The SK elections: Why and how did it lose relevance?
What is the use of spending more than one billion pesos to hold an election that will only be dominated, controlled and manipulated by incumbent traditional politicians? Today's generation of youth leaders, with few exceptions, cannot hold a candle before the great youth leaders of the seventies and the eighties. The selfie generation or the millennial of today are too fixated on instant pleasures, and immediate gratifications, that they have not achieved anything commendable as to justify the holding of the SK polls.
I know that many young leaders will react to this rather strong and highly provocative proposition. But let me ask the youth leaders today: what have they accomplished in the barangays, towns, cities, and municipalities, and in the whole nation during the many years that they have been in operation? What significant contributions have they made in relation to important issues in governance? Have they made any important and far-reaching impact to the administration of our local government units? If they have evidence of any decent accomplishment, let them speak or forever keep their peace.
The main problem with today's SK leaders is that they allow themselves to be dominated by the mayors, governors, congressmen, and other bureaucrats who control their funds and their operations. The local politicians, whose primary agenda is to assure their reelection, have always been holding the SK under their control and domination. The politicians dominate SK elections just like any traditional political exercise. The parochial political high lords would never allow other groups to be elected to the SK because the youth could be a potent force to expose their shenanigans. What happens is that the trapos are training the young on the art of corruption.
If the youth has only remained faithful to their idealism, they could have been very strong crusaders for good government. They could stand as the peoples' vanguards against corruptions at the local levels. They could act as the catalysts for meaningful and far-reaching development in the barangays and villages. They could help educate the older generations and awaken in them the spirit of community services and people empowerment. They could initiate projects for the cleaning of the environment and for the greening of the countryside, and they could help in relief and rehabilitation in cases of calamities and disasters. But they have not.
The youth could have chosen to stand up politely but firmly, and in a united voice, to the trapos who are also their own parents and uncles and aunts. The youth could have acted as the peoples' vigilant advocates for change. But they have miserably failed. Instead of crusading for change, the SK members today become either active collaborators to perpetuate traditional politics, or they have become inutile captives to the domineering supremacy of local politicians. And so, why should the government spend more than one billion just to squander on their game? This money can be better used to train the good ones on leadership and good governance.
We used to be proud of our youth in this country, many of whom have died in heroism. Today, however, the real good SK leaders are too few to make any significant change in our society. Instead of becoming a light in the dark, the youth has collaborated with the purveyors of gloom and doom. Sad. Very sad, indeed.
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