The necessary political opposition

All human endeavors, especially those involving and affecting a significant number of people, requires feedback mechanisms to evaluate the effects/progress/success of the actions. These are needed to be able to correct, alter, and improve the actions/directions for even better results. This is true in biological, physical, and technical systems, like the effects of medical treatments and medicines, or when we use a new computer software and we run a “beta” version.

In social and political systems, the feedback mechanism is more complex and complicated due to their structure and restrictions depending on the government and ideology.

In the current information technology-dominated socio-political milieu, these are the objects/subjects of data analytics, the internet of things, and all the algorithms that mine the responses, reactions, and feedback from consumers, respondents, and citizens.  This is even more important in the bigger society, as it affects the lives and livelihood of more people, and spells the successes and failures of businesses and governments.

In the political sphere, it would be a fatal mistake for a political strategist/tactician to misread political reactions and repercussions of voters and the general population, because they failed to hear the voice of the opposition.

To stifle or suppress the opposition may mean the absence of the more substantive and meaningful feedbacks, while relying on the always positive and adoring praises of the vested interested allies and cronies. To get a balanced perspective, governments have to hear all criticisms, from moderate to the extreme and filter them accordingly.

There are an abundance of historical examples of this truism. The beginning of the end of the Roman Empire started when the emperors became more powerful due to their conquests, that it diminished the importance and power of the Senate. The drift to authoritarianism and the decreased involvement of the people led to the civil wars that eventually ended the Roman Empire.

The same is true of the Incan Empire that fell to the Spanish conquistadors because the king decide on his own that the invaders were white gods. The same can be said of the French monarchy who were oblivious to the complaints of the excesses of the royalty.

More recent historical examples would be the Marcos and Suharto dictatorships which eventually led to their downfall. Also, the economic decline of Myanmar and Venezuela, where the dictatorships have driven out all local and foreign investors, thereby stagnating and downsliding their economies.  Turkey, Russia, and China are also showing slower economic growth as their governments crack down on private initiatives and enterprises and the governments becoming less receptive to public dissent.

Dictators and authoritarian governments have a natural aversion to opposition and criticism, especially the longer they are in power. As society gets bigger and multiple competing interests grow, this aversion is the seed of its own destruction.

Truth and justice are the basic ingredients of a peaceful society and progressive economy, which a political opposition can be relied to provide. Truth and justice are not partisan concepts but unbiased values without regard to ideology. To gain the trust, confidence, and support of the people, governments have to be truthful and dispense justice fairly to all. To do more business, the buyer or seller has to assume that both are telling the truth and that they are getting a fair deal.

The incoming Philippine government administration has not really defined what their “unity” propaganda means. It means unity of purpose and aspirations for the people, this will not be a problem. But if it means unity to accept what they do, right or wrong, it will be a big problem.

A necessary political opposition will be the big help for the government to succeed or even survive. It is also the responsibility of the political opposition to be active and survive if we are united for the country to prosper economically and politically.