Another political season

ANOTHER political season is upcoming, and we see alignments, realignments, and squabbles inside political parties both in the national and local levels. Such is the normal occurrence when elections are about to come. And with this new political environment where social media plays a big role in pushing and promoting candidates, social media entities are likely the first winners! That’s how it is. Of course, we have traditional radio, newspaper, and TV that will also enjoy the windfall. But let’s face it, today is the era of social media.

But for us, the electorate, how do we respond to these early campaigning, positioning, posturing, and what have you?

You see, social media has now become the platform for netizens to air their gripes against government, government workers, elected officials, the private sector, even about other individuals.

In fact, social media etiquette which only coped with the phenomenon is hardly catching up. Etiquette be damned for as long as people can express their anger, indignation, and disgust over situations, elected officials, and sadly their perceived and actual enemies.

If you read some of the posts, you will cringe at the use of words, the sting of insults, the malice, the ignorance, even the pettiness of the gist. You try to understand if this is an articulation of pent-up anger or simply resorting to bashing to attack a person.

And then we have the phenomenon called “bashing”. When one starts it, everybody laps up like there’s no tomorrow and woe to the subject of the bashing.

It seems that we lose our decency and breeding when we join the chorus and worse – we use the foulest of language to attack, malign, and reduce a person to shreds. Truly a phenomenon!

But seriously, with the election period coming up, how do we advocate good governance by electing the right leaders, promoting decency, principled electorate, and the mindset that positions in government are not hereditary – from brother to brother; brother to spouse; husband to wife; mother to son; father to daughter; wife to hubby; and so on? What’s wrong in this picture? The Filipino people have as much right to run for public office, but they are not given the chance. Why? Because our government and governance have officially become the playground of the elite and nouveau riche in Philippine society.

I am one with broadcasters, journalists, and media persons who advocate good governance, who seriously tackle good governance, commitment to transparency, responsiveness to public service, zero corruption, and similar principles in their newspaper columns, public affairs programs, social media pages, among others.

The responsibility to educate does not only rest with the government agency tasked to oversee the election process. The responsibility rests on all of us – Filipinos – since this is the only country we have.

As politicians stay long in office, they master the art of circumvention – of policies, rules, regulations, and even laws. Who’s going to call them out? Who’s going to remind them that public service is public trust? Isn’t it the very Filipino people as well? You and me?

Thus, we have the moral obligation and ultimate responsibility to pick the right people – upright, principled, just, fair, a patriot, and above all, God-fearing, if we want to bring back our country to the right track after all this pandemic squabbles and bickering.

It’s time to revisit our old-fashioned values as Filipinos together with our children, families, and close circle of friends. It’s time to talk about it during breakfast, lunch, dinner, or over coffee. Let’s bring back what we are truly proud of about ourselves as Filipinos. That we think critically; that we revisit our deep-seated values; that even with the so-called personality politics, we can remain introspective and objective as we begin to choose our candidates for next year’s elections. Now indeed is the best time to be a Filipino!

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Food for thought: One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. – Plato

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Writer can be reached at belindabelsales@gmail.com. Twitter @ShilohRuthie./PN