Closing in on anarchy

Many people may not realize it, but we are moving closer to a state of anarchy. The fragile thread of law and order that keeps civilized societies together is being stretched ever thinner. It has become fashionable to insist individuals are better than institutions.

Take the case of a recent Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for President Arroyo to appoint a successor to the chief justice, who is to retire soon, deep within the election season when, normally, most appointments are banned.

The decision is unpopular but nobody has tried to see why it is so. Well, it is unpopular not because the ruling is flawed but because, to her critics, it tends to stack imaginary points in favor of Arroyo, who they say shall by then have named all the justices in the high court.

But let us, for a moment, be dispassionate and open-minded about this. It is an "Arroyo Court" only because Arroyo happened to be president when the vacancies, which she must by law fill, happened to occur. It could very well have been a "Tundag Court" had I been president.

The Supreme Court ruling is unpopular because of Arroyo, not because it is necessarily wrong. Had it involved a more popular president, I doubt very much if the high court would be assailed as much as it is being assailed now.

There is more than just correctness to why it is imperative to keep the Supreme Court as the court of last resort --- and it is the necessity to put a limit to where disputes can go. No society can have peace and order for long without such a limit.

The Supreme Court is not infallible but it is necessary to extend to it the benefit of the doubt. We have to assume it is, if only to institutionalize within our fragile communities that it must have the last word.

But I have a sinking feeling that Filipinos have not really matured in their concept of what democracy is. It seems to me that we are still trying to experiment with what liberties may happen to suit, not the nation, but the moment.

It is for this reason that I now feel it was a big mistake for Filipinos to have experienced People Power at Edsa in 1986. On hindsight I now dare say we just were not ready for something as big as democracy, whose exercise needs a great deal of maturity and responsibility.

To show how puerile our concept of democracy is, we have hijacked People Power to mean the right to do anything --- defy duly constituted authority if need be --- for as long as there are enough warm bodies to exercise it.

Just count how many times lawful court orders have been defied and frustrated because the objects of their implementation, mostly powerful local officials, have been quick to surround themselves with supporters, in a perverted display of People Power.

Now, and for no other reason than that many people simply hate Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, there are actually those who are about to pounce on the Supreme Court. Blinded by their political interests, they cannot see that once they do that, all hell can break loose and everyone loses.

People Power is the ultimate exercise of popular democracy. It is not a tool that anyone can just pick up from a shelf and start brandishing. But then, as I said, Filipinos are a quirky lot. Give them a little authority, even a semblance of it, like an ID, and they become gods.

We are a dangerous people, though not to others because our neighbors merely laugh at us, but to ourselves. We simply cannot be given anything new without taking it to its unwarranted limits.

In the town of Carigara in Leyte, there are more cellphone shops than people, and all because the first to open one had it so good everyone followed suit. I am exaggerating, of course, but only to stress a point.

And the point is this: Filipinos have to learn that there is a limit, not just to one's rights, but also to being right. Beyond what is reasonable is already self-righteousness. And that is already wrong. And when you start doing wrong, two can play the game. Anarchy, anyone?