Let leftists and activists speak

If we listen to their positions on crucial issues and examine the bills they support in the House of Representatives, lawmakers branded as leftists are the ones more in tune with public interest. Of course, there are some independent or opposition representatives who occasionally act as mavericks, but left-leaning legislators as a group are more consistent in supporting positions that look, sound, and feel anchored on principles and ideals.

But why are they being persecuted, harassed, and their lives and security threatened? Why are they constantly Red-tagged and branded as terrorists?

The common claim is that they masquerade as parliamentarians, but are, in reality, covert members or even officers of the communist movement that is engaged in armed rebellion to overthrow the government. They are accused of infiltrating the corridors of power and of misusing government resources to advance the revolutionary agenda of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army. Their number has dwindled because their former ally, former president Rodrigo Duterte, turned against them and engaged in massive military operations to neutralize their mass support.

At the other end of the political spectrum in Congress are the provincial warlords, scions of political dynasties, and business barons. Lumped together as traditional politicians, they constitute the overwhelming legislative majority in every new administration because they transfer allegiance to whoever holds the lever of power. They either openly parrot or silently consent to the pronouncements of whoever rules from the Palace regardless of their dissonance with principles and morals. The common accusation against them is that they masquerade as political leaders, but act as buccaneers who raid the state treasury through methodical corruption.

If leftist lawmakers completely disappear from the halls of our legislature, what would Congress sound and look like? It will surely sound like a bully pulpit and look like an exclusive club of traditional politicians. With the virtual decimation of opposition legislators, there will effectively be no one to check and expose the abuses of traditional politicians.

But shouldn’t leftist legislators be prosecuted for their supposed participation in or conspiracy with armed revolutionaries? Sure, but let’s do so only when there’s substantial evidence that will stand up in court, and not when the persecution is based on suspicions and innuendos. Traditional politicians are widely acknowledged as engaged in destroying the republic through systematic and widespread corruption, but they are allowed to sit as “honorable ladies and gentlemen,” because they are accorded the right to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise beyond reasonable doubt. Aren’t leftist lawmakers entitled to the same constitutional right and to sit side by side with their fellow accused in the spectrum crime of destroyers of the republic?

The long-festering problems that have maimed our nation and clipped our country’s wings are due to the unbridled reign of traditional politicians, and not from the misdeeds of rebels. We will not get out of the deep rot nor be able to stop our country’s downward spiral if we give the ruling breed of politicians even freer rein by stifling voices of dissent. Those who blindly persecute leftists, activists, and plain dissenters should think of the kind of politicians that they are allowing to rule with unrestrained powers in this country.

The needed change in our country will not come from leaders who immensely benefit from the status quo. Change will only come if we allow activists, dissenters, and even rebels to bring to light the discomfort of an ever-growing majority. The democratic and wealthy countries of Europe and the Americas have enviable welfare state features and regulations on workers’ protection because they listened to, learned from, and embraced the useful teachings and criticisms of socialist and communist movements in their midst.

By all means, our government should engage force with force against those who participate in armed rebellion against our nation. But in the battlefield of ideas, our society should allow contending voices and contrasting ideas—from traditional politicians, activists, and even rebels—to clash freely, unrestrained by fear and persecution. Our country will be better for it.

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