When our failing democracy moves further toward the precipice

In February 1986, a majority of our electorate dislodged a male dictator and installed its first female president.

In the three decades that followed, a generation of children grew up in an atmosphere in which political and gender democratizations seemed accepted by the political establishment and by most of our citizens as desirable projects, however clumsily our nation stumbled toward their completion.

In May 2016, 39 percent of the voters elected an antidemocratic and misogynist president.

In the three years since, a generation of children has been growing up in an atmosphere in which political and gender democratizations are disprized, turned backward, and threatened with termination.

The administration kills thousands of the poor without compunction, mocks human rights and civil liberties, and undermines democratic institutions.  Government leaders and legislators erode gender equality by persecuting female defenders of democracy and by spouting demeaning statements about women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people.  Almost as painful is the indifference — worse, the applause — with which these developments are met by many Filipino women and men. Today, the 33rd anniversary of the Edsa uprising, we realize how little progress we have made toward full democracy, and how little our political and gender “revolution” has taken root.

Antidemocrats and misogynists among the political elite are much to blame for these developments.  But we who champion political and gender democracy are also to blame. We have put too much faith in representative institutions and in legislation, to the neglect of education in the principles and practices of political and gender democracy.  We have put too much faith in political reform, to the neglect of redistributive reform, a prerequisite to full political and gender democratization.

The 33rd Edsa anniversary occurs two and a half months before another critical election. If the administration’s candidates win most of the open seats in the Senate, House of Representatives and local governments, our failing democracy will move further toward the precipice.  Therefore, the most immediate task for those who believe in political and gender democracy is to work to elect, at all levels, candidates who support both.

Elections are also an opportunity for educating our electorate—not just the poor, but the highly educated elites who voted in higher percentages than the poor for the current administration, and who, in surveys, have consistently registered higher satisfaction with its performance than the poor.

Let us use the elections as a forum for discussing what genuine democracy means, why our nation needs it, and why voting for the administration’s candidates brings our nation closer to ruin.

Then, whether or not we lose this next battle, we and our people will be better armed for long-term contention with the antidemocratic and misogynist forces that threaten our nation.

ANNIE SERRANO, National Chairwoman, Pilipina: Kilusan ng Kababaihang Pilipino