Van Vugt: Trapo politics vs civil society politics

WHAT I hate most in the trapos, the traditional politicians, is looking at their face and seeing how their insincerity and hypocrisy is all over it. The traditional politicians are not only the traditional government officials but also our traditional lawyers. Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel has harsh words for these people. In His time it were the Pharisees and the Scribes (lawyers): "You are hypocrites. You are like white washed tombs that look handsome in the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of corruption. In the same way you appear to people from the outside like good honest men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." (Mt 23, 27-28).

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You can see them on ANC in the morning when they are interviewed by Karen Davila: Morato, Binay, Angara, Honassan, Gordon, Villar etc., and lawyers like Mercedita Gutierrez, Fortune, Gonzales who are all out to serve their client’s interests, never mind whether justice is rendered. They are experts in the law, i.e. they know how to manipulate the law in favor of their client, for a handsome fee, of course.

The trapos are exactly the opposite of our new government officials under Noynoy Aquino: sincere, honest, transparent, truthful, and committed to serve the country and to eliminate corruption from our government institutions.

Moving to the local level, many trapos were still able to survive the May 10 elections and they continue to dominate the local scene with their dirty practices. Take our Mayor-elect Emano, another Pharisee. To save his face the Mayor took disciplinary action against erring government officials and even suspended two of his bodyguards who were caught in a drinking spree in his own house. He even says that he wants to enforce the wangwang of P-Noy in our City.

The man has lost all his credibility after he failed to preside over the city council meetings during his term as vice-mayor. But worse, during the past elections he indulged in massive vote-buying and he manipulated the automated election’s outcome as is shown in his infamous dumping of the election paraphernalia at the dump-side. There is enough basis to impeach the mayor-elect but where can we find an honest lawyer who is willing to file the impeachment complaint? And yet, we in civil society have the obligation and responsibility to pursue this case in court.

Now is the time to make a clean sweep with the trapos on the local level. For the same reason we should strongly protest against the move of our re-elected Congressman, Rufus Rodriquez, to postpone the barangay elections for another two or three years. In October we should take our chance to do away also with all the trapos in our barangays.

It is important that we as citizens organize ourselves, citizens as voters, citizens as volunteers and citizens as believers. From below we have to build up our society in order to support our government at the top. My Marxist friends used to say: change first the system and everything else will follow. That is an illusion, it is exactly the other way around. Change has to come from below, from the inside, not the outside. Change the world, start with yourself. Again, my friends would say: that is naive, but in all humility we must accept that naivety. That saying has a deep wisdom in it. It is the individual who must begin the change. Deep inside himself there are the demons of evil, pride, selfishness and greed, which are competing with the good in himself. Only the good is real, the demons are just illusions but as illusions they are really there. The good in us is God Himself. He is there even without our being aware of his presence.

This is the philosophy we must follow, not the Marxist one. I have realized this many years ago when I had a falling out with the movement. We were running the BCC-CO program in the Archdiocese. Forget about that, they said, organize first the sectors to support the armed struggle. The church will come later.

It is not only society that we must build up from below but also the Church, the People of God. We are the Church. This is our chance today, our Kairos, civil society politics versus trapo politics. Active citizenship is not a responsibility to the state but responsibility for joining with others in the care of our common inheritance, on which all our futures depend.

(for your comments email: arnvv@yahoo.com or call: 851-9809)