It’s amusing to hear President Noynoy Aquino lament what he perceives as “very early campaigning activities” by some politicians. His twit extends to the tune of an exhortation—good if it includes his colleagues in the Liberal Party! —that instead of politicking this early they should focus their attention on the many problems faced by the nation.
This gladsome twit formed part of an accented portion of his speech on the occasion of an inaugural ceremony for a project which was supposedly funded by his DAP. We cannot miss the special media hype accorded to the event, It is easy to infer it was meant to underscore his argument in justification and defense of the much-maligned presidential pork barrel. His stubborn position regarding the DAP issue has remained, namely: that the money was spent honestly for projects that benefit the public.
There’s no mistaking that the target of his twit are politicians from the opposing political camp. Or to make it more specific, he most certainly meant Vice-President Binay who was in another part of the Islands and was indeed doing his own “media-hyped rapport” with throngs of provincial people.
Well, the Vice-President has been candid about his intentions of running for the Presidential post this coming 2016 elections. Whatever would be the purpose of his provincial trips and however worded would be his public speeches, these most certainly are part of his politicking strategy—to earn “pogi points” for himself and his ambitious climb to power.
President Noynoy’s veiled exhortation is also a subtle politicking act! He should have kept silent. Because in opening his mouth to criticis other politician’s perceived misbehavior, he is in effect said to be “nagbubuhat ng sariling upuan” (lifting his own chair), a self-serving act designed to appear morally upright before the people. It is really praising oneself at the expense of others, an arrogant self-centeredness by attributing to oneself with virtue in a “holier than thou” fashion. It is no different from “early campaigning” which he laments and accuses others of doing.
Politicking is the politician’s game. Election or no election, that’s the daily fare of politicians. From their waking hour in the morning to their bed time retirement in the evening, the politicos constantly think of how to be loved by their constituents. The content of their thoughts are not necessarily intended for the benefit of the people. They are all intended for “image-building”. In fact, in our historical experience, all of their thoughts result to actions whose consequences run counter to the interests of the people. If not outright disaster.
The “for the people” thoughts and utterances and actuations of politicians vary in direct proportion to their motives— not just the short-term or tactical motives, but more importantly the long-term motives. Sincerity is of course a very Big Question Mark, no matter the avowals of every one of them.
It is safe to aver that the word sincerity among politicians, especially among the nationally elected ones, is alien to their vocabulary as it is an absolute absence in the electrocardiograph of their heartbeats. Why? If there ever was one elected President who nurtured a true and sincere love of the Filipino people, he should have promptly shunned the abominable Pork Barrel upon his ascendance to power, immediately proclaimed and implemented genuine land reform, and soon established nationalist industrialization as national economic policies!
Sadly, no one from the first down to the incumbent chief executive has ever dreamed and dared to adopt these two key engines for real national growth and development. Had our government established and developed the strategic industries of the country early in its existence as a republic, we should not have mouthed any more slogans of “Implement genuine land reform! Promote nationalist industrialization!”. These two vital elements for our country’s economic march forward would have long ago emancipated the entire Filipino people from abject poverty and underdevelopment!
And politicking as the politician’s game of image-building would have acquired a pleasant signification, not the very dirty connotation it has been clothed with through all the decades.
No amount of propaganda can salvage the image of politico as an ugly dirty guy next door. For as long as his paramount preoccupation is the interests of his own self, his family and his relations, he will continue to come down in history as a pest, much more a curse! And this derogatory characterization is not the activists’ doing or the media hype of any adverse political elements in society. It is their very own making and self advertising!
Because when they wash their dirty linens in public as a necessary ingredient in their political squabbles, their politicking deteriorates from deceitful image-shaping into character-assassination or reputation-demolition tirades. And even to slaying of political opponents.
And like a veritable cry-baby, the politico has learned well his nursery rhyme in his babbling, “O, it’s politically motivated! I am character-assassinated!” Of course, compadre, it’s politically motivated! Every thing that transpires in the political arena arises from political motivations. No exception. When a politician winks, he has scripted and rehearsed it as a device to bolster his image. When he farts, and the smell saturates the air, he cries just the same and attributes this to the politicking scheme of his adversary.
But — Who in name of all the ancestors of our race needs assassination and demolition? They have destroyed themselves since the beginning of this republic’s existence!
Every electoral season, the electorate are duped by showering rays or yellow knotted strings of hope for a better future. And not even a semblance of a vision of a future society is spelled out, or a even just a sketchy program for a progressive society is outlined. Only overdosages of out-of- this-world promises. And the people hold on to these promises, and they realize they were cheated and soon get frustrated. For the promises are never fulfilled.
And another cycle of deception begins and the politicking intensifies, until a crisis blows up in the life of the nation ! And the culprit politico comfortably sits on a wheelchair for an express ride to the hospital to stay there as an asylum for the rest of his term of office. And another guy of his very likeness comes up the political stage and performs the very same fiasco act of his predecessor.
And the politicking continues . . .to the tune of Till the end of time.
