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Thursday, January 08, 2004
Famador: Who’s afraid of FPJ?
By Joel Famador
People are utterly confused. How come the administration party Latas-CMD is accommodating candidates from the opposition, and vice versa? What the heck does that mean?
Some call it “realpolitik.” Some call it pragmatism. The late Amang Rodriguez called it “addition.”
Whatever you call it, it signifies that political leaders in this b—republic don’t give a damn what the people think. You know why? The so-called political leaders perceive this: Most of the voters in this republic are dumb. They don’t care about the issues, but they care for the personalities in the platform.
In a four-cornered fight such as ours, all a presidential candidate needs to do is win around 25 percent of the votes. Remember Fidel Ramos? He got around a measly 24 percent, but he won.
In the latest survey of Ibon (not the looney one), Fernando Poe Jr. is leading and getting more than 30 percent. And the campaign period hasn’t started yet. What if FPJ starts to get around the 7,000 banana islands? It’s a landscape, according to one politician, who really meant “landslide.”
So should you be afraid of FPJ winning the crown jewel of this b—republic?
The weird Californians were never scared stiff of “The Terminator.” They elected him even if he didn’t have any experience in governance. And think about this: The richest state of the USA has a mind-boggling deficit of $38 billion. But they chose a virtual political greenhorn whose experience was only in making blockbuster movies to solve that gargantuan deficit.
So ask yourself. Why did the highly educated California voters (not like ours) elect a political unknown, unblemished by any political chicanery? You got it right, Joe Banana. The Californians finally got sick and tired with “tradpols” that they decided to kick out Governor Davis whom they just elected in the past year.
And so with this b—republic. The voters, especially those coming from classes C, D, and E, will vote for FPJ because they are so sick and tired of the old antics of the tradpols. (That is why FPJ is detaching himself from the tradpols. Remember how he proclaimed his candidacy? Only Sen. Tito Sotto was allowed to be at his side at the Manila Hotel.)
If FPJ wins the crown, what will he do? He will do what Ronald Reagan did: Act like a CEO, and appoint the best and brightest from the academe and business. Would he have a “vision” like Reagan? That remains to be seen.
But think back and remember if our past presidents had vision for this b—republic.
(January 8, 2004 issue)
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