Thu, 24 Jun 2010

New politics still waiting for breakthrough in the Philippines

When the Philippines went to the polls in May, more than 50 million voters chose candidates to fill a total of 18,000 offices ranging from the president through senators and congress men and women to governors and mayors. What gave these elections some spice was that civil society activist and anthroposophist Nicanor Perlas, who has been an influential figure behind the scenes in Philippine politics, was one of the presidential candidates. However, as NNA correspondent Walter Siegfried Hahn explains, Philippine politics will remain under the control of the traditional political dynasties for a while longer, despite Perlas’ best efforts.

MANILA (NNA) - He had promised a new politics in the event of being elected and to strengthen the third sector, for example by setting up a ministry for non-governmental organisations:

Nicanor Perlas is well known internationally for his support for the threefold restructuring of society and has won numerous awards. “We have no real democracy if we do not empower the citizens to be involved in the development of our country,” he says. “Traditional thinking in terms of executive, legislature and judiciary is no longer sufficient. The new balance of power must consist of civil society as cultural force, the state as political force and business as economic force.” Such ideas, based on the thinking of Rudolf Steiner, regarding the appropriate way of organising the way we live together in society were introduced by Perlas into the Philippine Agenda 21 under the then President Ramos. In 1996 this was adopted by the United Nations as strategy for achieving the millennium goals.

Whereas so far the votes in Philippine elections were always counted manually, and people were used to waiting for weeks for the results, voting machines were introduced for the first time this year. Just days before the elections there continued to be many problems with this equipment and so Perlas went to court in an attempt to have the elections delayed. When he failed, he commented: “Then we are heading for disaster.” It was all the more surprising, then, when the first results came from the voting machines as early as the evening of election day, showing a stable lead for the favourite, Noynoy Aquino.

Perlas himself came eighth with approximately 0.13 percent of the vote – a total of 50,000 votes was the final official result. As expected, Noynoy Aquino was elected with 40 percent of the vote – a simple majority is enough under Philippine law – the son of the martyr Benigno Aquino who was shot by henchmen of the Marcos dictatorship when he returned home in 1986. This act triggered the revolution which within days brought Corazón Aquino, wife of Benigno and mother of Noynoy, to power as president and drove Marcos and his family into exile in the United States.

One of the peculiarities of the present election is that several members of the Marcos family were elected back into office with a huge majority in their home province of Ilocos Norte. Imelda Marcos, widow of the dictator, who has a museum in Manila devoted solely to her thousands of pairs of shoes, was elected to Congress, as was one of her daughters. Her son became governor.

But the Aquino and Marcos families are not the only clans and political dynasties who have retained their leading positions in Filipino politics in the wake of these elections. If on previous occasions this could easily be attributed to the several-week-long count, which also allowed for manipulation of the vote, this argument would no longer seem to apply with the introduction of voting machines for this election. Not so, says Nicanor Perlas, himself from a wealthy family. He cites various reasons why he has not so far recognised the election of Aquino. All other candidates apart from Joseph Estrada have conceded, arguing the time had come to work with the new president for the benefit of the country.

Critic and political scientist Bobby Tuazon from the Centre for People Empowerment in Governance (CENPEG) does not believe either that machines could have prevented electoral manipulation. “First you have to limit the power of the political dynasties,” he says. Supporters of Perlas had made their own observation in the polling stations which together with other reports produced a doubtful picture. Perlas points out that five million voters could not vote because the queues at the polling stations were very long and the voting machines very slow. He questions why there was suddenly talk of 75 percent voter turnout when initially a figure of 85 percent was quoted. Take the five million here, ten percent there, and Estrada might well have been elected – an irony in itself because Perlas contributed significantly as part of the Kompil II leadership team to removing the former actor from power in 2001 on the grounds of fraud. Kompil II is an association of civil society organisations.

Leaving dynasties and electoral manipulation aside, the new president faces a Herculean task. About one third of the inhabitants of the Philippines live below the poverty line. Another great problem is the conflict with the Islamic Liberation Front on the second largest island of Mindanao, which has claimed more than 100,000 victims in the last 40 years. And corruption in almost all areas of life makes life difficult and slows down many processes.

Perlas had addressed these issues specifically in his election campaign and had attempted to introduce something new into Philippine politics with his truthful attitude, albeit only with a small number of people to begin with. His favourite quote is from Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.”

Pam Fernandez, professor of agriculture at the University of Los Banos who worked for the Perlas election campaign, summed it up in a message on Facebook: “In the count we did not get it. But we planted the intention, we moved with courage, took risks and acted out of our highest ideals and deepest sources of conviction… All these created a strong “field” and the birthing of the new country is still proceeding. This election was just one means. Let us remember that the cultural realm or civil society will still be more powerful than the political realm. Truly, the future of this country is in our hands, and New Politics means moving beyond campaigns, election and voting.”

END/nna/wsh/cva

Item: 100624-03EN Date: 24 June 2010

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