Siftings
The May elections, for starters (Part II)
Omg, omg, there are at least 3 bloopers in my last column entry (TNT May 9, 2010) which I want to address, to wit: “at the doorstep of the incumbent male”, should be “incumbent mayor”; “this candidate got top honors in the last sensational elections”, should be “last senatorial elections”; “an economic free zone which is engendered drugs” should be “engendered jobs”. Omg! This last blooper could really got me in trouble for the enormity of the lie it innocently spawned, were it not for the succeeding words: “hardworking, industrious and un-corrupt”, and other ensuing statements which positively project the candidate referred to as a desirable one were it not for his lack of financial resources, machinery, and maybe, charisma to win over his rivals. Mea culpa a thousand times to whoever read this column, and got the end of a mental kick! No intent to kill readers’ sensibilities there. It was just a case of lack of proper monitoring on my part of my encoder’s lack of deep knowledge of the English language, as I was dictating to her from the handwritten column hoping to minimize just such bloopers as those above! I was wrong! It won’t happen again, hopefully! The real culprit is my own ineptness with the computer’s idiosyncracies which my own idiosyncracies refuse to acknowledge, coupled with my patong na patong tasks of the project I am involved in right now which keeps me so tied up I can’t even finish my tasks at home. Grrrabe!
So back to the topic at hand.
I started on “I will not vote for” and continue thus:
The candidate who is leader of a religious charismatic group/movement. He may be honest, well-meaning, spiritually strong and all that. But don’t you forget that he is also ambitious although idealistic, human although well-meaning, and would be out of his depth in politics and the wheeling-dealing that goes with the position. Witness the not-so-excellent performance of Gov. Among Panlilio in Pampanga, who is being unseated for “cheating” in the last elections. Of course, the majority of thinking Kapampangans and Filipinos do not buy that, including me. But his being unseated 2 months before the May 10 elections will taint his image. And to think that he is a priest, a man of God! I wish he’d go back to being a priest because he is basically a good man.
Those candidates who are basically good blokes, maybe as honest as the day is long, with little more than a dream to keep them going, are just that: dreamers. Without megabucks, political machinery, name-recall for the masa, how can they win, really? If they had joined up with some party or have opted to run for local positions, could they make it? As it stands, they could do no more than garner a few hundred or thousand votes from friends and fellow dreamers. They are no Jesse Jackson of the U.S. who ran as Independent in a past presidential election and got a sizable chunk of the votes that should have gone to his former party’s candidate, thus paving the way for victory for the incumbent of that time, a member of his old party’s rival.
So, that leaves me with a list of whom I will vote for. But elections are still 2 months away from today, which leaves me more elbow room to make my must-vote list open till then. Instead here’s a run-down on what I perceive my chosen candidates must possess:
No record of public scandal of malversation of public funds, of kickbacks on government deals, of padding of budgets for government projects, and the like.
No hidden agenda for continued stay in power through well-calculated appointments in the AFP, the Judiciary and through political alliances with powerful politicians across the country who are perceived as having the gun, goons and gold to “influence” elections in favor of their patrons, allies, hirelings.
A simple approach to running the government through consultations with the people, crossing party lines and armed with the qualities of idealism, honesty, respect for hard work, compassion for the poor and marginalized, and the outstanding ability to forego personal concerns and ambition in favor of making this nation get out of the mess it is in:
As # 4 most corrupt country in Asia (latest survey); among the top 15 most corrupt countries in the world;
As having one of the lowest per capita income in the world;
Among the countries in Asia with an economy that cannot support its population, thanks to the combined effects of: a). corruption in high places; the lack of political will to impose legislation on reproductive health; b).the basic ignorance of the masses at the bottom of the social pyramid brought about by lack of education, poverty, and the indifference, conservative bias, and/or callousness of government functionaries, church authorities and the business sector intent only on profit. (To be continued)
