JOB VACANCY

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS AND OUTREACH ASSOCIATE

Focus on the Global South Philippines Programme is in need of a MEDIA       
COMMUNICATIONS AND OUTREACH ASSOCIATE to join a team working
on various thematic programmes – deglobalization and trade, the commons, alter-
natives, peace and security and climate justice.

For more information click here .

Focus Job Openings

Focus on the Global South - Internship Programme
righttoknow
Focus on the Global South-Philippines joins the Right to Know. Right Now! Campaign for the immediate passage of the Freedom of Information Act!
To download FOI Highlights click here
To downloal FOI Bicameral Bill click here
blackribbon
Focus condemns the impunity of the Ampatuan Massacre, and joins the nation's call for justice.

Announcement

Navigating Critical Waters: The Maude Barlow Water and Climate Justice Speaker Tour.
Focus on the Global South Philippines Programme.
Deconstructing Discourse and Activist Retooling Programme.

16-19 March 2010. Click here for more information

Links

IMG_7477
Home arrow Newsletter arrow Articles arrow Welcome to Verwirrung
Welcome to Verwirrung PDF Print E-mail
by Aya Fabros


 I find it hard to tell you because I find it hard to take when people run in circles it’s a very, very mad world 
–Roland Orzabal

It’s May and the television is spewing inane episodes, flooding our homes with live-feed marriage proposals and other equally ludicrous declarations from the returning and the aspiring. The countdown to 2010 has begun. There’s a lot of buzz around the surveys and a lot of noise coming from wannabe candidates, especially those who are trailing behind. Politicians are pedaling pedicabs-peddling-themselves, rescuing workers-in-distress, making acronyms out of their names to prevent looming disaster.

Yes, by the looks of it, signs are pointing to something ominous stirring, lurking up ahead, although the extent and consequence of which remains muddled. Where pandemonium is the rhythm of everyday rather than a single staggering crescendo, it tends to be pushed far back to a point where all you hear is a relentless, unintelligible humming that one manages to downplay and ignore.

Except that it’s a scratched CD, stuck and skipping back to the same verse that’s playing over and over and over.


A series of unfortunate reruns?

Consider for instance, the recent announcement of former President Estrada, itching for a come back in 2010, jump starting his stalled JEEP, raring to take us all for another ride. Forget about the legal aspect of it, what’s more glaring is this-- the deposed president seems to be all set for his ‘erase and rewind’, as if the last decade could just be scratched off, taken back and reset, with the citizenry, once again, completely buying into something they’ve already rejected. Or the buzz that Jocjoc Bolante, former Agriculture assistant secretary better known for hatching the fertilizer fund scam that allegedly bankrolled GMA’s bid in the 2004 elections, is gearing up for a Congressional bid in Capiz. I don’t know what you’ve got to say about this, but there’s something really disturbing about the way such pronouncements can be made public, as if these were the most natural and sensible things in the world. As if nothing happened. Why these people even have their heads and limbs intact still, I find baffling.

Of course, the worst possible rerun would be a GMA extension. And this seems to be what the Arroyos are gunning for, some configuration that would allow them to hold on to power even beyond 2010. 

Thing is, thanks to GMA, people appear to be at once repelled and compelled to pay considerable attention to the last stretch running up to the 2010 elections. Our initial instinct is just to look away, with our contempt, disgust and sheer exhaustion keeping us from actually engaging; but then again, there’s a stirring sense that this isn’t the time to just sit and wait things out. 

I don’t think people are expecting fireworks in 2010 or staggering results coming out of the upcoming elections. Judging from the slim 2010 pickings, at least the names that have been figuring prominently in the news and surveys, there’s really very little to get excited about. Noli de Castro, Manny Villar and Mar Roxas, to me, do not represent a considerable departure from the ubertrapo politics epitomized to the hilt by GMAs gang. Personally, after the torment of eight-nine years under Gloria, the last thing I’d like to do is to just pick one anyway, the way some groups and individuals supported GMA in her 2004 bid, going for the ‘lesser evil’, which was really just a strange way of saying she’s the ‘pwede na’ among the mediocre. Now, look where that got us.

Nevertheless, people are still marking 2010 in their calendars, and I’m sure it’s not about any sudden renewed faith in elections. For many of us, it’s really the fact that we’re finally getting rid of Gloria. Yes, she has screwed us many times over, continues to do so, right to our faces for all the world to see; And after several rounds of ‘you’ll get what you deserve, you won’t get away with this…and this…and this…’ attempts to kick her out, after grudgingly resigning to the prospect that the regular course of things will end up settling the score, here we are, one year away from that much awaited moment. And as a half-child who grew up under the specter of Gloria, I must say I cannot wait to heave that temporary sigh of relief once she’s out.

Of course, this is barring any untoward events, and thing is, there’s a lot of speculation going around. Recently, Commissioner Melo of the COMELEC drew flak after he blurted out his no-election fears, where losing automation bidders move for a TRO at the very last minute, with the COMELEC completely unprepared to revert back to manual elections. Whether this is an exercise of conditioning the public mind to this possibility has been raised, but I suppose the important thing to note at this point is that the whole bidding and awarding process is already running behind schedule. At this point, no contract has been awarded, although they are going ahead and testing the equipment from one bidder, Smartmatic. Fingers crossed 2010 elections should push through, fully automated—even as we are not expecting any drastic difference with regards to the kind of leaders this round of elections will produce, at least the process will be more credible, hopefully, eventually, leading to one which will make it impossible to carry out institutionalized fraud as in 2004, when massive cheating was spearheaded by the very commission tasked to protect the votes.

There’s also the Charter change route, but then there’s very little time left to ram it through, although many still closely watch developments in the House, given that historically we know what this administration is capable of. What many analysts are saying is that these schemes are also primarily meant to maintain the idea that GMA is staying on beyond 2010, to put off her lame duckness, thereby allowing her to still determine the state of play leading up to 2010. The other thing supposedly in the works is that elections will push through, and GMA will run for a congressional seat in Pampanga, with the speakership in mind or, if everything goes according to plan, the prime ministership. Interesting how a scheming politician’s mind can go full throttle when seeking ways to hold on to power, but can’t overcome uninspired, pantawid gutom strategies when addressing critical concerns that actually matter.

Desperate times, deliberate action

Such developments, along with our wretched experience in the last 8 years, push many of us to retreat from engaging in civic and political processes. Despite this however, there are some encouraging signs, as a growing number of groups and movements emerge. Many of them are reportedly coming out to respond to the dire, confounding conditions confronting the nation. The likes of Kaya Natin, Change Politics, Pagbabago, Moral Force Movement, OneTama and Ako Mismo have caught a lot of attention in the last couple of months. These groups indicate a swelling thirst for transformation, that’s not been seen before, one that’s not confined to the ‘progressives’, the ‘left’ and ‘civil society.’

I don’t have any first-hand information about these groups but there seems to be mixed reviews. There are some initiatives that have received criticism. For instance, Ako Mismo, a movement for ‘young Filipinos’, which believes that “most Filipinos still desire change and would like to overcome the manifestation of hopelessness which is apathy. This change can emanate from the power of the individual contributing in small, meaningful ways and building up to a collective effort that can change the nation.” Apart from questions on who’s financing this initiative, people are also exasperated with the ‘ako na mismo/ I’ll do it myself then’ theme, maintaining that we’ve actually been going at it all by ourselves, forever- navigating through the muck on our own. As such, we’ve been going around our hamster wheels with our cacophony of small, individual steps. And then again, there are some initiatives that seem to be moving beyond the small and treading into the strategic, bringing into the public mind analysis and language that we’ve actually been trying to propagate for the longest time. Now we’re seeing terms like elite capture and oligarchy, along with statements like ‘Government is beholden to a few who hold the country’s wealth’ in the front page of major broadsheets, asserted not by the usual suspects but by others who are better placed to reach segments of society that might be turned off by our language. Or groups building up ‘reform leadership’ and eyeing possible intervention in the coming elections. These platforms provide space supposedly to come up with a shared understanding and common thrust and hopefully in the process, develop an agreed upon, far-reaching and deeply entrenched arsenal for collective action.

As it is now, what seems to be missing would be a clearer articulation of where to take things and how to get there. My own thinking is that we can’t restrict ourselves to ‘individual’ ‘small contributions’ like brushing with a cup or waiting for the light to turn green before crossing the street. The situation calls for something more. Our dearly beloved trapos and oligarchs are certainly not waiting for any green lights to carry on with wanton destruction, rape and pillage. And while some might want to engage at their own pace, on their own terms, I’d like to insist that civic duty and political action require us to get our hands dirty. Because we can’t just relinquish the political to the swines who have turned this space into their own personal playground, no matter how disgusted we are.

Welcome to verwirrung.

Go ahead. Find your bearings and step right up. We’re all in this for the long haul.

 
< Prev   Next >
[ Back ]