Tomorrow, the elite groups of this small country will again battle it out for supremacy. The first group led by the President wants to leave a legacy--they want to be the first ones who successfully impeached a sitting Chief Justice and thereby, " restore and strengthen the integrity of the Highest Court of the Land". The other, well, tries to portray itself as a "defender of Philippine democracy", while looking at the people behind this group, they are far from being democrats or even defenders of democracy.
The focus is the Chief Justice, whose properties are being systematically bared before the public to see--an obvious tactic meant to send a strong message--desist now, resign now, before we even contemplate of turning all these properties into sequestered assets. It's a ploy meant to weaken the Chief Justice's resistance. " Resign now or face the bleak prospect of you and your family without any single property."--that's the message of those who want nothing more than see a Chief Justice humiliated before a blood-thirsty public.
While hundreds of families flee raging floodwaters in Davao del Norte and Compostela, and people in both the urban and rural areas are busy, hard at work, trying to scrape the bottom of their rice bowl for a few morsels of rice, these elites busy themselves with comparing notes--who among the Justices amassed great amounts of wealth just by writing several pages of decisions. Is it the Chief Justice who got at least 40 or so properties under his name or the names of his family during his decade long stint in the judiciary? Or is it Justice Carpio, who reportedly owns several properties which were not at all listed in his own SALN?
As they say, when times are rough, fellow thieves meet among themselves and discuss who among them got more than others, so that others may follow suit.
Kidding aside, in reconstructing a system, such situations like these occur as part of a disruption in the normal course of business. These disruptions are necessary in order to correct the obvious flaws of a system.
This impeachment trial is just one stage of a long process of crystallizing a cacique type of change within the bureaucratic superstructure.
The thing that we need to wait, is after this Chief Justice is formally ousted through a verification of his impeachment. When the Senate affirms the findings of the Lower House, that the Chief Justice, did, indeed, committed these alleged infractions against the Constitution, power will revert back to the people, doctrinally headed by the Chief Executive. The Chief Executive will then exercise his powers of appointment.
When this point comes, we will now know the real motivations of this impeachment move--we will see whether or not this administration is really committed to changing things for the better or changing things only for the pursuit of interests by a faction of this country's elites.
When we learn that it is only for the interests of a few that this exercise was made, then real change and a revolution would definitely happen.
Showing posts with label elites in the philippines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elites in the philippines. Show all posts
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Monday, November 22, 2010
The Unity of Classes
Dr. Zeus Salazar, who once headed the CSSP and the UP-Diliman Department of History made an excellent historical analysis of Philippine history sometime in 2004. I was reviewing it when on page 39, in his diagram, something struck me.
His prescription to the prevailing societal ills in this country is basically the coming together or unity of purpose by the masses and the elite. Such a coming together, in one mind, entails the elite embracing the prevailing indigenous idea of nation or "bansa". It is thru the synthesis of two conflicting classes that the answer to all our problems lie.
His solution is basically anchored on the correct historical analysis of Philippine society--that despite years of modernity, majority of the Filipino masses are still under the traditional political concept of what a "bansa" or interpreted wildly by the elites, as a "nation" should be. Salazar said that the Philippine society is now under a state of extreme cultural divisiveness that the only way forward is for the elite to embrace the prevailing and dominant cultural norms being practised by the masses. How then will be actualize or operationalize that proposition?
Who will we use as an agency for change? Who will we use for the elites to come together with the masses?
Such a proposition requires an extreme answer since this will not come about as "naturally" and as peacefully as what many of us think. The elite classes are naturally traditionalists and there are several segments of this class who are staunch defenders and promoters of Western thinking, having been schooled in some of the finest universities in the West.
The elite class has the power. They have the money. They control the levers of our society. They dominate the socio-political landscape with their influence and power.
They occupy the most sensitive posts in government. Most of them who are outside the governmental structure, influence it through their businesses.
Obviously, in a unity of forces, the elites stand to lose a great deal more than the masses. In a democratic society, the equalization of opportunities for example, requires a great deal from the elites since they would be losing more than what they expect to "earn" from this synthesis.
In a democratic society, workers obviously would enjoy their rights, farmers would have power over their resources and professionals would definitely be treated more equally than what they are experiencing right now.
The point really is for the elites not to feel personally threatened by this unity. Rather, they should feel that they would lose none of the powers or influence they have and instead, stand to gain more in a more democratic society.
The solution lies in injecting them with a strong sense of nationalism. I remember one of my friends who, in one meeting, told me that the solution lies not in awakening the masses but with transforming the members of the elite classes. We must use their language in order to transform them, and make them staunch nationalists.
There must be a complete proletarization of the elite and bourgeois classes thru a cultural revolution. That cultural revolution should be anchored on the correct and traditional Filipino values which these elites lost because of their strong belief in Western philosophies.
The elites' penchant for directing their gaze at the West, instead of looking inwardly, is the root cause of the problem. If change agents within that class would only try to transform the class into an inward looking socio-economic sector, then, half of the problem would actually be solved.
Of course, there must be a strong force to direct this unity of classes and it would only happen during a dramatic revolution. There must be an emotional, dramatic event that would lead to the unity of classes.
For example, as one of my friends, Fred Mison said, this unity shows itself only during natural or man-made calamities, such as Typhoon Ondoy.
The goal, therefore, of change agents, is to institutionalize such unity through a cultural revolution. We must create the necessary conditions for this unity to happen. These conditions, which are culturally-based, must be the ideological anchor of the government.
There will, however, come a time when such conflicts between classes escalate into a full-blown confrontation. If that time happens, government must be strong enough to resist some segments of the elite classes who want a reversion to the previous order of things.
There lies the true answer for change---government must be made an instrumentality by the People towards true equalization. Government must be re-built along the lines of the dominant class, which is the Filipino People. If the government continues to side with Big Business, then, this government does not have the right to represent the basic masses. It does not act basically as an important functionary of the People, and therefore, deserve nothing more than an ouster.
His prescription to the prevailing societal ills in this country is basically the coming together or unity of purpose by the masses and the elite. Such a coming together, in one mind, entails the elite embracing the prevailing indigenous idea of nation or "bansa". It is thru the synthesis of two conflicting classes that the answer to all our problems lie.
His solution is basically anchored on the correct historical analysis of Philippine society--that despite years of modernity, majority of the Filipino masses are still under the traditional political concept of what a "bansa" or interpreted wildly by the elites, as a "nation" should be. Salazar said that the Philippine society is now under a state of extreme cultural divisiveness that the only way forward is for the elite to embrace the prevailing and dominant cultural norms being practised by the masses. How then will be actualize or operationalize that proposition?
Who will we use as an agency for change? Who will we use for the elites to come together with the masses?
Such a proposition requires an extreme answer since this will not come about as "naturally" and as peacefully as what many of us think. The elite classes are naturally traditionalists and there are several segments of this class who are staunch defenders and promoters of Western thinking, having been schooled in some of the finest universities in the West.
The elite class has the power. They have the money. They control the levers of our society. They dominate the socio-political landscape with their influence and power.
They occupy the most sensitive posts in government. Most of them who are outside the governmental structure, influence it through their businesses.
Obviously, in a unity of forces, the elites stand to lose a great deal more than the masses. In a democratic society, the equalization of opportunities for example, requires a great deal from the elites since they would be losing more than what they expect to "earn" from this synthesis.
In a democratic society, workers obviously would enjoy their rights, farmers would have power over their resources and professionals would definitely be treated more equally than what they are experiencing right now.
The point really is for the elites not to feel personally threatened by this unity. Rather, they should feel that they would lose none of the powers or influence they have and instead, stand to gain more in a more democratic society.
The solution lies in injecting them with a strong sense of nationalism. I remember one of my friends who, in one meeting, told me that the solution lies not in awakening the masses but with transforming the members of the elite classes. We must use their language in order to transform them, and make them staunch nationalists.
There must be a complete proletarization of the elite and bourgeois classes thru a cultural revolution. That cultural revolution should be anchored on the correct and traditional Filipino values which these elites lost because of their strong belief in Western philosophies.
The elites' penchant for directing their gaze at the West, instead of looking inwardly, is the root cause of the problem. If change agents within that class would only try to transform the class into an inward looking socio-economic sector, then, half of the problem would actually be solved.
Of course, there must be a strong force to direct this unity of classes and it would only happen during a dramatic revolution. There must be an emotional, dramatic event that would lead to the unity of classes.
For example, as one of my friends, Fred Mison said, this unity shows itself only during natural or man-made calamities, such as Typhoon Ondoy.
The goal, therefore, of change agents, is to institutionalize such unity through a cultural revolution. We must create the necessary conditions for this unity to happen. These conditions, which are culturally-based, must be the ideological anchor of the government.
There will, however, come a time when such conflicts between classes escalate into a full-blown confrontation. If that time happens, government must be strong enough to resist some segments of the elite classes who want a reversion to the previous order of things.
There lies the true answer for change---government must be made an instrumentality by the People towards true equalization. Government must be re-built along the lines of the dominant class, which is the Filipino People. If the government continues to side with Big Business, then, this government does not have the right to represent the basic masses. It does not act basically as an important functionary of the People, and therefore, deserve nothing more than an ouster.
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