Saturday, March 03, 2007 Editorial: Let the candidates debate
IT'S good that Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines president Angel Lagdameo has suggested the use of debate in enlightening voters on the platforms of government of candidates in the May elections.
Debates do not only help candidates clarify programs and issues but also exposes the weaknesses of these programs.
More than that, debates allow voters to assess candidates’ knowledge, or lack of it, of the needs of their constituencies and to separate the shallow mind from the smart.
Indeed, before form overshadowed content, or before dancing and singing became the norm in road shows and political advertisements, debate was the most awaited campaign activity in the elections of old.
Aside from the usual crowd milling around hastily mounted platforms where speakers after speakers attack their opponents, people listened to the debates aired on radio, the most important medium at that time.
Indeed, debates then have made or un-made candidacies.
But now, it has become convenient for popular but unqualified candidates to shun debates rather than risk exposing their lack of depth; meaning, they now take comfort in the thought that they can win even through sheer popularity alone.
Not a cure-all
Of course, debates do not cure the faults in the electoral system, and to a certain extent Lingayen Archbishop Oscar Cruz was right that debates are “words and more words that the poor, the hungry and the sick have no use for.”
The roots of the anomaly wherein showbiz-type bets end up drubbing candidates better-equipped for governance are deep and may even be systemic; in this sense, debates are at best mere palliatives.
And in a country where politicians prefer to talk rather than roll up their sleeves and do what they are expected to do, the importance of debates can easily be downplayed.
Limited
But in the kind of electoral setup we have now, there are only few instruments that can be used to separate the better candidates from the so-so or unqualified, and debate is one of them.
It therefore pays for concerned groups to mount these shows and find ways to pressure candidates to join so voters can better judge them and their proposed programs.
