Politics as veneration

BY ANTONIO CONTRERAS         JUNE 15, 2019

IT is easy to label the diehard Duterte supporters, or the DDS, as irrational. This view is most pronounced among the elite.

After all, one cannot understand why people would venerate President Rodrigo Duterte like a demi-god and grant him the status of near-infallibility. It is simply inconceivable for any rational person to elevate Duterte into someone who could do no wrong. It is perplexing that some people would dismiss every criticism against him, and treat every critic as an enemy who deserves to be hated and needs to be vilified and demolished. And it is simply incomprehensible how people could suspend their moral and ethical compasses when it comes to the President, and worse, even reverse themselves and change their positions on issues just to be consistent with those of the President.

But, what the elites fail to appreciate is that many of them also behave in the same way, except it’s the reverse. And worse, these are people who claim to have reason, and those in academe even pride themselves in being equipped with critical thinking. It is equally perplexing for these people to dismiss the good things that the President does, and worse, to malign anyone expressing support for him as a political retard, and an enabler of tyranny. And it is likewise incomprehensible how people claiming to be moral and ethical would be inconsistent with their stance when it comes to the President, and would seriously contradict themselves.

What the elites fail to understand is that the DDS have their own moral economy. It is one that subsists on counting on the President as a symbol of redemption from suffering many years of being left out, ignored and unserved by elite leaders and by elitist politics. The Catholic Church, whose leaders are largely at odds with the President, has installed in the consciousness of the ordinary citizens the metaphor of salvation not in their own hands but through a messiah and the mediation of charismatic leaders. This has etched deep in the Filipino political worldview a template where leaders are looked up to as saviors. The procession of leaders who failed to deliver created this wide and deep chasm of dissatisfaction, even disgust, with the elites which people have readily associated with the traditional and the usual. And they turned against not only the elites but even the Catholic Church.

President Duterte broke into the political landscape and came into the consciousness of people as a non-traditional and an unusual political figure. He offered the promise of change. And to a people disgusted with leaders who appeared normal, rational, moral and ethical, he was a breath of fresh air.

Thus, it is but natural for people to grant him all the leeway and the latitude, and tolerate his quirks, and his irreverent and sometimes incoherent interruptions of politics as usual. When he cursed Obama, people cheered him. When he cursed the corrupt and the criminals, people cheered him even more. And when he cursed God, people were willing to cut him a lot of slack if only to give him the chance to be himself, as long as he would deliver.

What we have, therefore, is a people giving him all the benefit of the doubt, allowing his excesses and shortcomings, suspending critical judgment, stretching the boundaries of reasonable tolerance, even if it appears irrational. This is but a natural reaction of people who have been so frustrated with his predecessors that they placed on him the burden of solving all our problems.

This is precisely why his supporters act as if they have granted him the status of near-infallibility. It is a natural reaction by a people who bestowed on him the problems that are so complex only God and His miracles can solve.

But whatever messianic attribute the people accord Duterte, he remains a traditional politician making promises, and would not hesitate to use hyperbole to gain support. He said he would solve the drug problem in six months. He also vowed to ride a jet ski and plant the Philippine flag in the West Philippine Sea. These are all typical bravado that any traditional politician like him would say.

What is different with this President is that the level of expectation of the people has become much higher. He remains popular. The 2019 midterm elections were painted as a referendum on his performance, and he passed with flying colors. We saw his candidates sweep the Senate as he expanded his majority in the House of Representatives. His policy reversals have not been an issue to the electorate. And his misogynist acts are largely ignored. His irrational audacity of promising the impossible, like the five-minute travel from Cubao to Makati by December, is given the benefit of the doubt. His apparently illegal and unconstitutional directive for CoA to allow the use of public funds for the private exercise of religion is met not with outrage but is even justified by many DDS.

It is easy to consider all of these as irrational acts of a blindly loyal base. These are not. Rather, these are logical reactions of people who are in a state of denial, or who expected too much and when faced with shortcomings would rather give more time, offer rationalizations, and lash out at detractors.

What we need to be wary about is when people begin to be angry no longer at the President’s critics, but at his failures. The remaining three years of his term will therefore be very crucial. It will gauge if the people will continue to accord him the patience and tolerance, enough for him to defy the curse that afflicts political lame ducks. Or if he will fall on the sword of his own bravado and hyperbole, that would cause him to unravel as another leader who failed to deliver what was promised.

https://www.manilatimes.net/politics-as-veneration/569586/