Professional Documents
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the individuals rights, specially his property, and the necessity of limiting the
powers of government to protect those rights.Second Principle: The principle of
rationalism, under which it is argued that humans are creatures of reason. It is
argued that humans are able to identify their own interests and their own opinions,
and are aware of the wider claims of the community. Therefore, according to this
argument, the individual will use his vote in an intelligent fashion, and is
consequently entitled to share in the selection of representatives.
Really? This argument would be correct, if the voter and the voted are educated.
But in our country, the masses tend to vote for the people whom they most often
see either in movies or on TV. They apply only a visual test to candidates. If the
candidate often plays the role of champion of the poor, then the uneducated poor
will vote him to office for this reason only. Thus, they are voting for actors.
Accordingly, when some of these TV and film personalities win in the elections, they
continue their acting in the legislature.Some of them are acting as senators or
congressmen, merely relying on their legislative staff to feed them with the proper
things to say during the sessions of Congress. In effect therefore, they are little
better than talking dummies. And in addition, I worry that they might be more
susceptible to the pressures exerted by lobby groups and other interest groups
funded by the rich.I agree with Thomas Jefferson that there should be a clear
emphasis on the importance of an educated majority, as a prerequisite for
Philippine representative government.Third Principle: Sovereignty of the people,
which is expressed through universal suffrage. The implicit goal of our electoral
system is: One person, one vote, one value. Again, I emphasize that this principle
is observed in an educated society. But if, as in the case of our country, the
majority of the voters are not educated, then there is no reason why one vote
should be equal to another vote. Not all votes are equal.As a politician for the past
15 years, I have grown increasingly anxious about what I perceive to be mob
democracy. I support the suggestion of the great writer John Stuart Mill that we
should limit the vote to the literate; and that we should increase the vote of the
people with certain superior qualities. I am very anxious about the uneducated
majority in the Philippines.
person who claimed that he won the presidential election was admittedly only a
plurality president.
Another distortion is the control of political parties over the procedure by which
candidates should be officially presented to the electorate. As you know, I
challenged this system by running under my own independent Peoples Reform
Party in 1992, and I succeeded.The most notorious distortion of the peoples choice
is electoral corruption. There are still scientific doubts on the accuracy of the voting
machines that we started to use in the last elections. But the most important
problem is vote-buying. Rich candidates buy, and the uneducated masses are
willing to sell, their votes. Rich candidates can afford to start campaigning earlier
than poor candidates, particularly through the medium of television, where one
thirty-second spot alone can cost over P300,000.If you really think about it, election
is an opportunity for TV companies to make money at the expense of our
democracy. For, our Constitution provides as a state policy that: The State shall
guarantee equal access to opportunity for public service. Is there equal access to
public service for the rich and the poor? Dont make me laugh.
To be able to institutionalize an open democratic system, the Philippines needs to
establish norms of fairness and equal access in elections. Hence, the present
problem of electoral corruption is crucial to our democracy.
What Does a Voter Vote For?
In countries with an educated majority, normally a two-party system will develop.
One party, called the left, advocates that government should be very active by
interfering in almost every aspect of society, including the regulation of the private
sector. The other party, called the right, advocates that as much as possible,
government should merely provide social services, but should not interfere with the
private sector. In our country, there is no ideological distinction between parties. In
our country, political parties are merely groups of self-interested individuals pooling
their resources so that they can attract political contributors and thus win in the
elections. They are not committed to any particular national policy.As part of the
educated community, you should be aware of the theory of rational choice, which
was first developed in the extremely influential 1957 book, An Economic Theory of
Democracy, by Anthony Downs. He said that in the political marketplace, a voter
will cast his or her vote for the party that is most likely given the information
available to serve the ends of the voter. Social position or party loyalty are less
important factors than the rational search for the party or candidate that will serve
the individual interest often defined in economic terms of each voter.
I agree with rational choice theory. In the Philippines, the voter chooses the
candidate who will serve the voters ends. But, unfortunately, the ends sought by
the uneducated voter are usually: money in exchange for his vote; and an
appointment in the civil service, so that he can have a job. The uneducated
majority are merely seeking their selfish individual interest, particularly in economic
terms.
Role of Mass Media
In our democracy, the principal source of political information is the mass media,
specially TV. Newspapers used to be the chief source of political information, and
some newspaper columnists grew arrogant, abusive, and corrupt. But now with the
growth of TV and internet, the importance of newspapers has declined.Today, in
political advertising, TV takes the major share. This means that a candidate with
little money will most likely lose to a candidate with big political contributors that
will allow him to buy as many TV ads as possible. One bad effect of this
development is that TV provides less political information than newspapers.
According to Ball and Peters: TV emphasizes personalities and images to the
detriment of informed political analysis. Thus, on TV we see candidates singing,
dancing, and looking comical in their desperate attempt to appeal to the TV
audience. The voter who watches TV obtains no clue about the candidates
character and qualifications.TV has become preeminent in the dissemination of
public information. But it has also become more open to political interference on
the part of the government. What is the effect of the media on political attitude and
voting behavior? Ball and Peters give this answer: The media may reinforce preexisting opinion when they exist, but can shape opinion when there are not already
firmly held values.I now come to my favorite topic the internet. In Philippine
elections, consumption of political information from the internet is now increasing
rapidly. But the internet presents several problems to the political system, as
follows:
The internet represents narrowcasting rather than broadcasting. I refer to the
phenomenon that each political group accepts only information that supports its
own views.The information contained on the internet is unmediated and not
reviewed by professionals. Thus, it happens that internet sources lack objectivity or
accuracy.The problem with elections is that Filipino voters, if they are uneducated,
are often swayed by the personal appeal of a candidate. Public opinion is often
shaped by conscious efforts of political elites and the media. It is a myth that
Philippine voters make rational choices of candidates. Often, the uneducated voter
is merely expressing support for the system, or merely expressing emotional
attachments to certain symbols.For this reason, I invite the FEU Central Student
Organization to start a social media campaign to encourage smart voting among
the uneducated. You could call this campaign smart vote and give a score of Yes
or No to each candidate as political issues develop. You could insist that candidates
should have a record of academic and professional excellence, as well as a record of
moral positions on national policy issues. For example, you should campaign so
that voters will say Yes to candidates who favor the bills that I have filed, such as
the RH bill, sin tax bill, Magna Carta for internet freedom bill, and freedom of
information bill. Conversely, you should campaign so that voters will say No to epal
CONCLUSION
The proposal that only taxpayers should vote has been raised as a solution to
the political excesses in the country, as evinced by the recent controversies involvin
gPDAF. The proposal, however good in its intent, could not and must not prosper.
Itcreates Filipinos that are not recognized to be equal citizens insofar as they
arenegligible in national and international participation. The proposal creates
asemblance of despotism by a false veneer of populist and elitist authenticity, by
thedisillusion of entitlement where there should be none. It is in conflict with the
veryfoundations of our Government and our State. It is in conflict with the very
Charter by which the country is grounded. It is in conflict with the comity of nations
. The proposal is, most of all, anti-Filipino. It is an insult to the legacy and heritage
of our heroes and martyrs who have died to protect every Filipino's person, liberty
anddignity. It is an insult to our history. It is a threat to our posterity.
Allan Chester Nadate, College of Law, University of the Philippines