It will take more than a change in government to fix the country’s problems

Amongst those who support ABBB (Anyone but Bongbong), there are two prevalent themes of lament.

First is the depiction of the vote as an existential struggle between good, largely symbolized by the pink campaign, against evil, led by a son whose campaign is based on the revisionist recounting of his antecedent’s destructive corruption as a golden age for the country.

The problem with the first is that the reality is not a simple binary contest. Inequality, corruption, and patronage in our culture are now so deeply ingrained over centuries and generations and in our daily lives, that these forces have overcome and colored all of us to some degree or another.

Leni Robredo, try as she will, will struggle against these forces.

There is more to our problem than a change in the government will fix.

The most encouraging development in this election has been to witness the rising tide of volunteerism that is now powering Leni Robredo’s campaign. A rising tide of truth and holding leaders to account is a necessary condition to our country rising from poverty and haplessness. We need a change in culture as much as we need a better president.

The presidency is an opportunity to effect change, without which victory is meaningless. In the corporate world, there is the aphorism that culture beats strategy. A leader embodies culture.

Our country’s culture is only the sum of how each one of us behaves and what values we hold and live to. A pervasive subservience to wealth and power is a national trait inhibiting thoughtful discourse and accountability. We all have a part in consciously deciding to make this change and changing our behaviors to be more inclusive and equal, and demanding the same from others, in our daily lives.

We should be always striving to move from a society of haves and have-nots, to a community of inclusiveness, equality of opportunity, and equality before the law.

The second theme is how lamentably ignorant the unenlightened masses are—that they know no better, that they fall so easily for the revisionism.

For all of us who are in a position to effect systemic change, the question is, have we done enough that people can see the fruit of good government? In the absence of substantive differences in outcomes, why should the polity prefer one fable over another?

This is not to diminish the case for clean government, but those in our country who have no other recourse than to rely on the machinery of the government, to even the odds for them in the struggle for a better life, maybe have not seen sustained evidence that voting for the good guy actually works.

Rather than call out ignorance, are we reflecting enough on the failure to improve at a systemic level, the health, education, and opportunity of the masses, and take it as a rebuke that we and the system have not done better for those who number the most?

Nation-building is not done in six years, or every six years. It is an ongoing work in progress of steadfast self-sacrifice, all too sadly lacking if you examine our nation’s history of party affiliation and the level of our political discourse, as well as involvement and inclusiveness over history.

It starts with our vote, with our engagement, but can only be meaningful if we appreciate that we can’t just leave it to the winner of the contest to make our life and our national community’s life better.

Whatever the outcome, much remains to be done by each one of us, beyond the elections.

JAY MENDOZA
Sydney, Australia
jose.manrico@gmail.com