A threatened democracy

We are Asia’s oldest democracy. Said to be located in the world’s most economically dynamic region, we are filled with an amazing human and natural resources. Thus, by now we should be far more stable, progressive, rich and well-governed than the rest of the countries in Asia.

But look at where we are now. For a while we were looked at as a rising tiger in Asia. Now, the dollar has gone down to its lowest since the Aquino administration. What happened?

Obviously growth has remained constrained by ineffective and inefficient governance, poor regulations, increasing corruption, a very weak rule of law particularly on issues concerning the environment, health, natural disasters, education and employment.

My father, the late Maximo V. Soliven once wrote, “In our democracy we leave it to the wisdom of the people to choose our leaders, including the President. Democracy as we practice it, however, is a bit like Russian roulette. You know the trick with a half-loaded revolver. Sometimes the gun-hammer clicks on an empty chamber. Sometimes there’s a live round in it.

Sometimes, our people are not wise. Sometimes, Bar topnotchers, leaders with excellent degrees from U.P., Ateneo, La Salle, PMA, Wharton, Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, Oxford, etc., betray our people. A diploma may guarantee ability, but this ability can be used for wrong, lustful or avaricious ends. This is democracy’s drawback. Nobody can peer into the hearts of men and women. Democracy is a difficult proposition all around. But, under Marcos we tried dictatorship, and it didn’t work either.”

So timely, as the country is facing issues that are not actually new, issues that have long been there for ages. All because we made the wrong choices in leadership.

To our people, the great event of February 25, 1986, was the birth of a new democracy. It was a chance for us to rise, to regain the spirit that was once lost under the Marcos dictatorship. It was with great jubilation and the highest optimism that we welcomed the advent of a new government. But what happened after?

The 1986 revolution had an effect on our new-found democracy. Looking back, yes, we felt liberated after the 21-year authoritarian rule of Marcos (what a despot – cruel and oppressive). But after a few years of that triumphant event, our democracy shriveled and shrank. National Artist, F. Sionil Jose once quipped, “Cory Aquino's EDSA revolution could not even have our garbage properly collected. Worse, 19 farmer demonstrators were killed near Malacañang because she refused to see them. True to her oligarchic class, she declared a revolutionary government without doing anything revolutionary; instead, she turned EDSA I into a restoration of the old oligarchy. So today, we are reaping the results of her negligence, ignorance and folly.”

The rule of the majority continued to be the rule of the oligarchy. And those who were voted into power by the people, the elected representatives of our land, turned their backs on the Filipinos. They continue to enrich themselves with corruption and by curtailing progress and disrespecting the law of the land.

Today, we are largely governed by laws primarily enacted from other people or from statues of other countries. We should have the proud satisfaction of working out our own laws, considering our peculiar needs and problems, our customs and character as a people, our enlightened sense of right and justice. But how can we achieve this when we have legislators who seem to be more interested in turning the Senate into one theatrical farce than fulfilling their mandate for the good of the country?

Our country is politically young. There is probably no nation today whose sets of laws are so irregularly assorted and incongruous as ours. This is due to the changes (the series of revolts) in our national history, and to the unsystematic manner of legislation which for some time we have been led by circumstances to adopt. The time has come when the aggravated confusion of our laws can no longer be reconciled with our self-respect and our sense of responsibility.

We need to modify our laws to make them conform with our culture, customs, traditions because it is essential to reaffirm our national unity. Don’t forget that our constitution was patterned after our colonizers and the mentality of our lawmakers is that with foreign influences of the past. Now, we need to cultivate our own identity and strengthen the structures of government with a new mindset. We need to put to test the true worth of every important reform, whether social, scientific or political – affecting the welfare of the people.

We need to save our democracy by using it in the right way; by upholding and protecting our Constitution and strengthening it so that we can benefit from it. We need to protect the highest positions of leadership.

In times of national crises, or when problems that profoundly affect our people demand a decision, it is proper that we submit our judgment to the test of our national ideology. But to this day, I’m not quite sure what it is. What is our national identity? Who are we?

Our strength as a nation lies in work, in unity and coordination of efforts; in the rapid development of a solid national economy, in an intense, all-pervading love of country, that should make everyone of us ready to render service, to undergo any hardship or sacrifices, in order to achieve our national security and salvation.

Last Saturday was a show of two forces: the yellow revolution and the black revolution. One in EDSA and one in Luneta. Did they achieve their goals? Were they able to stage another People Power Revolution or did it end up as a “kili-kili” power revolution?

Clearly, they just wanted to show who was mightier and more powerful; who had the most number of people. This anniversary should have been celebrated to remember the ‘day’ that was. It was a victorious day in our country’s history. Let us not desecrate it anymore. Let us not use it in vain. It should be a part of our history which our youth should look back to and study with great pride. Do not create an EDSA 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10… If you want another revolution come up with something new and original. You can never recreate that moment, that hour, the spirit of 1986.

Have we lost that spirit? Have we extinguished the flame that was ignited in EDSA? As my father would say: “But the true spirit of the day is faith, courage and optimism: faith in ourselves, faith in the capabilities of our people and in our national destiny; courage to carry on the patriotic work commenced by the heroic dead, firm determination to exert every effort to achieve the fullest national vindication, and to make our country free, progressive and great; and a joyous optimism in the success of our efforts and the eventual triumph of our cause.”

We should keep with democracy and democratic principles. The rights and the form of government guaranteed by our Constitution represent those ideals to which we have pledged ourselves as a people. We should defend them with all our might. We have men who sow seeds of discord and even of revolutions. They are the ones who threaten our democracy, they are dangerous enemies of democracy, decency and justice.

Yes, we did it in EDSA. Now let us move forward and work out once again, the salvation of our country and our people.