Necessary evil

From my favorite irrascible columnist of the PDI, Conrado De Quiros:

There's The Rub : 'Necessary evil'
Updated 10:26pm (Mla time) Sept 12, 2004
Conrado de Quiros dequiros@info.com.ph

I REMEMBER that Bobi Tiglao dismissed the Ibon version of that finding by saying the group never published its methodology. As though the other survey organizations-Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia in particular-did. But comes now the SWS corroborating Ibon's finding:

Most Filipinos believe Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo won the elections by cheating.

Specifically, 23 percent of SWS' respondents said they believed Fernando Poe Jr. and Loren Legarda were "definitely cheated" and 32 percent said they believed the two were "probably cheated." That makes 55 percent of the population believing GMA (and Noli de Castro) cheated in the elections, to the extent that the SWS' sample represents the population reasonably accurately.

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Ignacio Bunye bristles at this revelation and says: "The polls on cheating are a throwback to the past. The Presidential Electoral Tribunal has already taken jurisdiction over the issues. We have to shed off these perceptions and get on with the difficult task at hand."

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No, I am not amazed that the SWS has confirmed Ibon's revelation. You can fool all Filipinos some of the time and some Filipinos all the time, but you can't fool all Filipinos all the time.

I am amazed, however, by one thing. That is the equanimity with which we are taking all this. Elsewhere, news like this would be greeted with angry editorials and calls for the President to resign. Or at least for a full-blown investigation to be made. Here, we've met the news with a shrug of the shoulders and mutterings of "what else is new?" Truly, every day raises the bar in our capacity to tolerate iniquity.

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In fact, the only way we can deal with the difficult task at hand is for us to stop shedding our scruples about wrongdoing. The concept of a "necessary evil" is the most dangerous thing in the world. The only thing worse than financial bankruptcy is moral bankruptcy. We already have the second, the first is waiting round the corner.

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Once again, De Quiros hits the nail squarely on the head. However, I take exception to his statement that moral bankruptcy is just around the corner; it's already in place.

Peter Wallace, in his June 2004 Report, "Where To, Philippines?" states:

What is urgently needed now is to not only find out what has gone so drastically wrong, but then take decisive action to effect the necessary change. EDSA DOS should not be wasted. And there should not be an EDSA TRES. We must answer this problem—and then solve it, or the Philippines, and Filipinos, except for a small elite, will remain desperately poor, and growingly so, throughout this century. And I cannot emphasize too strongly that action to effect that change must occur. Talking about it is not action. Writing innumerable plans is not action. Doing it is.

I have identified the areas that need attention, that need change. But, in many ways, all these can be reduced to one underlying cause: self-centeredness—caring too little about anything or anyone else. Coupled with unbridled population growth, and all the attendant difficulties that places on any economy.

In the main change will have to come with the next generation through a school curriculum that emphasises social responsibility, morals and ethics. A sense of being part of a whole, of a team. Team Philippines – not “family dela Cruz”. But a start can be made now through informational campaigns by government. And by addressing some of the issues contributing to the decline of the Philippines. Selfishness, unfortunately, is not something that can be changed overnight — but it can be changed.

It had to take a foreigner to point it out. Philippine society is a clannish one, parochial, mired in feudalism. You don't have to be a sociologist to figure this one out. You don't have to immerse yourself in the daily lives of the urban poor. All you need to be is a Filipino in this day and age.