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Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Wenceslao: Are we misreading the public pulse?
By Bong O. Wenceslao
After President Arroyo survived "Big Friday" last week, I think it is time for political observers to get out of the analytical straitjacket they are in and re-assess their position. On television, these so-called experts warned of dire consequences if Arroyo won't resign-well, she is still in Malacañang and the deluge has still to happen.
Frankly, when 10 Cabinet members quit that day and in succession former president Cory Aquino, the Makati Business Club and the Liberal party called on Arroyo to resign, I was among the many who thought the beginning of the end was near. I told everybody that if the military acts up, the President was a goner. The military didn't.
So too the other fixture of Edsa 1 and Edsa 2: Fidel Ramos. The "psy-war expert" instead went to Malacañang and had himself photographed shaking the President's hand. Out there in Makati, the political opposition and militants attempted to gather the crowd apparently to trigger an Edsa-like uprising. The initiative ended up looking laughable.
One could sense the tide of public opinion shift hours after, with nudging of course from administration officials. Surprisingly, accusations of betrayal against the Cabinet members and even Liberal Party stalwarts like Sen. Franklin Drilon stuck. Aquino, a highly regarded figure, was criticized by some and, worse, ridiculed by others.
I say that is one symptom of public pulse miscalculation. Cory and company is but the latest bunch that misread the people's temperament. Remember the attempt of the group behind former NBI deputy director Sammy Ong to whip up an Edsa-like uprising at the San Carlos seminary? Or those protest actions that could not gather the crowd?
Those incidents should prod us to ask whether Arroyo is just lucky or the people are thinking differently from those moving for her ouster. Or is it a bit of both?
For luck, one could make a case about Fernando Poe Jr. and Jaime Cardinal Sin already dead when these are happening. Possibly, the situation would have been different with them around.
But the relevant question is, do leaders make uprisings or is it uprisings that make leaders? Or, did Cory and other leaders make Edsa or was it Edsa that made Cory and the others leaders? For me, I say it all boils down to the popular will. Without it, all the noise made by politicians, militants, Cory and company, political analysts, etc. means nothing.
TEXTREAX. From Aaron Enriquez of Katipunan St., Cebu City: "The Arroyo government is now a centrist government-her enemies are those from the Left and the military Right, with the elite in front of her and the masses at the back."
(khanwens@yahoo.com/0927-2055064)
(July 13, 2005 issue)
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