A continuing turmoil

The political turmoil that has rocked this country for years seems to have no end. Starting from the martial law nightmares to the revolutionary government of Cory Aquino, which was harassed by seven coup d'etat, to the aborted presidency of actor Joseph Estrada, with its stock exchange shenanigans and jueteng scandals, to the now raging controversy hounding the administration of PGMA, little breathing space has there been for development and economic recovery.

That breathing space came about with Fidel Ramos' presidency. With his initiatives in the area of foreign investment and aggressive infrastructure projects, the economy started to move forward. Politically the situation stabilized too perhaps because of FVR's strong link with the military and the fairly credible presidential election. To be sure, there were talks of "dagdag-bawas", but the matter remained a whispered conversation piece that no one took seriously.

If one looks carefully at the entire scenario spanning the watch of five presidents, his conclusion would be this: Progress and stability depend largely on the leadership and credibility of whoever sits in the Pasig Office. Marcos was a brilliant lawyer, but no amount of superior intellect could make a country prosper if it had no solid democratic footing, or if human rights were set aside and opposition leaders languished in stockades.

Cory Aquino was credible, but her leadership was of the kitchen variety. She was the ideal Filipina, "mahinhin" and deeply religious, but in the arena of high-level governance one needs the fire of an Indira Gandhi or the iron will of a Golda Meir. But Cory had none of these, hence, she was fair game for power adventurers like Gringo Honasan and his cowboys. Exceedingly gracious and trustful, she attracted a klatch of "kamag-anaks" who feasted on the power pie of influence to satiate their greed. To make matters worse, she operated in a revolutionary atmosphere under a revolutionary Constitution, many provisions of which are antithesis to stability and progress.

One example is the multi-party system. Is this not the cause of the ongoing political confusions and electoral handicaps? With a plethora of politics-driven sectors putting up candidates, the ideological character of political parties is lost while the cult of personal leadership is engendered. Party affiliation therefore becomes a matter of loyalty to persons not loyalty to an idea or platform. As a result, there is an unending shifting of commitment from one political figure to another, which in the context of a less developed country like ours, is susceptible to monetary negotiations.

This is the system which has fostered the rise of entertainment celebrities in the political scene. Bakya crowd actors and actresses and radio-tv idols get elected on the basis of popularity and not of competence. It is no longer what you have in the head that counts, but the number of box office hits you have made or the years of media exposure. How could a country move forward with such pseudo-leaders?

We had one such reel personality in Malacañang and what happened? Womanizing and drinking sprees, and jueteng takes left and right. EDSA II of course was nothing but a people's rage for making a big joke of governance. But it also weakened the presidency. If a couple of EDSAs could bring a government down to its knees, why not another one? This is probably the thinking of the so-called United Opposition. Search for skeletons in Malacañang closets and expose these! Set up a battery of double dealers to finger point the President's kins as jueteng honchos, then bring out the tapes! Accuse! Accuse louder and louder and get the media mill grinding! Before long many will swallow the half-truths and the insinuations and Malacañang will panic!

Then local and foreign investors too will panic, close shops, and leave thousands jobless. More and more people will go hungry, and is not hunger the best power keg for street protests?

Stalemate - that's the situation now. But the bashing game goes on. Who will win? Who will lose? It does not matter actually. As long as the rule of law is observed the country will be in a win-win situation. But when the smoke clears, a credible leader is needed and reforms should take place. Otherwise, the ill winds of politics will continue to mortify the Filipinos.