“No faith is potent unless it is also faith in the future, unless it has a millennial component. So, too, an effective doctrine: as well as being a source of power, it must also claim to be a key to the book of the future.”
— From The True Believer by Eric Hoffer
ELECTION is the new preoccupation of the multitude. The last minute rush for registration is suffocating. Lines span a kilometer in many malls throughout the country. It takes hours to complete the biometrics for everyone on the line. But the prospective voters seem to enjoy the exercise.
Since I have no affection for voting in this country, I took the trouble of asking prospective voters of all sizes, ages and genders including the weird ones like PNoy and Chiz. Wonder of wonders, they came out with familiar answers – silence in a desperate effort to hide their ignorance or a hope that somewhere along the way, there may be changes for the better.
They are both stupid and ignorant answers because there is no hope of meaningful changes in the lives of our people, if we use election as a mode of changing our lives. From 1949 up to this day; from birds and bees as well as the dead voting in Mindanao to the favorite Garci Tape of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo; from the computers of Corazon Aquino to the PCOS machines of Gloria and PNoy – nothing has effectively change for the better for the Filipinos.
Nothing! And you think that your vote can change the lives of the poor and underprivileged and the alienated in this country? You must be joking! If you are not, then you are ready for an honored room in the National Center for Mental Health in Abalos’ City of Mandaluyong.
Peaceful or violent revolution
A fairly intelligent person knows that a revolution means systemic change. Systemic change cannot happen in an election. Why? First, election in this country is very expensive, especially for a national office. Being expensive, only the rich or their running dogs can afford to run in an election and win. Of course, there are many idiots in this country who run despite the fact that their chances of winning are virtually nonexistent; but they run anyway to give meaning to their hallucinations.
Second, since the rich and their running dogs are creatures of the system and they wallow in the luxuries and the perquisites of the system, why should they opt for systemic change?
So election cannot change the system. It is as clear as day in a cloudless sky,
The only other way for changing the system, in a manner that is peaceful, is to invoke sections 1 and 3 of Article II of the Philippine Constitution. As I have repeatedly pointed out, these are the only constitutional provisions that can safely change the system. But our problem is the institutions that can change the system are all controlled by the governing oligarchy and its conspiratorial power elites – the presidency, the military and the people. They are all creatures of the system. PNoy is the personification of the oligarch – the cacique. Most of the military leaders have embraced the corruption of the system, including blindly following the man in Malacañang as shown in the Mamasapano incident. The people, as a rule, have become lickers of the asses of the oligarchy and their running dogs by years of control – economically, politically and psychologically.
This is precisely the reason why I abandoned, after very serious and thorough re-examination, the idea of calling a dialogue to discuss the institution of a constitutional transition government (CTG). It would have been an exercise in idiocy, to the delight of the oligarchs and their running dogs.
Revolution of the National Transformation Council (NTC)
The main spokesmen of the NTC appear to be former Senator and Press Secretary Francisco “Kit” Tatad and former National Defense Secretary and National Security Adviser Norberto “Bert” Adviser Norberto “Bert” Gonzales. Both are perceived to have a good set of brains. Both of them are good writers.
I have taken the trouble of reading the Lipa Declaration and their write ups on the need for a peaceful revolution – one writes about election as a mode of bringing about their concept of revolutionary change and the other talks of mass uprisings as the beginning of a meaningful revolution. As students of history, both ancient and contemporary, they seem to me to have missed some very important points. First, from as early as 1949 up to this day, elections have not resulted in meaningful changes in the lives of our people. Second, uprisings in this country only occur when a branch of the outsider oligarchs and power elite are the ones to trigger the so-called mass uprisings. These refer to the mislabeled Edsa I and Edsa II “revolutions.” They were not genuine mass uprisings; they were manipulated “mass uprisings” by the outsider oligarchs and their conspiratorial power elites..
The Lipa Declaration, I am sad to say, is not an inspiring document. It is dull and uninspiring. It does not deal with specifics; it deals with grandmother-hood statements like those of weather-beaten traditional politicians.
For a document to have revolutionary impact, it must shine with incandescent celestial fire. Without sounding presumptuous, I think this is where Bert and Kit should begin, if they want effective results.
So what is the alternative?
If a peaceful revolution as conceived by the NTC cannot be achieved, what is the viable alternative? Of course, what immediately comes to mind is a violent revolution. But in the Philippine experience, can such type of a revolution be an immediate alternative to the present system? It cannot be since the traditional Communist Party of the Philippines started its revolution in 1931 and that was 84 years ago; and it has not succeeded. The CPP-NPA started its revolution in 1959 and that was 55 years ago; and it has not succeeded. So that cannot be the alternative!
Is there any other alternative? Of course there is; as the cliché goes, if there is a will, there is a way. It is as copyrighted as Sun Tzu’s Art of War, Grigor Ferguson’s Coup d’Etat, and Edward Luttwak’s Coup d’Etat. It is not for sale. It is not in print. But it can be found and negotiated. Is it mysterious? Yes!
I can share two elements for free – a brilliant, charismatic leader and a vision that scintillates as an incandescent magical dream. Brilliant and charismatic leaders like Trotsky and Lenin, Fidel Castro and Che Guevarra and incandescent dreams like those of John F. and Robert Kennedy!
They are difficult to find. But they can be found, if you try. May be you are temporarily blind because they may be staring at you, straight at your face.
Fading Duterte option
The followers of Mayor Rodrigo of Davao City never tire egging him to run for President. He is fanning the hopes of the Dutertistas by saying he may yet change his mind by December 2015 through the magic of substitution. Many people are tired of Duterte changing his mind – now he is running; now he is not. He is like a teenager holding a four leaf clover saying – I love you; I love you not. He is driving his follower nuts.
Every time Duterte opens his mouth, he reveals himself as not ready for the big leagues, just like the rest of the current presidential candidates, he needs six years seminar in the art of national governance and the science of good behavior and decent language.
The most revealing side of Duterte was shown in a recent interview as published in one of the Manila dailies. When asked whether he will decide to run for President by December of 2015, his immediate answer was – it would depend on what is good for him or what is good for his party. No mention was made by him on what is good for the country or the people. The statement reveals entirely the man – naked as the emperor with no clothes. I wish that the man were somebody else – with vision, intellectual depth, probably brilliant and committed, and disciplined – and maybe that man could make the difference for this country.
Is the country hopeless?
Is the country hopeless? Of course not! Are the majority of the people hopeless? Maybe! To detail the familiar refrain – Erap said weather weather lang yan. He was referring to the choice of the national leader as a matter of destiny. But as I have written before, in complete disagreement with that Erap observation, great leaders create their own weather. They create their own season. Will a great leader emerge in this country to rescue us from the slough of despond? Yes, yes, yes! Sooner than you think! n
