss said so. The behavior has many names – “palakas”, “papapel”, “brown-nosing”, “kissing ass”. What this is really is a manifestation of a hierarchical culture where subordinates expect to be taken cared of by a benign autocrat – “akong bahala sa yo”, “sagot kita”, “nakasandal ka sa pader”.
And you will find the same behavior in our barangays, puroks, municipalities, towns, cities, provinces, regions, and the entire nation. Each layer has their own version of Noynoy Aquino, each has their own sycophants who will go to a rally at the drop of a hat – the proverbial “hakot crowd”. After all “sagot ni bossing” everything – free lunch, free allowance, free bus, even free condoms. As one goes higher up the food chain, the free stuff becomes more expensive – but the outcome is just the same – sacrificing one’s principles and giving in to “the boss”.
This is totally alien to cultures which are independent. In such cultures, individuals will not hesitate to question the boss. Persons will also draw the line between work and politics. Politics is personal and bosses are unwelcome to impose their political beliefs on employees. Such an environment is also alien and intimidating.
Filipinos perceive that being left alone or being given their personal space is “uncaring”. To feel “cared for” – Filipinos prefer to be micromanaged. Which in turn is a manifestation of the collectivist mindset. They would rather be told what to do – and it better be something that everyone else is doing. Somehow, Filipinos don’t feel comfortable with standing out from the crowd – or breaking away from the pack. You can almost say Filipinos are not comfortable in their own skin – they always need to have a chaperone or their anxiety levels build up.
Thus when someone says “let’s vote for Aquino” because he is “winnable” – it’s not so much that he is actually “winnable” but rather – because the lead dogs in the hierarchy have already been given their marching orders, the subordinates are not willing to question him, and they love identifying with a group in order to shield their persons from embarassment in case they goof up.
Unfortunately for the collectivist, when they screw up – they screw up HUGE, BIG, GRAND – like electing a useless warm body into the Presidency.
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