boto loco

05 March 2010

The coming national polls will be a complete failure. Not because of the unprecedented election automation, but because of the nature of campaigning and election here in the Philippines.

...Vox Populi, vox Dei. The voice of the people, [is] the voice of God. If a candidate won the election on a 35% vote, would you say that THAT is the voice of the people? We have too many candidates for the Presidency, there is a very large possibility that whoever wins will not have a majority vote - hardly the voice of the people, not even half of it. There’s just too many variables, too many considerations, too much trash-talking, too much politics, too many things going wrong. One candidate pitted against another is already clash. Now multiply that a few more times, one candidate against the other eight, and so on. Imagine the chaos.

...Mind-conditioning, brainwashing, call it what you want, either way, this is what surveys do. Candidates who finance surveys SHOULD do so, ONLY for personal consumption. The results of the survey should not be published as this would give undue advantage to the one who financed the survey (especially if he is leading or closing the gap between him/her and the one 'leading'). They condition the mind of the voters that majority of the votes are already theirs or they are slowly gaining. Those who are voting against them would think that their vote is now useless, so they change their vote for who the survey says will win. You know - "para hindi sayang ang boto". A lot of voters have this kind of mentality and sad to say, there are still those that are easily swayed. By the time election day comes, there would be enough 'balimbings' to affect the result of the polls considerably.

..."Dati akong mahirap" or "Para sa mahirap" propaganda. Everybody seems to be riding the bandwagon. Unless a clear platform of long-term solutions to poverty is laid-out, these are just empty words! Solving poverty is not the same as charity. It involves enabling the people, not providing them alms. A nation’s economy is not defined by the rich or the poor, but by the strength of the middle-class. Here in the Philippines, the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, the middle class is slowly disappearing. If we have a strong middle-class, everything else will follow, development will trickle down to the poor. Filipino voters, especially the poor, are more susceptible to promises of immediate comforts, giving their vote to a candidate that would, even for short time, relieve them of their problems on food and other basic needs. It does not take a rocket scientist to think of ways to exploit this fact.

I would like to commend institutions/organizations that set-up debates. At least we can gauge something else about the candidates besides how deep their pockets (or their supporters' pockets) are.

Sabi nga nila: Walang manloloko kung walang magpapaloko. Hindi magbabago ang klase ng mga kandidato kung hindi magbabago ang klase ng mga bumoboto.

Pag-isipan mo Pinoy.

 
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