Kids playing some version of patintero under the starlit sky. Their shouts and laughter drowning the chirping of the cicadas. In front of the neighborhood sari-sari store, the adults huddle around the glow of a humming Coleman lantern, watching their children play, conversing in whispers...
You might be wondering what I'm talking about. This is not a picture of provincial bliss. This is a picture of many rural areas on the night of election day. This is the picture that haunts me as I mull over our prospects for reform in the 2010 elections. Let me explain...
This picture is not the typical provincial night. Technology has come to the provinces. A typical night would find the children watching their favorite teleseryes on TV or surfing the net or playing the latest computer games. The adults would also be inside their homes watching the news, taking their rest after a day's work. The streets while not totally deserted would lose its hustle and bustle as the night progresses, leaving only the street lights to witness the activities of the rare nocturnal folk.
The picture changes dramatically on election night. The summer heat drives the people out of their homes as their electric fans and, in a few cases, air conditioners stop working. The TV sets are off. The computers won't turn on. Only the old reliable battery-powered transistor radios still work. Someone turned off the power.
I didn't find this weird when I was a kid. I just enjoyed the chance to play outside again. It was when I was already in college that I noticed the pattern. Without fail, election night would have a brownout, or worse, a blackout. Just as predictable, whoever controls the local power distributor, usually the incumbent, wins the election. It is not improbable that while the kids played their patintero in the dark, some adults were also playing their own dark games. Even the result of plebiscites and referendums may be fairly predicted by asking the question: for what side is the incumbent for? And we still wonder why we can't get rid of political dynasties?
It is not difficult to connect the dots. The typical power distributors are cooperatives which, in legal fiction, are juridical entities under the control of its member-customers. The operative word in the previous sentence is "fiction." At no time have I seen a local power coop actually controlled by its members. Instead, the officers are those chosen by the local politicians. What appears to be an annual election is just, to use the operative word again, fiction.
The French have a saying: plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Will the 2010 elections prove the French correct?
For the first time in our history, we would have fully automated elections. I heard someone comment that the 2010 elections is the best time for the good guys to enter politics while the bad guys haven't yet figured out how to cheat the process. I see the point. But what will prevent a failure of elections if the electric power failed? Are not all those machines running on electricity? What is it about technology and automation that will change the sad fact that in our country's rural areas, seizing political power is as easy as seizing the electrical power?
The COMELEC assures us that they have planned this automation thoroughly. Maybe the machines have self-contained battery packs. Maybe we have enough standby generators in case of a power failure. Or maybe, the electricity would stay on this time. Maybe that nagging doubt in our minds means nothing. Maybe...
Was it Mark Twain who said that history does not repeat itself but it rhymes? Well, I sure hope whoever writes next year's history is no poet.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Good point Ricky. I hope they can do something about this. But this certainly is NOT AN EXCUSE to prevent or derail poll automation. At some point, we need to take BOLD STEPS.
True, speculations of a possible constitutional crisis and other grim scenarios continue to hound us. But my point is: these grim scenarios (where the will of the people have been frustrated) have been hounding us ever since. Although FPJ was not my choice for President, I do acknowledge that the true will of the people was frustrated by massive cheating in the 2004 elections.
Although FVR turned out to be a good President for his reforms (such as telecommunications deregulation), those who believe that the end does not justify the means, should acknowledge that Miriam Defensor represented the true will of the people in the 1992 elections.
A possible crisis is NO LONGER AN EXCUSE FOR TAKING BOLD STEPS. We have been in crisis long enough. A radical shift (election computerization) is long due. I hate making the US as an example, but you have to hand it to them when it comes to hurdling radical shifts.
Hillary Clinton herself acknowledged that the computerized system is not perfect but it is a necessary step for democratization. And I happen to agree.
Thanks for the comment, Bry. I share everybody's hopes and dreams for electoral reform in our country especially in the provinces were warlords reign. If automation works, it is these far-flung provinces that will benefit the most as the true will of the people will have a better chance of coming out. I pray automation works.
They say God is in the details. So I ask everyone, as election day comes, to keep in mind that very important detail of electrical power lest it be used (again) to short-circuit our hopes and dreams...
Post a Comment