AS SEEN ON TV
Sincerity from trapos
If traditional politicans wrote us to express what they really feel, their letter would probably read like this:
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Dear Voter,
Very soon you will be voting for a new President, Vice President, new (or old) Senators, Congressmen, and local officials. By now a lot of you may have made up your mind as to whom to vote for, mainly because of the persistent advertising we politicians have placed in all media and even in trees, walls and other public places.
Please excuse us for defying basic laws on campaign posters and for vandalizing your community. Please bear with these small inconveniences. Do it for us.
Besides, it’s our shared misfortune that we live in a country where people allow a political campaign to run in this manner. But look at the bright side of it. We need to run a powerhouse, traditional campaign since we can only make good our promises to you once we are elected so please, the means may not always justify the ends.
It is hard to resist full advertising. Many of us have no track record to speak of while we were in office. Track record should have served as our walking advertisement but getting side-tracked by our own personal interests is really irresistible. We’re just human after all—- prone to make bad choices just like you.
Many of us have also been embroiled in corruption charges and scandals so we just want to make sure using fresh ads we distract you from fixating on our bad reps.
With deepest regret we acknowledge that if we really performed from “day one” of our previous terms, there is really no need for us to reintroduce ourselves frantically through posters, hand shakes, jingles and vote buying.
But what can we do? It’s too late for that. Besides you fall for these things. Succumbing to bad politicians is your greatest weakness and as we know that, we are tempted to exploit your vulnerability.
And it is not just a game of eye balls and image reinvention we’re aiming for in our tacky campaign. Filipinos are known to have short memory, that’s why we need to reinforce our identity with visuals just so you would indicate in your ballots only the most popular among us. We have high hopes that many Filipinos still vote by name recall more than competence, track record or the willingness to serve selflessly. Filipinos have voted that way in the past and we’re hoping the culture has not changed much.
We are praying that your short memory could work to our advantage. We bank on our smiles and the warmth we project in our sorties to make you forget about our past sins against Filipinos and humanity. We hope that you find it in your heart to look away from the past. Even just for now.
We are confident that you will find it in you to forgive us as you find it in your mind to forget our misgivings, the way you have forgiven and forgotten the people you once condemned, exiled and imprisoned in the 2 occasions that you’ve booted out undesirables, their kin and associations via EDSA.
We are also desperately trying to connect with the poor. Hope you find our public relations spin convincing. For many Filipinos, association with the poor alone could rake in votes. If not, then we appeal to your fondness for heroes. If we can win an election by associating ourselves with people you idolize then that’s acceptable as well. Anything that can help put us in power is highly welcome. Anything—- to make us win.
You may have noticed that we have become more fraught by defeat. Spending a campaign war chest immense enough to feed the entire impoverished country may seem foolish but really, a candidacy is a business venture. Big investments are made with visions of fat returns in the future. We may have to cut corners in our official dealings once we are in office to recover what we have invested in the campaign or make some gain. You owe it to us when you sold your votes to us. Now where’s your sense of gratitude?
Profits may be in the form of deals that can be self-serving but we assure everyone that somehow, there shall be consequential public service in everything that we do. A road however substandard— is still a road. For many of you poor voters, that’s better than nothing.
We are happy that most of you are emotional people, that you romanticize elections. We are glad that you tend to side with your choice of heroes and heroines plainly due to their charisma or the fact that they’re the underdog. Never mind if some of us are not even qualified to manage a household or our personal lives as long as you get smitten by our smiles and our powerful and emotionally-charged speeches! Thank goodness you’re not voting for our speechwriters! And thank goodness highly qualified leaders do not appeal to you for the simple reason that they are too polished, competent, intelligent to be masa.
Lastly, our short-sightedness is a blessing. We love it that you do not look beyond the elections. We look forward to waking up in power on May 11, 2010. By then we part ways. You live your usual miserable lives while our country lives another cycle of bad governance and stunted progress.
And you, dear voters, only have yourselves to blame.
Sincerely,
Your traditional politician
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Now what’s a voter to do on May 10? Take charge.
