However, having the rituals does not necessary assure us that the kind of democracy that we get is what we deserve. Key to a democratic system is the openness to dissenting views and to opposing positions. At present, the political air is so polarized that we see many Duterte loyalists behaving as if they want to annihilate the existence of any political opposition, even as we have a political opposition that appears fixated on taking down a government, and not providing constructive alternatives.
Even as we are poised to venture into a midterm national elections, there is talk of sedition and inciting to sedition that is being brandished, further fueling the already toxic political atmosphere. This talk about sedition is in fact illustrative of the kind of political illiteracy that festers even among those who should know better.
All of this political noise emanates from the inability of the political actors to transcend personal gripes and instead focus on policy issues, which unfortunately also mirrors the behavior of an electorate which votes according to political convenience and blind partisanship and not according to political platforms. Candidates are judged not on the basis of what policy alternatives they offer, but on deep emotional attachments, or aversions, to political narratives that are founded on irrational ideological bias, historical wrongs, and for some, on sheer entertainment value. For example, some voters will simply not vote for Imee Marcos even if she offers a rich array of practical policy alternatives, simply because she is a Marcos and she carries the baggage of her surname. However, many will vote for her also not because of her policy alternatives, but precisely because of her surname.
In mature democracies, the main role of the political opposition is to show the weaknesses of the policy platforms of the administration party or coalition in control of government. It is therefore a sign of the weakness of political institutions when the fodder that drives political contestations is not the existence of policy differences but the prevalence of political scandal and allegations of corruption, and it becomes even worse when the net is widened to focus on the actions even of relatives.
What is also important in a democracy is the presence of a fair, objective and balanced media that is adversarial and critical, but never partisan and biased. Thus, when media takes on the role of a partisan mouthpiece of the political opposition, it diminishes its potential to provide a credible lens in truth-seeking and truth-telling.
It is therefore a grave tragedy, which is fatally undermining the maturity of our democracy, that what we see in the Philippines is the lethal combination of a political opposition that fails to provide policy alternatives and whose fixation is to incinerate the President, and even his family, and a mainstream media that has become the mouthpiece and enabler of the political opposition.
The Bikoy aka Peter Joemel Advincula affair is apropos to this malaise plaguing our political atmosphere. For all intents and purposes, it is an underground effort by critics to slander the President through his relatives, a pure and unadulterated attempt to focus on scandal and anonymous intrigues, and not on policy. Members of the political opposition have distanced themselves from Rodel Jayme, who allegedly is the one who created the website that shared the “Bikoy” videos, and who made a damaging revelation that members of the Liberal Party were the ones who asked him to create the website. However, they also make political capital out of the scandalous allegations being thrown by the “Bikoy” videos in the direction of the President’s family. And the mainstream media appears to have similarly capitalized on the “Bikoy” videos, which came on the heels of a series of investigative reports alleging hidden or undeclared assets of the President and his family.
It is easy to paint this as concerted efforts to undermine the President, and this is precisely why government authorities are quick to cast these as acts of sedition, and charged Jayme for inciting to sedition. There is an effort to focus on the existence of an ouster plot against the President, with the “Bikoy” videos as the lynchpin. Malacañang released a so-called matrix, not only once but twice, which are actually network diagrams of the alleged participants in an ouster plot.
However, to deploy the charge of sedition to counter the irresponsible acts of the political opposition and their cohorts in the partisan media is equally problematic. This is further diminished by the deployment of diagrams whose credibility is also torpedoed and undermined by their very own source who once cavalierly stated that there is no need to show supporting proof.
Sedition is a crime against the state, with the attempt to undermine it by preventing duly constituted authorities from performing their constitutional duty. While Bikoy libels the family of the President, the videos do not directly accuse the President, and therefore do not imperil his authority to act on the matter in accordance with the law and the Constitution.
In the end, we will only deserve the kind of democracy that we try so hard to establish with the rituals of elections not only if we have a responsible political opposition and a truly impartial, fair and nonpartisan media. We would certainly deserve it if we also have a government that responds with authority, and with actions that are firmly anchored on reason and the rule of law.
https://www.manilatimes.net/deserving-the-kind-of-democracy-that-we-get/552527/
https://www.manilatimes.net/deserving-the-kind-of-democracy-that-we-get/552527/
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