EDITORIAL - Wishing the impossible amid the viciousness

The best election this country will never have is that which allows only the introduction of each candidate's qualifications and a discussion of individual platforms. There will be a complete ban, under pain of disqualification, on negative campaigning and mudslinging. Short of this happening, the best election this country can ever have will never happen.

And because that will never happen, this country will continue to be divided, and sadly along lines that will hurt it the most. It is not enough that we are already divided along economic lines, with the rich getting richer and the poor poorer, but other divides disunite us as well. Some get to enjoy better opportunities for an education and those who don't. Consequently, some are better positioned for advancement while other are destined to be left behind.

But the most painful divide that has continued to cripple this country and hobbled its potential for real progress and growth is that along political lines. And this divide can never be bridged for as long as everybody fails to understand the one thing that ought to have been the simplest to get – that ours is a representative government.

Every candidate feels he is pitted against other candidates. Supporters of candidates do not get it either and feel one group is the rival of the others. In truth and in fact, each candidate is just an aspiring representative of the entire Filipino people. In failing to understand this simple point, each attacks the other with escalating viciousness that it becomes virtually impossible to heal the nation after every election.

If only it is understood that an attack against a particular candidate is not really an attack against his person because he is just an aspiring representative but actually an attack against fellow Filipinos who simply happen to believe he will make a better representative, then maybe there will be less viciousness and more civility and tolerance. Consequently, there will be less wounds to heal.

Impossible? Maybe, but only because nobody has given it a try. But if we can even just begin to appreciate the fact that, say, candidate A who I do not like might, unbeknownst to me, be quite possibly the candidate my daughter, or sister, or cousin secretly appreciates, then I might be more careful with my words, might be a little less abrasive or condescending.

In other words, we do not hurt others over a process that is not intended to select representatives for a particular set or cabal but representatives for all. With words now having the technological capacity to make the rounds in seconds, it might be a little more socially responsible to hit the pause first before the send. And while we may not always get the representatives we want, at least the friends and relations we have will not be estranged Filipinos to avoid in our own land.