False pretenses (Governance)

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

False pretenses
Sunday, 06 06, 2006

It is axiomatic in governance that government is a contrivance of human wants, and that government has both passive and active roles in dealing with the governed and the society they inhabit. Every administration ought to take heed of this basic tenet of public governance in providing the people every opportunity to live decently as human beings. Thus, it becomes the responsibility of the government to listen to the gripes of the people and lead them to the right direction for their protection and existence. After all, every administration owes to the sovereign will of the people their transient existence in public office.

The previous paragraph is a summation of what a friend of mine, Reggie Pastrana, loves to expostulate whenever we get around to discussing politics in general. He has such a fine, ideals-filled head on his shoulders, which explains why sometimes he tends to speak in a manner reminiscent of academics lecturing to a captive class of political science students.

I am writing this column in Kabul, during a break in the proceedings of the conference on executive-legislative relations where I am one of the resource persons, before the members of the newly-constituted National Assembly, who are all raring to learn the mechanics of democratic governance. Imagine my shock at the realization that in my interactions with the delegates, I have unconsciously adopted Reggie’s favorite turns of phrase, especially that part which says it is the responsibility of the government to listen to the gripes of the people. Being a foreigner, I purposely refrained from commenting that democracy in the hands of evil leaders could be a government worse than the previous one that the Afghans had under the Taliban.

But how I wished to tell them, as a cautionary tale, that in my country the current leader is not only unmindful of the voices of the people but has also perverted her role at governance by deceiving the people through false pretenses. I could not tell them how our leader made a much-applauded declaration in December, 2002 that she will not seek reelection as a supreme sacrifice to heal the wounds of a fragmented society. I could not tell them that her decision was merely a diversionary tactic to gloss over the scandals that her family was then facing, and how, six months later, she did a 360-degree turn, activated a vast machinery of fraud, stole the elections, and began a rule of systematic disregard of the voices of the people and a calibrated repression and elimination of those she considered as obstacles to her dream of leading the country to an enchanted kingdom.

Given time, I would have loved to tell every Afghan willing to listen that they could draw lessons from our experience. The Afghan hospitality is emotionally overpowering and, as in the Philippines, people appreciate the opportunity to talk. Eerily, it seems to me that both the Filipino and the Afghan share the same fatal disregard for the value of human life and the urgency of time — in both countries, unnecessary death comes as part of everyday existence and the people tragically fail to see that the time to combat this evil is now. Changing such fatalism to active optimism is a grave, often life-threatening, challenge for those who believe in these two nations’ vast potential.

I would have loved to tell them what is wrong — and what should be right — in Philippine governance, but the conference is drawing to a close and I must pack my bags to return to my country, and face the travails of like-minded Filipinos who believe that this nation need not waste precious time under the reign of an administration that, under false pretenses, seeks to perpetuate itself despite the widespread dissatisfaction of the people.

Which brings me to the so-called Cha-cha controversy. How appropriate that this acronym for Charter change is evocative of that Latin American dance consisting of three steps and a hip-swaying shuffle! For that is exactly what the proponents of Cha-cha are foisting on the people: One step forward and two steps backward to political maturity, followed by a shuffle of the very same national officials.

Right now, this administration has been playing stratagem after stratagem in scenarios where people and their representatives are thrown into intramural clashes in arriving at the means, methods and subject matter of amending the basic law of the land. The bottom line here is that this administration is not at all interested in changing the Constitution until 2010 comes around. Its interest at the moment is its self-preservation amid the controversies it is facing.

So, under false pretenses, this administration dangles before the salivating driver of the Dagupan Express the realization of his long elusive dream of becoming prime minister under a parliamentary system. And you can bet your bottom devalued peso that the Man in the House, in exchange, will move heaven and earth just to thwart any attempt to effect any constitutional attempt to evict the tenant in Malacañang!

In this light, too, observe how the House has been bent on denigrating the performance of the Senate, just so it could cut corners in changing the Constitution by forming the two houses of Congress into a Constituent Assembly voting jointly.

The proponents of Cha-cha, however, are facing three big hurdles: the complexity and untested course on people’s initiative, the intransigence of a solid majority of the members of the Senate against a Constituent Assembly, and lack of time. Malacañang was aware of these stumbling blocks from the very beginning, so it has even enticed the participation of the various leaders of local government units to support Cha-cha, with an added gift that their terms will be extended through a transitory provision that there will be no elections next year and that they will hold over their respective positions.

What a grimy scheme! Even Reggie would not be pleased with this kind of gift.

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