In review and in prospect
It’s been a decade and a half now since social media first started emerging as (supposedly) a potent platform for political “debate”. And before that era there already was a thriving Philippine blogosphere of the late 1990s and early 2000’s, when notable opinion-shapers like Manuel L Quezon III, the writers of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), Ellen Tordersillas, and Rom Sedona among others spoke their minds online and took apart the critical issues of the land.
But, really, it was the advent of social media as we know it today that was to herald the age of a more “intelligent” debate. It was supposed to be an age of elevated levels of thinking applied to the critical evaluation of the issues and the choice of representatives and leaders in the next election.
So what happened?
Unfortunately, on the surface, not much seems to have changed. The same sorts of traditional politicians infested the landscape of “choices” in the lead up to one election after another. The same focus, “winnability”, trumped vision and platform as the core of the arguments. The same loser-mentality “lesser evil” criteria prevailed as the emotional hook most Filipinos could readily relate to. It raises the hard question of whether a vastly more technologically-savvy and networked society is necessarily a smarter one.
For that matter, does more “debate” translate to better outcomes in a society like the Philippines’? Consider that Singapore rose from Third World to First under a regime that discouraged debate and over a time when computers were expensive contraptions that occupied entire rooms. One would think that with all the technology and the wealth of resources these make available to Filipinos, plus the “freedom” they enjoy to apply it all, that they would have achieved as much over a shorter period — or at least the same amount of time.
Last week's blog posts
A three decade throwback: the 1992 presidential elections
August 14, 2022 by The Unpopular Opinion
"Aside from the reality that the assembled coalition to confront then-President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 crumbled in 1992, it can be observed that political parties in the Philippines are mere vehicles for politicians in winning elections."