Abdullah Al Madani: In the Philippines democracy means just that - 'democrazy'






Special to Gulf News

In well-established democracies, politicians and political parties contesting elections have no problems in publicly conceding defeat, as every election produces winners and losers. In the Philippines, however, presidential candidates seem to ignore the fact that defeat is an integral part of the democratic process. Because their electoral campaigns are extremely personalised, rather than being connected to groups like political parties, defeat is unbearable and considered a personal embarrassment and insult. Thus, they try their best to avoid losing face by using all tools and justifications including, of course, allegations of massive rigging, vote-buying, and other forms of electoral fraud.

Nothing proves this better than the current political scene in the country. Despite the fact that the presidential elections have been concluded, the election saga is far from over. Supporters of the two main contenders, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and former movie star Fernando Poe Jr., are still engaged in rowdy debates, as if the race is not over yet. To an extent, this is because no winners for the posts of president and vice president have been proclaimed so far.

Long and complex process

As per the Philippine constitution, canvassing votes is a long and complex process. It took a month in the 1992 presidential elections and 22 days in the 1998 elections.

What complicated the situation, however, was word leaked by an official from the National Election Commission, NEC, saying that Arroyo had won 39.5 per cent of the vote as against 36.6 per cent for Poe, a margin of 900,000 votes. Poe and his supporters accused the NEC of violating the constitution by pre-empting the congressional count, saying it was an additional indication of a systematic attempt to steal victory from them.

They had earlier accused the Arroyo administration of defrauding the electorate, vote-buying and putting pressure on military personnel to vote for the president. It seems that even if it is proved that these claims are baseless, the Poe camp will not accept defeat and will foment a People Power-type uprising, similar to that which ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and President Joseph Estrada in 2001. The problem with the Poe camp is its solid conviction that since Poe enjoys massive popularity as a movie-star, he would definitely win any election – if there is no electoral cheating. This is probably why many ordinary Filipinos ridicule their democracy and call it "democrazy".

Should the 22-man panel now conducting the actual canvass of votes announce Arroyo's victory, as is widely expected, she will begin her new six-year term with many headaches.

Mass protests and destabilisation plans to block her victory will follow. She should not – as a result of the embarrassment of being elected by a margin of less than one million votes - let up on the matter.

In the 1992 elections, former President Fidel Ramos came away with a similar, slim victory and was strict in dealing with the opposition's attempts to create doubts about his mandate.

One of the ways to win over Poe's supporters and others is to tackle the country's ailing economy, concentrating in particular on the pressing issue of unemployment. One among every ten Filipinos is jobless, as is evident from the endless queues of applicants seeking work abroad.

Genuine reforms

This, however, must be dealt with through broad and genuine economic reforms that include further liberalisation of the banking and telecommunication sectors, improvement of the tax collection system, nurturing small and medium-size enterprises with cheap credit, and integration of small firms into major companies' supply chains.

During her three years in power since public protests toppled her predecessor Estrada, Arroyo has been reluctant to launch reforms.

The reasons given for this included her fear of upsetting powerful business tycoons, who backed her to replace Estrada in 2001, and her intention to win big in the 2004 elections.

But situation now is different. She does not have to worry about seeking re-election, as constitutionally she cannot run for more than two terms. She is an elected leader with a popular mandate rather than being a replacement of an ousted president.

Besides, she has a solid majority backing her in Congress, including a Senate majority of 14 against nine for the opposition.

In brief, the ground is now set for Arroyo, not only to launch genuine reforms, but also to take decisive action in the troubled southern Muslim region of Mindanao, whose stability is necessary for attracting foreign investments and tourists, thereby creating new jobs and reducing huge budget deficits.

Will Arroyo use her new term in office to engrave her name in the country's history, as her father, former President Diasdado Macapagal did in the 1960s? Let us wait and watch.

Abdullah Al Madani is a Bahrain-based Gulf researcher and writer on Asian affairs.

it's about time for genuine reforms. The whole of phils is suffering bcoz no one is actually doing anything to address the current problems of the PI. I juz hope Arroyo actually does a much better job of it, now that she is re-elected again, than b4.

i study political science, and one thing i've learned is democracy is the hardest form of government to make function, its slow and have alot of openings for corruption, but hey at least we are free, and our country is much more stable compare to other countries. the oldest democracy in asia, and it was founded by us filipinos, in contrast to other people's belief that it was the americans who did, nope there was a interim/planned govt set up by the kkk and others, way before the americans have interevened.

The problem is that this news was reported in CNN, then a lot of Asian news had gathered the news

sorry pok, but what do you exactly mean pare.

another example of democrazy in action is edsa2 and 3.

i think filipinos nowadays have twisted ideas regarding democracy. what they see as democracy is actually a mob rule. the attitude is like: "i don't want the current president so we should just overthrow him/her".

i think that's very stupid cuz every presidency is threatened by coup, it gets so unstable. it' somewhat really democratic, but i think electioins are more democratic and more civilized.

but then again, elections in the philippines are not exactly what you call reliable. there are always massive cheating so most filipinos feel like whoever's sitting in the Palace isn't really duly elected.

you got a point there, but you know at least election is more organized and more consttuional.

in theory, yes it should be. but in practice... well it's not the same. basta, naku you should be here during election time. when i voted (so this means election time), there were even people giving out candidates' flyers. this is against the law but they can't do anything about it. can you imagine that, campaigning while it's already election time?

What i mean is that this news was also reported in CNN Asia

yes, I have heared that Archibishop of Manila Gaudencio Rosales had confirmed it.

"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." --Thomas Jefferson