Slight (election) fever

When my boys ask about the upcoming elections, I try and get passionate about the process and the reason they exist; but when pushed to talk about the candidates and what they represent, I have to confess that a blurring and glazing of my eyes and mind overcome me. Is it just me, or do the candidates this year seem to merely represent more of the same, the continuance of a political tradition with no substantive change in sight? I look at the slates of the Administration and the Opposition and they look like interchangeable parts, where with a few exceptions, harsh reality would dictate that if not for a "bump on the road" here and there, or the vagaries of fortune, any of the candidates could be on either slate without much loss of street-cred (and yes, I use the term loosely and even ironically).

While the national senatorial campaign commenced mid-February and the local campaigns started end-March, I am already suffering from election fatigue, only wishing that the elections would be held tomorrow so we can get back to the business of moving this country forward and not using the elections as a ready excuse for why this or that office isn’t functioning with "relative" efficiency. Even the Damocles sword of who will head this or that Government office or agency post-elections has become the convenient Catch-22 of why this paper cannot be processed or acted upon for now. In fact, if I look back at the last two months and try to think of a figure who exuded passion and conviction, the only person that unfortunately comes to mind is not some firebrand politician, but the semi-tragic Mr. Ducat. Warped and off-tangent as he may be, he did stand up for his views and took a form of affirmative action — the tragedy being it also affirmed just how certifiably unbalanced the man’s mind is.

On a sidebar, I now sit on the Board of Governors of Dasmariñas Village, so my boys were doubly interested in the notion of elections and governance, grilling me about what I would do as governor, and whether each and every complaint they had about life in the village should now be directed to me. I joked with them that I was going to scroll down the directory of my phone and delete the names of any Dasma resident because I could already anticipate the preamble of "I voted for you and just wanted to register my dismay about..." And of course the parting shot would be, "So what are you going to do about this?" Even my own father got into the act, querying me recently one dinner about how they were going to move the main jeepney and bus stop to the area by the Shell station that sits on the corner of EDSA and McKinley Road. Had to explain that I was out of town for the first board meeting and nobody had sent me the minutes so was not aware if that had been taken up.

My only hope, my Easter prayer even, is that despite my basic apathy and cynicism, the elections this May will really bring about an improvement in the quality of life of many. I know that there is a lot of money floating around, that despite the tirade of woes and complaints, a fresh new breed of entrepreneurs has emerged, and that the bullish sales of real estate offerings belie the pessimism that’s still being aired. As to whether there is a true trickle down of this wealth and money is more the issue. Is the divide just getting wider, or are we finally forming a truly stable middle class with genuine surplus spending power? The roster of politicians jockeying and vying for this or that post may not be doing much to inspire me — but I truly hope that when the smoke does clear and we have our elected officials, they turn out to be "inspired" and imbue their respective agendas with positive change. Amen!