Looking for David

I’m showing up tomorrow at my polling place with a tattered piece of paper issued by the Comelec in 19-kopong-kopong and a letter sent to me last week by a candidate for congressman in my district telling me I am a registered voter of precinct 0217-A (just for that I am voting for this guy). I trust these two documents will be enough to enable me to vote, since I am one of the unfortunate among the 43.45 million registered voters who did not get the high tech voter’s ID with photo and all. Sayang. When I went to my barangay last November for my voter’s validation, the guy in charge of the photo machine was kind enough to ask if I liked how I looked in the photo, or we could do a re-shoot if I wanted, "para maganda ang voter’s ID nyo".

I’m surprised at the number of people who are not voting this election. Those who can have flown out of the country, heading for calmer shores; all international flights out this past week were reportedly full. Many others are taking an extended Mother’s Day weekend holiday out of town. Even among those who are staying in town, many are opting not to go to vote, citing confusion at the polling place as a good reason to stay home and watch DVDs.

One common sentiment among the non-voters I’ve spoken to (my "survey sampling" cuts across economic strata) is that the choices being offered leaves no room for intelligent or responsible choice, that a choice between the lesser of two evils, or among the least of the evils, is really no choice at all. The other common sentiment is that it’s a useless exercise, since regardless of who wins the election, the quality of life does not improve anyway: "boto kami ng boto, wala ring nangyayari, pahirap ng pahirap ang buhay". At no other time in recent memory has a general sense of disgust and despair been so pervasive.

The sermon message at church last Sunday was taken from I Samuel 16, when the prophet anointed David as God’s chosen king in place of Saul, whom God had rejected. Not from the ranks of the military or the palace or the learned or the famous did God raise up the one who would become Israel’s greatest king. While there may not seem to be even a shadow of a David among the current crop of candidates, surely there must be among our people those whose hearts are true, who will put country above self–and not just in campagn slogans. We just have to find them.