In his book, Kusaka details a moral antagonism that exists between the largely middle-class “citizens” and the lower-class “masses,” which has played out since the first EDSA uprising in 1986. The fourth chapter specifically shows how the “citizens” tend to view the “masses” as gullible and easily swayed by “evil” elites, which then undermines their own interests as representatives of the “good.”
It is hard not to see elements of moral politics in the present Robredo campaign, especially with regards to how it interacts with the Marcos campaign. Supporting Robredo, as well as disavowing Marcos, is often framed as a matter of intelligence, moral character, or both. How, many Robredo supporters ask, can anyone with the capacity to think see Robredo’s track record and detailed policy plans and choose not to vote for her?
The issue with many Robredo supporters, however, is that they often leave that question rhetorical, and refuse to actually find an answer. They loudly (and rightly) decry the historical denialism around Martial Law, without acknowledging that many registered voters have never been in a history class to learn about it. They publish lengthy infographics of Robredo’s accomplishments on Twitter and Facebook, without acknowledging that many registered voters have no Internet access. They keep pointing out the atrocities of the Marcos regime, without acknowledging that many voters have similar resentment for the regime that followed it. (Robredo, after all, even as she runs independently, is still chair of the Liberal Party.)
To these people, anyone who supports Marcos cannot be disillusioned; anyone voting against Robredo cannot possibly be grounded in reality. They can only be delusional, stupid, or worse, evil.
…It is clear that a significant proportion of the Robredo camp is more interested in talking over, or down to, the masses, rather than communicating directly with them. For all we know, Robredo might turn out to be a people’s president after all is said and done. That does not make her campaign a “people’s campaign.” The massive lead that Marcos continues to enjoy over her when it comes to Classes C, D, and E speaks to that, along with the experiences of campaigners on the ground.
The “Kakampinks” can continue to turn up in the tens of thousands to Ayala, Ortigas, and other urban centers, drinking their frappuccinos and taking videos on their smartphones all they want. None of that changes the fact that, as long as elements of the Robredo campaign remain distinctly elitist, they will likely cost her the election.
https://www.rappler.com/voices/new-school/opinion-moral-politics-elitism-robredo-campaign/
—Adrian Gache, “Moral politics and the elitism of the Robredo campaign,” Rappler.com, March 29, 2022
There are at least two additional ways to interpret the same information:
1. Effective democracy is inherently “elitist,” requiring some degree of intellectual, moral, and economic capacity of the polity.
Notably, no less than Saint John Paul II spoke of democracy as totalitarianism, wherein the rule of the majority itself becomes tyrannical. (Centesimus Annus, 46)
We would further observe that politics is inherently moral. It invokes principles construed as moral, and its ramifications entail consequences that are felt and understood as morally good or evil for individuals and the community.
See “Political Morality”:
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2019/06/placeholder-2-of-4.html
2. The corrupt elite has itself exploited the poor and obstructed the so-called “moral candidate”—the representative of good governance—from communicating with and reaching out to the poor. Under these circumstances, it is not the moral candidate who diminishes the poor but rather the corrupt candidate who in fact exploits them. It is the corrupt candidate who belittles the poor by faux compassion and encompassing deception. The devil, the saying goes, is the Father of lies.
Both accounts readily invoke hard data to commend them, for example:
1. Economic freedom and prosperity is correlated with political freedom:
https://www.povertycure.org/learn/issues/foundations-human-flourishing/political-freedom
—“Political Freedom,” PovertyCure.org
https://maytree.com/publications/poverty-problem-for-democracy-focusing-on-rights-can-help/
—Alan Broadbent and Elizabeth McIsaac, “‘Poverty’ is a problem for democracy – focusing on rights can help,” Maytree, October 28, 2020
https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/democracy-and-poverty-a-lesson-from-mongolia/
—Nyamosor Tuya, “Democracy and Poverty: A Lesson from Mongolia,” Brookings, April 9, 2013
Scientific data tells us that economic advancement accompanies democratic aspiration and the effective practice of democracy. The two mutually influence each other—positively or negatively—in combinatorial effect.
By this demonstrable logic, a poor country will lean toward illiberal democracy and authoritarianism. The Philippines is a classic instance.
2. The corrupt candidate is the principal beneficiary of fake news, while the moral candidate is the principal victim:
—Cathrine Gonzales, “Robredo is biggest disinformation victim; Marcos gains from ‘misleading’ posts — fact-checker,” Inquirer.net, March 30, 2022
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/international/marcos-jr-wins-social-media-misinfo-race
—AFP, “Marcos Jr wins social media misinfo race,” The Phnom Penh Post (March 30, 2022)
Public domain photo
ReplyDeletePhoto link:
https://picryl.com/media/vp-leni-robredo-asean-disability-forum-adf-conference-01-2b83d5
Gonzalinho
Democracy does not function properly or effectively if you degrade it by elite-tagging. Elite-tagging like red-tagging is a strategy of the dictatorial and corrupt. Remember the Marcos regime.
ReplyDeleteGonzalinho
“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
ECONOMIC ADVANCEMENT IS CORRELATED WITH EFFECTIVE DEMOCRACY
ReplyDeleteEconomic advancement accompanies democratic aspiration and the effective practice of democracy.
begin
The case of Mongolia on poverty and democracy is instructive. The country started transitioning to democracy over twenty years ago and, for almost as long, the rate of poverty has stood at 30 percent and above. In the 1990s, much of it could be attributed to the disruptions caused by changes in its political and economic system. Harsh weather has been an intermittent factor, too. But no significant progress has been registered in later years, when the economy has grown at an annual average of 9 percent in the past decade. The latest available figure (2011) shows that poverty still stands at 29.8 percent, despite the double-digit economic growth in the past two years. The gap between poor and rich has continued to grow, and infrastructure has languished in a chronically decrepit state. Corruption, on the other hand, has continued to increase. Between 1999 and 2011, while the economy was growing, the country’s corruption ranking has managed to drop from a place where it was comfortably ahead of some of its fellow post-communist countries in Europe to a dismal 120th place out of some 180 countries surveyed by Transparency International. The implications for democracy were grave: most reforms stalled, vote buying became a serious concern, and public trust in the institutions of democracy was shaken. In a survey conducted in June 2012, over 80 percent of respondents believed that government policies were “always” or “often” failing to solve their concerns, chief among them unemployment and poverty.
The lesson to be drawn from this experience is that, early on in the transition process, new democracies should put economic liberty and transparency on a par with other democratic values such as regular elections, rule of law, human rights, freedom of association and freedom of speech. Otherwise, a callous and corrupt government, sometimes voted in through dubiously “free and fair” elections, can use the trappings and rhetoric of democracy as a façade while behind the scenes they engage in rent-seeking practices that can lead to a systemic entrenchment of corruption. In such a system political power is used for economic gain and economic gain is used for buying political influence. Few or no dividends go to the general populace. This results in persistent poverty among a large percentage of the population coupled with poor social services. Public enthusiasm or support for democracy wanes, democracy is eroded, therefore human rights are violated, and eventually democracy breaks down. Such scenarios are an early and real threat to democracy because the impoverished populace does not have the necessary tools―such as education or access to information―to fight back and, in most cases, is simply unfamiliar with the concept of demanding government accountability and responsiveness.
To be continued
Gonzalinho
ECONOMIC ADVANCEMENT IS CORRELATED WITH EFFECTIVE DEMOCRACY
DeleteContinued
Early on, the CD [Community of Democracies] emphasized this problem by stating in Warsaw that eradication of poverty is an “essential contributing factor to the promotion and preservation of democratic development” (2000). This emphasis should now be renewed. To do so, recommitment to the concept of interdependence between democracy and poverty found in the Santiago Commitment (2005) is essential. The Commitment stressed that democracy cannot be sustained without persistent efforts to eliminate extreme poverty and, vice versa, that the strengthening of democratic governance was “an essential component” of the efforts to alleviate poverty. Rooting out corruption that “corrodes democracy,” as stated in Warsaw, is a central element of these efforts, and this stance was reaffirmed in the Krakow Plan for Democracy (2010). Poverty is as much a threat to a democracy as poor institutions in that it deprives people of their political voice preventing them from holding their governments accountable and responsive, and eroding public trust in the emerging institutions of democracy. The CD’s Bamako Consensus (2007) addressed the issue of public trust: “persistent inequality and poverty can lead to low public trust in political institutions and vulnerability to undemocratic practices both of which are threats to democracy.” Poverty is also an assault on human dignity which is why the Bamako Consensus also emphasized that democracy, development and human rights were mutually reinforcing.
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https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/democracy-and-poverty-a-lesson-from-mongolia/
—Nyamosor Tuya, “Democracy and Poverty: A Lesson from Mongolia,” Brookings, April 9, 2013
Gonzalinho
The solution to the breakdown of democracy and the slide toward authoritarianism in developing countries like the Philippines has to be long-term and systemic. It involves effectively promoting democratic values and principles in the voting population together with building and strengthening democratic institutions while generating economic benefits personally felt.
DeleteThe way forward is a self-perpetuating cycle—when a population that is democratized and sufficiently provisioned elects reformist leaders, reformist leaders in turn will advance both democracy and economic development.
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
“Those who are convinced that they know the truth and firmly adhere to it are considered unreliable from a democratic point of view, since they do not accept that truth is determined by the majority, or that it is subject to variation according to different political trends. It must be observed in this regard that if there is no ultimate truth to guide and direct political activity, then ideas and convictions can easily be manipulated for reasons of power. As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism.”—Saint John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, 46
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed possible for the majority to oppress the minority in a democracy. The enforcement of Jim Crow laws in the U.S. before the reformist Civil Rights Movement is a classic example. Today, most would acknowledge that it was an unjust and morally reprehensible legal regime.
Evidently, effective democracy assumes some adequate moral capacity on the part of the polity.
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