Weekly Brief
Is there a Philippine Opposition yet? Filipinos continue to wait -- or not give a damn.
In review and in prospect
It is easy to see the superficial problem with the Philippine Opposition — its inability to unite. Such an ability is important today, because they are up against a popular incumbent. But it is also easy to see how the problem with the Opposition is deeper than an inability to unite by simply asking another question: Why is the Opposition unable to unite?
The reason the Opposition is unable to unite is because they are backward- rather than forward-looking. They expect to find “unity” in a historical common fear of a “return to dictatorship”. However, they had based that historical notion on a half-century narrative propagated by a single feudal clan to further a political agenda. Indeed, over those several decades, that feudal clan — the Aquino-Cojuangco clan — had turned that narrative into a vast mythology (complete with gods, demons, and symbols) that imprisoned Filipinos’ minds, subliminally keeping the people distracted from and oblivious to the power brokering they sneakily did behind the scenes.
By their own doing, they’ve divided themselves along religious lines, lines delineating a variety of interpretations of the law, differences in interpretation of history, of definitions of “fake news”, of who owns the sacred notion of “people power”, and, most bizarre of all, of who holds final authority over the interpretation of the law. And yet, it has long been obvious that Filipinos, like any other freedom-loving people, have so much more in common than all that pettiness. It only takes a simple change in perspective to see that common vision. It only takes a focus on the future and on the prospective and a collective letting go of the past and the retrospective thinking fixation on it induces in the collective mind of the Filipino people.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte, for example, won an election in 2016 by focusing his constituents on what is possible and has attracted admiration in the lack of deference to the historical baggage of tradition he had exhibited during his campaign and well into his presidency. The Yellowtards, however, had, since Day One, chosen to stubbornly stick to its beholdenness to that very tradition and past baggage that Duterte had turned his and Filipinos’ backs on. What the Yellowtards and the Opposition they presume to lead need to do is learn how to battle an innovative foe. They cannot do that by doing the very same things that had led to their fall to begin with and they cannot expect to win using the very same thinking that contributes to sustaining the losing strategy they remain stuck with.
If one observes how the Opposition and its key “influencers” and “thought leaders” approach the task of getting back up on their feet again after the catastrophic loss they copped in this year’s elections, you’d think you are watching a toddler rolling all over the floor bawling in the midst of a monumental tantrum. Rather than mount an inclusive effort to help a nation come together to rise above the deep conflict that characterises hotly-contested elections, the Opposition’s top personalities are, instead, further polarising Filipinos by digging their heels even deeper and adding height to the walls they build around their little cliques.
The big question that should be asked of the Philippines’ Opposition is this: What alternative path do you propose?
As far as can be observed, the Opposition, led by the Liberal Party, has failed to elevate its discourse above the state it had been in back in 2016 when it lost the Philippines to the camp of current President Rodrigo Duterte. To date, the Opposition remains reactive rather than proactive. It does not have an agenda beyond its ongoing effort to harp ad infinitum on their imaginary causal link between Duterte and the “killings” on the ground.
What alternative vision for the Philippines do they propose?
For now there is none — because the Opposition is all about the past. Worse it is fatally-grounded on upholding the very status quo that is the single biggest feature of their campaign that resulted in their loss of power in 2016 (and their continued irreversible slide to irrelevance today).
Fixation on the past.
Beholdenness to “heroes” and “martyrs”.
Addiction to victim porn.
A self-righteous belief in the moral ascendancy of their “good” cause.
In other words, the Philippine Opposition have effectively turned themselves into a sad caricature of failed Western liberalism applied to the Philippine setting. If the snooty Jesuit-educated “thought leaders” of the Opposition would only take a break from the mutual high-fives they keep giving to one another and actually understand who and what they are dealing with with eyes and ears — and minds — wide open, perhaps they will start taking more practical steps towards organising themselves, and their thinking, into a more coherent force worthy of the term Political Opposition.
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