Thursday, November 06, 2008 Editorial: They make history, we tell stories
"AMERICANS make history," that's how US Senator John McCain ended his speech as he conceded to Senator and soon to be US President Barack Obama.
"This has never been an election of this state and that state, we have always been the United States of America," Obama started out his victory speech.
We saw how the countdown flashed and then more electoral votes are added. As the count reached 297 for Obama as against 145 for McCain, McCain conceded and urged his supporters to support the man "who was once my opponent and who will become my President."
Granted that third world Philippines cannot afford such widespread technical infrastructure for a fully computerized election, there is and will always be money to set up a working system if those in government and their peers keep their fingers off government funds.
But even if indeed we are able to rig up the whole Philippines for a fully computerized elections, this will come to naught as no way will a Filipino candidate concede defeat. This will mean spending government resources to debate what should have been a lost cause. True, those protesting the elections will have to pay their way, but these fees and requirements do not cover the government manpower, the time, the wasted energy that would have been used in some more important endeavors.
It happened over and over again; the scene has become part of the post election scene wherein losing candidates (from presidential down to sanggunian) would grab the limelight, appear on television, radio, and newspaper to relate how they were cheated of their votes. Then two years before a Presidential election, they will again grab the limelight, appear on television, radio, and newspaper, bringing their name to the fore, trying to build an image, mouthing words to make them appear they care. It's all about them. How they lost, how they are better than the present administration, how they should be the one leading the government instead, and how they made their name.
But maybe that's where the problem lies. We are so caught up in the personal battles of our politicians; it's about Loren Legarda and her failed bid for the vice presidency and how she always wear white to create an image of purity, it's about Kabayan Noli de Castro and his advocacy for shelter for all the poor, it's about Manny Villar and his rags to riches story brought about by "sipag at tiyaga", it's about Bayani Fernando and how he instilled discipline in Marikina as if without him the Marikina people would not be disciplined, it's about House Speaker Prospero C. Nograles and his initiatives, it's about the pro-poor programs of the Arroyo Administration and part of her commitment in her State of the Nation Address, as government press releases would repeatedly read. The Philippines and the Filipinos are but the background for everything, the cheering squad and not the ones being cheered for.
Amid the cheers and jeers, the boos from once-supporters of McCain, and the celebration of Wednesday's US presidential elections, we Filipinos, especially our leaders, can learn a lot from how the US election loser and the winner said. This says a lot about the US and the Americans, it says a lot about what we're not. It also gives us a glimpse of why our country is no longer as great as it was when statesmen comported themselves with dignity and were regarded with high respect, and not looked at as some other showbiz personalities expected to sing and dance and throw kisses and favors to the crowd.
