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Monday, September 11, 2006
Mercado: When it's inevitable relax and enjoy it
By Ram Mercado
First Person
THERE is one point of agreement between the Administration and the Opposition--they both believe "in moving on".
That means going on with forward momentum to nation building.
The quickest way to realize this motion is for all of us to support the seemingly unstoppable Charter change movement so that the nation can rest in peace and we can go on with our lives.
The scourge descending the country at the moment is the opposition to Charter change. The conflict has resulted in wasted time, squandered government funds, loss of lives, scandal and shame, with governance as the first casualty, and the people the ultimate victims.
By the looks of it, Charter change is the administration's priority aspiration; stopping it is like spitting on the rail tracks to stop an onrushing express train.
I ask the Opposition to sit back (or lie down) and enjoy this once in a lifetime experience of amending or revising the Constitution through people's initiative. They should let the nation move forward to its promised destination via a new Charter.
As the classical dictum puts it, when rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it.
After all, the great misunderstanding arises only from a difference of interpretation. Truly, as Burke says, a very great part of the mischief that vexes this world arises from words.
Expected to be locked in mortal combat in the next few weeks will be the protagonists, with the High Tribunal doing umpire duties. Our citizens would be the victims as usual when lawyers, like hungry dogs fighting over a meatless bone, snarl and lunge at each other's jugular spots.
The bone of contention: the meanings of the words "amend" and "revise".
The protracted and bloody dispute to arrive at the understanding of these two words will be the grand spectacle during the augmentation before the Supreme Court.
It has always been held that the Constitution is the living instrument that embodies our national existence and destiny as a nation.
To one side, without shifting metaphors, the Charter is likened thus to a human body. The live body must be operated on but only part of it, like amputating one arm (amendment) but not a surgical overhaul like removing an appendix, a malfunctioning heart, and half a gangrenous leg (revision). The Administration wants a sex change - a total overhaul.
To me that's how amendment and revision work. Once the body has been tampered by excision, replacement, amputation - except for gangrenous cases, natural abortion, and reconstructive surgery, it is no longer the original divine creation that is was.
The oppositors to Charter change may agree to "amendment" only, meaning a partial surgery, like the removal of one leg or one hand, but not a combined way of taking out one hand and one leg. No sir!
The Administration wants a drastic overhaul like a sex change, by golly! As I said, this dispute will be costly and bloody. No reason or rhyme, including mass demos and body counts, will deter the Express train.
Let's get on with it folks, the sooner the better to avoid wasted time, resources, and opportunity loss in the interregnum. This is the most patriotic act that oppositors can do - let the train speed off without throwing obstacles to its course.
After all, most of the oppositors will likely be elected to the parliament-in-waiting, with all the senators as priority and privileged members.
If you ask a sick person which would he rather prefer - removal of one arm, or one arm and just one leg, he would not want anything of either one. If we must amend, we must also revise. Removing the left eye or the right one will not promote the well-being of a blind man, or a choice between a leg and a limb will guarantee his health.
I find it hard explaining to Mang Doming, my barber, this great debate.
But he nods his head when I said that I do not care if that pretty GRO (guest relation officer) last night calls her aging lover "papa" or "daddy". As long as the buy delivers the goods, call him anything.
Speaking in the lingo he understands, Mang Doming further agrees when I said a cosmetic nose job or breast augmentation may be considered as "amendment". Also penis enlargement and the matrons' priority project - the "flower arrangement" (Ikebana).
Revision, I said, is when the surgeon tools with reproductive organs and makes a conversion job (sex change) by amending, revising, and replacing organs with factory defect, or not.
It is called Charter change. You should agree to a revision, Mang Doming, anything that promises a drastically fulfilling and happy life.
(September 11, 2006 issue)
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