I always feel discomfort when I hear talk about the need for “voter education,” usually in the context of lamenting the nature of the candidates who tend to get the strongest support from the Filipino voting public. We hear terms like “bobotante” and “tangang masa” in such conversations, especially now as we again prepare to choose new leaders in 2022.
There’s no denying that we’ve seen elected into office too many people with reputations for vote buying, thievery, plunder, immorality, and even murder; show business or sports personalities and other public celebrities with no known qualifications for governance; and even returning officials with past records of incompetence and nonperformance. A quote attributed to former Singapore leader Lee Kuan Yew made the rounds in social media years ago, where he supposedly called Filipinos “stupid” for perennially voting bad leaders into office.
Calls for “voter education” strike me as presumptuous, even bordering on arrogance. To me, the Filipinos’ supposed lack of political maturity reflects a failure in the system that ultimately points the finger back at society’s economic and/or intellectual elite. I’m not the first to point out that those who want voters to be “educated” could well be the ones needing to be educated by those they want “educated.” What has been missing perhaps is for the country’s elite and even middle class to listen more and engage more with the so-called “bobotante,” whom we have collectively failed and neglected. After all, how they cast their votes would have a legitimate motivation behind it.
For some, it is persistent poverty that leads them to keep looking for leaders who can promise immediate relief—including wads of cash and promises of more to come. That is one of the strong attractions of the candidate with whom many seem to have fallen for the yarn that once elected, he will give away the immense riches their family amassed while in power. It is said that many in our elite actually prefer to perpetuate widespread poverty in our midst, appalling as that may sound, because it is through the patronage relationships it fosters by which they maintain their grip on power.
For thinking voters with a longer perspective, the motivation could be a long-simmering dissatisfaction with the existing order, and anyone who sounds like he/she can deliver drastic change would attract their support. Seeing little improvement in their lives across various presidencies, it’s natural for common people to embrace leaders who break out of the familiar mold. But this one is not just about poor and less educated voters wanting to change the power balance in our society, in the hope of better lives for themselves. Let’s not forget that the current leader many of us love to hate found his strongest support base from the ABC classes of voters and not the bottom ones, seduced by the promise of change, not knowing that it was going to happen in the wrong direction.
“What we see during elections,” a writer once put it, “is an accumulation of the collective resentment, frustration, and even anger of many Filipinos from past years or even decades.” It stems from the failure of society’s political and economic elite to sufficiently uplift the lives of the wide majority left farther behind as they uplifted their own.
…All told, the persistent call to “educate” voters is probably misplaced. Maybe we need to be “educated” by them first, to move us all to take a direct role in shaping a better future for the nation, and not count on one leader to do it.
https://opinion.inquirer.net/147267/educated-by-the-voters#ixzz7Eh49hTvO
—Cielito F. Habito, “Educated by the voters,” Inquirer.net, December 7, 2021
When the voters elect the Marcoses, Estradas, and Dutertes into power, don’t tell me that choice is an educated vote. Surely, it is an intelligent vote, with its own convoluted logic.
But I cannot understand how it is an educated vote—because why are you going to elect candidates who plunder the Treasury? Who subvert and violate the rule of law? Who wreck democratic institutions?
It is not an educated vote because the voter does not understand that installing this type of candidate weakens and undermines democracy and also that doing so works directly against the goals they wish to achieve, what is, in short, a better economic life.
It is because the voter does not understand how democracy and good governance, especially lower levels of corruption, lead to superior economic outcomes, which reduces poverty and makes life better overall.
It is because the voter believes fake news about the Marcos Golden Age and votes for Marcos, or that Duterte will pass a Freedom of Information bill, end contractualization, and defend our claims in the West Philippine Sea, and votes for Duterte, or that Aquino III did not preside over the best economic performance of the Philippines since Macapagal and votes against candidates who espouse democracy and good governance according to his inspiration.
Concededly, it is a protest vote, but it is not an informed, educated vote.
It is an ignorant vote.
No doubt the ignorant voter has very good reasons for their protest vote. They believe—correctly—that the benefits of Philippine economic development redound principally to the elite. In this respect, Habito is correct—the elite should indeed listen and respond to the longstanding clamor of the voter for a more just distribution of economic benefits, yes, we should listen to them and be educated thereby.
But is the elitist cast of Philippine development any good reason to bring down the entire economy by electing thieves and dictators into power along with their attendant train of crony Mafiosi?
In order to achieve their economic goals, voters have to participate as active citizens in building and strengthening democratic institutions. They aren’t doing so if they don’t understand in the first place what democracy is and how it works.
Democracy is not just elections. The right to vote does not solely define democracy.
Besides guaranteeing the right to vote, democracy exacts accountability after elections, ensures checks and balances in the exercise of power, and safeguards political freedoms and civil rights, among other vital functions. Democracy is also a free press, the rule of law, an independent judiciary, and many other absolutely essential working parts.
If the voter votes into power thieves and dictators—in the Philippines they go together—then it is apparent that the voter does not understand what democracy is, because they are voting into power the very candidates that degrade and undermine democracy.
That is why voters need to be educated in democracy, that is, they need to be enculturated in democratic principles and values. They need to be democratized.
The best form of education is education in practice. It would be worthless to instruct our citizenry in theory if it goes out the window in practice.
In other words, we have to reform and strengthen our democratic institutions, because when our democratic institutions are working as they should, we will almost inevitably reap the economic benefits that surely derive, along with political freedoms, and this salutary state of affairs is the best education in democracy that we could possibly receive.
Therefore, we need reformist leaders.
The Philippine voters should elect pro-democracy candidates who sincerely advocate inclusive development.
They should put an end to installing thieves and dictators in the highest levels of power.
The “doctor” in the title of this post is Cielito Flores Habito, who obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in Economics at Harvard University at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Public domain photo
ReplyDeletePhoto link: https://pixabay.com/de/vectors/abstimmung-demokratie-politik-2831241/
Gonzalinho
REALITY OR PERCEPTION? EXPLAINING MARCOS’ HIGH SURVEY RATINGS
ReplyDeleteMico Abarro, ABS-CBN News
Posted at Feb 13 2022 11:01 AM | Updated as of Feb 13 2022 06:20 PM
[Tony] La Viña also said the country's electoral politics is also too personality-oriented, with voters asking these questions when assessing who to vote for:
Do I like them?
Are they nice?
Kilala ko ba siya? (Do I know them?)
Ngumingiti ba siya? (Do they smile?)
Nakaka-aliw ba siya? (Are they entertaining?)
“Generally, it’s just too subjective,” La Viña said. “So if you ask me, the reason why we’re at this stage is because our politics is so personal. It is personality-based, it’s so family-based. It’s so subjective, it’s very difficult to use objective criteria to make a decision.”
He said voters should instead be asking questions such as: “Is this good for the country?” “Is their platform good?” “Do they have good ideas?”, all of which are not easy to answer.
“And so hanggang gano’n, ’yung politics natin, you will always have a Marcos, a Duterte,” La Viña said. “I mean even, you know, even for example President [Noynoy] Aquino, he won not because of himself, but because of his mother [Cory] who had just died.”
https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/02/13/22/explaining-bongbong-marcos-high-survey-ratings
Democracy is not just elections. The right to vote does not solely define democracy.
Besides guaranteeing the right to vote, democracy exacts accountability after elections, ensures checks and balances in the exercise of power, and safeguards political freedoms and civil rights, among other vital functions. Democracy is also a free press, the rule of law, an independent judiciary, and many other absolutely essential working parts.
If the voter votes into power thieves and dictators—in the Philippines they go together—then it is apparent that the voter does not understand what democracy is, because they are voting into power the very candidates that degrade and undermine democracy.
That is why voters need to be educated in democracy, that is, they need to be enculturated in democratic principles and values. They need to be democratized.
The best form of education is education in practice. It would be worthless to instruct our citizenry in theory if it goes out the window in practice.
Gonzalinho
THE EDUCATED ELECTORATE
ReplyDelete[Emphasis between asterisks]
Thomas Jefferson wrote, “An *educated citizenry* is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”
https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/opinion/columns/2020/11/30/thomas-jefferson-called-educated-citizenry-where-it/6455865002/
—Fredric Jarrett, “GUEST EDITORIAL: Education of our citizens is imperative for our survival as a free nation,” Herald-Tribune (November 30, 2020)
Quotation: “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”
Variations: None known.
Sources consulted:
Founders Online
Retirement Papers
Thomas Jefferson: Papers and Biographies Collections, Hathi Trust Digital Library
Earliest known appearance in print: 2013
Other attributions: None known.
Status: This exact quotation has not been found in any of the writings of Thomas Jefferson, although it is a *generally accurate paraphrase* of *Jefferson’s views on education.*
https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/educated-citizenry-vital-requisite-our-survival-free-people-spurious
—Anna Berkes, “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people (Spurious Quotation),” Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, March 30, 2010, revised August 24, 2011, January 24, 2020
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” (as cited in Padover, 1939, p. 89) “. . . whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that, whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them right.” (as cited in Padover, 1939, p. 88)
The above quotes were the cornerstones of Jefferson’s interest in education and the franchise. He placed education as the foundation of democracy and a prerequisite to vote. Ignorance and sound self-government could not exist together: the one destroyed the other. *A despotic government could restrain its citizens and deprive the people of their liberties only while they were ignorant.* Jefferson could never completely separate education from government. With the fullest faith in the ability of man to govern himself, Jefferson nonetheless realized the responsibility of self-government could be assumed successfully only by an enlightened people.
https://www.varsitytutors.com/earlyamerica/jefferson-primer/jefferson-education-franchise
—Professor Thomas Jewett, “Jefferson, Education and The Franchise,” Varsity Tutors
To be continued
Gonzalinho
THE EDUCATED ELECTORATE
ReplyDeleteContinued
[Emphasis between asterisks]
Three uncontroversial points sum to a paradox: 1) Almost every democratic theorist or democratic political actor sees an informed electorate as essential to good democratic practice. *Citizens need to know who or what they are choosing and why – hence urgent calls for expansive and publicly funded education, and rights to free speech, assembly, press, and movement.* 2) In most if not all democratic polities, the proportion of the population granted the suffrage has consistently expanded, and seldom contracted, over the past two centuries. Most observers, and I, agree that expanding enfranchisement makes a state more democratic. 3) Most expansions of the suffrage bring in, on average, people who are less politically informed or less broadly educated than those already eligible to vote.
Putting these three uncontroversial points together leads to the conclusion that *as democracies become more democratic, their decision-making processes become of lower quality in terms of cognitive processing of issues and candidate choice.*
https://scholar.harvard.edu/jlhochschild/publications/if-democracies-need-informed-voters-how-can-they-thrive-while-expanding-en
—Jennifer L. Hochschild, “If Democracies Need Informed Voters, How Can They Thrive While Expanding Enfranchisement?” Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy (June 2010) 9(2): 111-123
Without an understanding of the issues and being well-informed, it is easy to be fooled by messaging that seeks to manipulate voters. How do we equip students with the skills to be critical consumers of political ads? More importantly, how do we ensure they are ready to fulfill their civic roles and responsibilities as members of a democratic society?
...Thomas Jefferson is oft quoted as having said, *“An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”* While there is no evidence he actually said or wrote this exactly as stated, there is widespread agreement it captures the spirit and intent of many of his writings. *He was right.*
https://edvisions.org/an-educated-and-engaged-citizenry/
—Dr. Nancy Allen-Mastro, “An Educated and Engaged Citizenry: The Foundation of a Democracy,” EdVisions
Thomas Jewett writes, “[Thomas Jefferson] placed education as the foundation of democracy and a prerequisite to vote. Ignorance and sound self-government could not exist together: the one destroyed the other. A despotic government could restrain its citizens and deprive the people of their liberties only while they were ignorant.”
The Philippines particularly illustrates that an educated and well-informed citizenry is absolutely essential to a healthy working democracy.
Past voting behavior indicates that the Philippine electorate is inadequately educated in democratic principles and values; or that they are at least badly informed, that is, ignorant, ostensibly kept that way by self-serving elite interests; or that some deficiency of character, possibly even moral rot, is at work—whatever may be the cause of our present political condition, it does not bode well for the state of Philippine democracy.
Something is rotten in the state, and it’s not Denmark.
Gonzalinho
“The problem with the Philippines are Filipinos: the Filipinos who laugh at rape jokes, who applaud the killings, who threaten, insult, and demonize the critical, who can't abide facts and are unteachable, and who elect the same monsters every three years.”
ReplyDelete—Luis V. Teodoro, Twitter, April 15, 2019
Gonzalinho
EMPATHY FOR PERSUASION, KNOWLEDGE AND ANALYSIS FOR UNDERSTANDING
ReplyDelete…Despite my machinations, my father didn’t budge. While he takes pride in my being a lawyer, he doesn’t subscribe to my views on democracy or the rule of law. My attempts to convert him have proven futile. He was not the type to be intimidated by someone whose Ivy League education he considers elitist.
For the last five years, I have been trying to change my father, convinced of the superiority of my personal views. Later, I realized that it was my own stubbornness and failure to acknowledge my father’s unique experiences that made me an ineffective advocate. So, again, I changed tack. This time, instead of trying to change my father, I began to change the way I approach our differences.
I discovered that the power of persuasion depends less on the facts at one’s disposal but more on one’s capacity for empathy, that is, the ability to understand what the other person feels, to look at an issue from their perspective, detached, at least to some degree, from one’s rational and emotional construct. Empathy begins with trying to figure out why rational people would hold a different opinion. What information do they care about? What life experiences might lead them to disagree with you?
My father had once recounted how life had been hard for him as a child. He, along with four siblings, grew up in the mountains of Camarines Norte. Their mother died when he was only 12 years old, and their father, a coconut farmer who lost his hearing at a young age, single-handedly raised them. He recalled how, under threat of force, members of a rebel group would take their hard-earned produce. To him, these rebels are nothing but terrorists who prey on the weak, and their suppression is fully justified.
…I was tempted to argue that the problem of the armed struggle in the Philippines is quite complex and cannot be resolved by force alone. But how was that going to sound, coming from someone who has never had to deal with such a traumatic experience? Imagining how terrified my father must have been during those times, I restrained myself. Instead, I listened, validated his emotions, and acknowledged the wrong that he suffered. I was surprised that the conversation ended with him being more open to admitting that addressing the root cause of the problem would more likely lead to lasting peace.
…Recently I learned that my father intends to vote for Leni Robredo after all because “she’s a Bicolana.” He thinks that if Leni wins, there’s a higher chance that the longstanding proposal for the construction of a highway directly connecting our small, obscure town to Naga City will finally get a green light. This highway is expected to facilitate trade and thus create jobs for our kababayan. One could say his reason sounds parochial. But it could also be interpreted as an expression of hope that someone who came from the same region can better empathize with its constituents.
…Indeed, the power of empathy is extraordinary. It leads to a higher chance of building trust and helps us relay information in a way that best reaches the other person. To be sure, it is easier to persuade someone who feels understood and acknowledged than someone who is made to feel stupid or evil for their views.
https://www.rappler.com/voices/thought-leaders/opinion-secret-persuasion-empathy-not-facts/
—Graciela Base, “[OPINION] The secret to persuasion is empathy, not facts,” Rappler.com, February 2, 2022
Graciela Base is a lawyer who currently works at an international organization. She earned her JD from the UP College of Law and LLM from Yale Law School.
We agree with the author if your objective is persuasion. However, if your objective is scientific understanding or ethical inquiry, then it’s necessary to look hard at the data, to strive for objectivity, and to acknowledge moral failings for what they genuinely are.
Paradoxically, the author herself advocates just such an approach—applied to the opposing sides of an argument and to multiple perspectives on an issue.
Gonzalinho
ON LIBERTY THROUGH EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY
ReplyDeleteBy Mia Seleccion
“Only the educated are free.” — Epictetus
…my country, the Philippines, is currently in a dire and frightful state. Misinformation and disinformation are widespread; good governance has been decisively trashed with the recent election of incompetent leaders, and defenders of free speech and factual information are being mocked and silenced. I cannot stop myself from feeling this impending doom about what the future holds. Or if the future still holds anything worthwhile in a nation that refuses to acknowledge its own history and value posterity. With that, I would like to extend a conversation on how education plays a pivotal role in protecting democracy and fostering freedom.
…For knowing the truth and having lost it despite standing up for it is grief unlike no other. Truth is not meant to be lost because it’s embedded in history and history is documented. But when history is undermined by propaganda, revisionism, and disinformation, the truth we seek to preserve becomes unfortunately and mercilessly warped.
Now, where does it go? Where does truth go when it is being reconstructed and shaped in the contemporary time to frame a bloody political history as a “golden era?”
The practice of truth becoming recasted in a different light is a sad reality but this is redeemed by people who do not simply refuse to believe in propaganda-driven lies but actively fight them—fueled and driven by both anger and empathy to stand in solidarity with those who have suffered and died because they fought for what’s fundamentally right—for their human rights.
We are collectively called humanity but there is nothing human about the justification of killings, corruption, and human rights violations. There is nothing human about using power to bring down others; power does not need to have an absolute implication—to be exhausted to its brim. Power, in whatever position or advantage, is aligned with humanity when it is utilized to empower and encourage, not deceive nor use others because when the latter is exercised that is no longer power, that’s manipulation—Machiavellianism.
To be continued
Gonzalinho
ON LIBERTY THROUGH EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY
DeleteBy Mia Seleccion
Continued
…democracy is a double-edged sword.
When we make well-informed choices both guided by facts and human values, we make use of our freedom. I find that exercising freedom aligned with the common good is one of the best ways to demonstrate patriotism. I’ve always believed that part of what makes a healthy democracy is dissent, this is something that’s been reinforced in my beliefs as I learned this from Howard Zinn, one of my favorite authors and historians. Dissent can cut both ways, but if it intends to defend what’s right, equitable, and fair—if it means to safeguard the truth—then dissent becomes a great act of love for one’s country. As such is the nature of real love, it is corrective and protective, it does not enable but teaches and learns, like how history is meant to be understood despite all its flaws.
But the other side of this sword reflects a grim reality when people use their freedom mindlessly and recklessly, as freedom in making social and political choices is not merely a personal decision, but a collective one because politics permeate all aspects of life and society. What could either uplift us or bring us down can become a shared reality that will reverberate not just in the present but in the future too.
…We cannot have a successful democracy when the community that wields it is ignorant, unjust, and blind to the truth. Democracy and education are inherently and inextricably intertwined.
We are not short of factual resources, but many still choose to believe in falsehoods and information that merely confirms their biases. I guess people prefer to consume easy content than spend time learning and researching facts and reasoned insights. I also think this has something to do with our substandard education on media and information; it takes more than just functional knowledge in using media but also analytical and cross-checking skills.
…nobody really won here. There’s no victory when we just lost a promising future—when we’ve failed the victims of the Martial Law. This shows how we can be our greatest hope yet also our greatest downfall. It’s foolish to want change and progress yet choose the same kind of leaders who set us back.
…Truly, it’s just a matter of confronting the past, recognizing its horrors, and acknowledging its goodness. We must be guided by the past to prevent us from making the wrong choices and believing in the wrong people. When we fail to look back, we hold ourselves back from moving forward because there could never be progress if we make the same mistakes twice.
https://medium.com/@miaseleccion/on-liberty-through-education-and-democracy-d2f9d9d533cf
—Mia Seleccion, “On liberty through education and democracy,” Medium.com, May 18, 2022
“…We cannot have a successful democracy when the community that wields it is ignorant, unjust, and blind to the truth. Democracy and education are inherently and inextricably intertwined.
“We are not short of factual resources, but many still choose to believe in falsehoods and information that merely confirms their biases. I guess people prefer to consume easy content than spend time learning and researching facts and reasoned insights. I also think this has something to do with our substandard education on media and information; it takes more than just functional knowledge in using media but also analytical and cross-checking skills.”
Gonzalinho
There are moral aspects to the struggle between autocracy and democracy in the Philippines, indeed, worldwide. An awareness and understanding of this inescapably mortal conflict involves education in democracy vis-à-vis competing systems. Education entails promoting democracy as a preferential moral regime, however imperfect, in contrast to autocracy, while asking us to investigate hybrid alternatives.
ReplyDeleteGonzalinho