Tuesday, July 03, 2007 Malilong: No new dawn By Frank malilong The Other Side
I WISH I could say that the start of the terms of office of local officials heralds a new dawn. But a look at the same old faces in practically all the oath-taking ceremonies last week and the week before tells me I couldn’t.
Unless Congress comes up with a law that gives flesh to the constitutional ban on political dynasties, we are doomed to seeing the same old faces smiling (smirking?) on their way to public office.
Not their fault, the dynasties say and I agree but only partly. It is not as if they just appeared on their swivel chairs after noon of June 30 the way wild mushrooms sprout from the ground the morning following a night of rain. They went through a process. Indeed, we cannot have a government “run by the unelected and unelectable”.
But unless the dynasties are first dismantled, the process remains flawed. Citizen Juan ranged against him/her with a political bloodline is like Don Quixote fighting the windmills. Conquering the great divide between the unelectable and the elected is for he, who is without a royal political bloodline, like wading on deep waters in order to reach the opposite bank of an angry river.
A friend once told me that a political newcomer belongs to two categories: the hopelessly naďve or the inveterately corrupt. I laughed at this somewhat jaded view the first time I heard it but over the years, I have begun to see her point more clearly. Indeed, how could one, if he has a clear mind or a clean heart, dare confront the established order under the present conditions?
The elections are a grand spectacle and we are, by destiny, bit players, observers or plain spectators. The political dynasties and their proxies fight for supremacy while we watch. We cannot venture into the ring without inviting slaughter; that arena is reserved for “illustrados” only.
No wonder many if not most of our elected officials think and behave like they are God’s gift to us. The feeling of invincibility breeds arrogance.
The fathers of the Constitution believed we have had enough of these traditional title-holders and sought the abolition of political dynasties. They committed one huge mistake, however: they left it to the dynasties to decide their fate.
To this day, 20 or so years since the Constitution was ratified, Congress has not passed the enabling law and there’s no assurance that it will perform its constitutional mandate in the near future. And even if does pass an anti-dynasty law, there is no guarantee that it is something that they cannot easily skirt around.
We’re doomed to the life of bit players, observers or plain spectators.
