Friday, October 10, 2008 Billones: On politics and belts By Edgar G. Billones Roads less traveled
IN A previous column, we set the basic premise that a political system is but a reflection of a society's economic base; whatever political order is in place is a product of interaction and compromise among those who influence or control the economic life of society.
Bacolod City's political history is fairly consistent with this premise.
While it may no longer be apparent today, Bacolod City had long been living in the shadow of the sugar industry.
The political and economic heart of the province of Negros Occidental, the City of Bacolod could not help but beat in step with the workings of the economics of sugar.
Home to the province's elite, and center of business and commerce, for many years the city's very life depended completely on the wealth that sugar production plowed into it.
Whatever middle class there was, likewise depended primarily on the sugar downstream industries and support services.
It was to be expected therefore, that the city's political makeup would be consistent with the desires, if not the whims and caprices of the sugar industry's leaders. No one could hope to be mayor-or stay as one-without the blessings of the gods at the sugar olympus.
It would not be entirely wrong to say then that the composition of the Bacolod City government was a product of haggling and bargaining over coffee in some sugar industry boardroom, or discussions in the freeways and greens of some golf course. Thus had the political fortunes and misfortunes of a lot of people been decided. I am certain my Pare Ely de los Santos would agree with this observation.
Today, while sugar production remains the primary economic activity in the province, it is quite plain as the nose on one's face that it has lost its clout as a producer of wealth. In fact, the industry is mired in what appears to be a losing struggle for survival, totally disunited and disheveled. Consequently it no longer exerts the influence it used to have over the political life of the province, much less, over Bacolod City.
The handwriting is on the wall.
In the wake of the decline of the politics of sugar, we see a confused movement to fill the leadership void.
This is primarily a result of a struggle for dominance among new and emerging economic factors.
In Bacolod City, the fundamental economic enterprise has shifted from sugar financing and support services to the operation of the seaport and other activities at the reclamation area.
It is no wonder, therefore, that today, the primary influences in the city's political life has become inextricably entwined with the interests of port operations.
On the other hand, while traditional politics is still the order of the day, based on a low-income population easily swayed by "power and pelf", a new middle-class is emerging, composed mainly of new entrepreneurs outside the sphere of sugar, information technology workers, and OFW's.
This new class mostly has no memory of sugar's glorious days and is more easily influenced by mass media and technology than by the feudal sentiments of their elders. It is no idle thought that this middle class will soon play a critical role in the choice of leaders for Bacolod City.
It therefore comes as no belt...este bolt...from the blue that the major players offering their wares in the political market place today have become masters of noise and cheap stunts.
It no longer comes as a shock when some guy holds up the....well....belt of a boxing champ, never mind that the dignity of his office falls on the canvas. Nor does it surprise us at all when another fellow picks up a microphone and errr....belts a song like the future of the city depends on some impossible dream.
What the future holds for Bacolod politics we can only speculate about. Sugar politics is on the way out, and some other politics-whatever it is-is on the way in. But one thing we can surmise with some amount of reckoning: Until a new economics is defined and in place, we will see all sorts of clowns, nincompoops and charlatans pop out of who-knows-where to stake their claim on Bacolod City's leadership.
