Today’s View: Vote wisely

We cannot grasp the enormity of the responsibility we have at our hands as voters.  But we are going to shape a nation which is mired by corruption, poverty, armed conflicts, human rights violations and economic sabotage. 

By BEVERLY ANN S. MUSNI, YR.
Davao Today

Be afraid.  Be very afraid.

With the dubious incidents surrounding the election days before it will commence, I am sure that this will go down to the history books.  As the competition heats up as to who will be the next Filipino Idiot to be declared winner by President Noynoy Aquino, I expect a lot of protests, election-related killings and more scandals which will make Philippine politics go up a notch in the dishonesty-drama ratings.

The massive blackouts occurring in Luzon, Visayas and large parts of Mindanao days before the elections  come as a preview.  Such force of power failure that paralyzed office services, among other things, is a sign that something is going to go very wrong.

Why the power outages now when election is at our doorsteps?  Why now when the Commission on Elections (Comelec) was preparing for the installation of the automated machines?  Though Malacañang, the Comelec headquarters in Intramuros and Camp Aguinaldo were affected, it gives a concrete foreshadowing that the coming election, without emergency contingencies and ballot/machine protection, will be a downright failure.  It also serves as a warning that the government is working hard, through darkness and day, to ensure that we are going to have an unfair and dishonest election.

Meanwhile, the review of the “source code,” which will be used on the Precinct Count Optical Scan machines as a readable program to scan ballots, was only done Thursday.   SLI Global who is tasked to conduct an independent review of the source code has certified that it is not a malicious software and that it’s “proper, accurate and secured.”

I guess the people will be the judge of that.  Considering the time frame that the election is just merely four days away to check and ensure that the program will work properly at this time will not deliver proper results.  Testing should be done months before so as to fix any bug, anomaly or abnormality which would definitely lead to cheating.

That is why I don’t believe in this electoral system.  It is a monkey circus designed to keep those who are already in power, initiate money transfers from the country’s coffers to their own pockets and basically make our miserable asses more miserable by putting them in power.  Yes, stupid is as stupid does.

I do sincerely call upon the electorate to vote with your brains and not with what the family, relatives, friends and neighbors have to say.  Choose someone who is young or who might be young but still has fire in his soul to actually want to implement change.

Vote wisely as they say.  But wisdom does not really come with age or with maturity.  You have to trust in what they call track record.

Choose someone who has conviction and who has the courage to stand by it and to act on it.  We hear politicians sing the same old tunes the elections before, but why do we keep on tumbling down to the pits of poverty and bureaucracy?  Because we choose to do so.  We haven’t learned our lesson, and so history keeps repeating itself to a different tune, whether it be to Gangnam style or Gwiyomi jingles which is really ridiculously irritating.

He/she may be a son/daughter of great politicians, but that doesn’t mean that they have inherited their greatness.  Look at President Aquino! He actually doesn’t live up to the magnitude and the brilliance of his father.  A surname should not be equated with a public position nor should it imply intelligence.

The surnames of politicos should not win them a vote in our ballots either.  One is too arrogant to claim worthiness of being elected just because of his name.

Political dynasties are a dozen here in our country.  If you want to effect change, choose those candidates who don’t belong in one.  Whether they were a well-loved king of Philippine movies or a boxing icon, families and relatives who are running for position is not tantamount to being worthy to be called congressman, governor or senator.   The lifeblood of our nation is being sucked out by these families and dynasties for centuries.  It is time that they should be exorcised from the government.

Choose those candidates who rank low in commercial surveys.  After all, these are all commercial plots to brainwash the people in voting for them even if they are useless as politicians.  They may have actually paid these surveys to make them look good on top.

Choose those who are lagging behind.  They may not have enough money to pay for commercials given they are from actual poor families who do not buy votes and who depend on their honest machineries alone, the people.

They need your votes much more than the popular candidate who has the queen of gabfest to endorse them, God forbid.  Or who was shown to be communicating with the poor and addressing the issues of high oil prices and low wages but has done nothing to alleviate those problems in the three years of being a Senator.

Do not choose those candidates because he or she is being endorsed by Team P-Noy or Team UNA.  These political parties have done no good to our country except for their own interests as evidenced by the state of our nation today.

Choose those to whom your conscience dictates that he or she could be the one who could truly represent you.

We cannot grasp the enormity of the responsibility we have at our hands as voters.  But we are going to shape a nation which is mired by corruption, poverty, armed conflicts, human rights violations and economic sabotage.

It may just be one vote, sure, but it can change a nation, it can change a destiny.  And there just might be a glimmer of hope for all of us.  That might not be a part of the monkey circus of elections, but are actually human beings who can decide for us and for our future.

Just keep calm and be NOT afraid.

Beverly Ann S. Musni, Yr. is a free spirit.   She is a wanderlust, a dreamer and a frustrated rock star who dreams of travelling the world one day.  She is a world peace advocate.