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Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Carvajal: The means are the end
By Orlando P. Carvajal
In communication, we say: “The medium is the message.” It simply means that how you communicate is a more powerful message than the message itself. How you communicate becomes the message itself. Anger, for instance, is more effectively communicated in anger, while love is more effectively communicated by loving means.
Similarly, in social transformation, we say: “The means are the end.” Which means that if our goal as social actors is to establish a truly democratic society where government’s transparency is at an optimum, people’s participation is at a maximum and everybody’s morality as high as it can be this side of heaven, then we must be democratic, participative and highly moral already in our approach to socio-political change.
The fact, therefore, that President Arroyo and her cohorts in the administration are neither transparent nor participative in their approach confirms us in our belief that they are using Charter change to defend by whatever means, fair or foul, mostly foul, their discredited style of governance.
They make people sign without orientation of any kind and using God only knows what kind of incentives and disincentives. They can do this because they ask for signatures from the same kind of people that they usually buy during elections.
I have not been approached for my signature and I haven’t heard any of my friends being approached either. It is because we do not fit the profile of voters who they can fool. If Charter change is that good for us then why can we not ask every adult Filipino by having an honest-to-goodness referendum?
To add insult to injury they ask the Comelec to verify the signatures. But the Comelec is one of those institutions that are in dire need of a comprehensive overhaul. The Comelec’s inefficiency (and immorality in not a few instances) is at the root of this country’s corruption problem.
The Comelec is a discredited institution, known to many as a willing tool of cheating politicians. Hence, people have been clamoring for reform and overhaul of this untrustworthy body. Yet, what do we get? We get the same Comelec, its reputation as dubious as ever, to verify the signatures.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court has disallowed people’s initiative as a means for Charter Change. So, how many signatures will be enough to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision? And what happens now to the rule of law if signatures can overturn its decision?
Finally, the people’s initiative is a train that they want nobody to stop. Where’s the democracy then, where’s the transparency, where’s the morality?
There’s none because it is obvious by their means that their end is not genuine democratic reforms. By their means we know they are only for covering their bad ass.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (April 5, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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