While there is this eagerness for a new administration, there is also uncertainty. Even when we try to grapple with life in the Philippines and the environment that greatly influences it, as politics does, there is a pervading atmosphere that hovers like a wet blanket. Historians have called it divisiveness and our history is littered by its ugly examples. In daily life, however, divisiveness has acquired an equivalent and more popular nuance – partisanship.
Many among us who are in a position to be of impact in our society, whether it is because of our talents, our treasures, and most of all, our noble intentions, have sadly become quite partisan, too. Our partisanship completely neutralizes the good we can do; in fact, oftentimes, we manage to do more harm than good from our preferences and prejudices.
Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness, I would constantly remind myself when my own partisanship rears its ugly head. The incoming Duterte presidency should be a wonderful expectation. After all, our brand of democracy makes us anticipate major changes every six years when one president transitions to another. The different personality and leadership styles of outgoing President PNoy and incoming President Duterte assure the birth of new options, of new ways to look at things and even newer ways to address concerns and aspirations. That is change, welcome change, because life itself changes and one traditional way can never be the only way.
Every president brings his or her strengths to the table, as he or she does with his or her weaknesses. Usually, we are attracted to the strengths of our leaders and hope that these strengths will consistently define their leadership. Unfortunately, that is only part of the picture and actual reality as it unfolds. Somehow, weaknesses prevail as well and can damage leadership. The perennial challenge of leaders is how to remain aware of their weaknesses and lessen their impact on their decisions. Pressure, however, is too powerful a factor for most leaders to overcome. Pride, too, can be an insurmountable obstacle even for the most intelligent or courageous.
When presidents make a mistake, the conditioned partisanship (or divisiveness) of the Filipino people is stimulated to quickly react – for or against. Therefore, anything can be blown out of proportion from simple pride or prejudice. Many underestimate the power of pride and prejudice in making the normally intelligent instantly stupid, or normally peaceful Filipinos become hateful and confrontational. The campaign and election process highlighted this principle, and the transition from the Aquino to the Duterte administration will trigger unfriendly comparisons as well.
I happened to watch two important movies very recently – Bonifacio (And Unang Pangulo) and Heneral Luna. I was again reminded of divisions and betrayals at the top, and how followers at different levels simply take sides without even understanding what it is all about. So goes our political history, and so it still threatens to go. It is bad enough that our chances for real change are severely diminished by our partisanship, but it becomes much worse when the pattern of divisiveness deepens instead of being reversed.
The call for healing by the winner of the presidential elections was a grand gesture. It signaled possibilities that could have taken us to that intended healing at last. But it might have been just a gesture. It is not expected that a president can quickly transcend partisanship, but Duterte showed promise that he would be very different. Differences in personality and style are not meaningful change, just a normal reality of life and politics. But healing is rare and it is not a swing from right to left, or left to right, but a matter of stepping up where others, especially our people, have yet to experience.
“Weather weather lang” politics is a swing of the pendulum. Yes, it can bring change, even drastic ones. But the further and faster the pendulum swings to one end, the further and faster it will swing back. All these rocking and rolling may be what is needed to change traditional politics, especially the trapo kind. But if the intention and implementation are predicated on weather-weather-lang, there will be no transformation, just a swinging back and forth.
That is why healing is so important. That is why peace is so important. Healing and peace are not about going from left to right, or right to left, it is about rising above partisan concerns to what is the enduring collective good, for ourselves but more for those who will follow us. The Duterte administration will have an end, too, and its successor, if influenced by partisanship, will simply reverse what Duterte will do.
Constitutions can be changed, forms of government can be changed. In fact, they can be changed every six years, back and forth. The Marcos corpse can be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani this year and then exhumed out of it in the next administration.
Change is not for change’s sake. It must be grounded on people’s most important aspirations, what they wish for themselves now and, more importantly, what they wish for their children and grandchildren. Weather-weather-lang is instant gratification; it instantly disappears as well.
It all comes down to us again, us the people, especially us who have more options that our poor and marginalized brothers and sisters. We repeat it but often forget it – that change begins with us, and that if we persist in change, we can even make governments change. We must choose optimism rather than pride and prejudice, but share that optimism between our leaders and ourselves. We must never take ourselves out of the equation. We must never forget this is our motherland, that we are her sons and daughters, and our responsibility to Inang Bayan is no less than the responsibility of political leadership.