Tuesday, May 15, 2007 Saestremera: When your nickname matters By Stella Saestremera Spider's Web
SEATED on this school desk facing the list of candidates, I was taking a long time looking at two names trying to decipher who they were.
Even as I stared on, nothing clicked. Not their surnames, their first names, not their middle names, nothing. Not even somebody whose surname or middle name is remotely connected to them. They were strangers to me. I don't know anything about them, I do not know them. Period. But there was something at stake here.
I looked at their party affiliation, both stated Independent. I'm not going to get help there. The last column left contained their nicknames. One stated the candidate's initials, the other had a title.
I wrote down the name of the one bearing his initials. My reason: Somebody who goes by his initials may be less gung-ho than somebody who goes by a nickname that sounds like the title of a movie. Whether I'm right or wrong, I don't care. There was something at stake here.
It took longer for me to read through and decide on those two names than write down my senatorial, party-list, and local candidates, even as when I arrived at the precinct I only had four senatorial and another four council candidates in my list and had to decide on who else I would fit in.
I filled up all senatorial list, guided by the advice to fill them all in so that you do not give by default the advantage to those you least like (or detest most).
But I only made it to number six in the council race, I simply didn't have any other choice, and six out of eight is okay. I'd settle for anyone who wins by the default my empty voting slot left.
Anyway, I have a pretty good idea who the two will be, I just didn't want to vote for them but then again, I didn't like the choices left.
But no way will I leave the top right slot empty. No way will I give that vote by default. Not because I don't like the person in power nor don't believe that he can deliver. After all he is among the most productive political leaders we ever had, that I admit.
But being a productive person doesn't automatically make you a good person. Being productive also does not automatically mean you cannot look at other people with disdain. Being productive doesn't automatically mean you treat others with respect...and so I wrote down the man who goes by his initials as a nickname.
That's because I don't believe the Dabawenyos are as stupid as how they are being painted to be when one person tried to explain that the cans of sardines and packs of noodles marked with a party-list's name being distributed to thousands of people was just payment for the work of their volunteers...Having listed my unknown candidate, I folded my ballot and went back to the BEI table. I have made my point and I left the precinct with a smile.
Put your name all over the place, I'd willingly look the other way. Put your face in every barangay hall, I could stare up the flagpole instead. But to underestimate the intelligence of the Dabawenyo voter, that I cannot let pass... and thus I fought back the only way I can, by my one vote. Should that one vote end up as the only vote for this unknown candidate I'm okay with that because in that one vote is my voice of protest, although I'd prefer to hear it read over and over again. Kahon! saestremera@yahoo.com
