I was at one of the City Halls here in Metro Manila earlier today. While waiting at the parking lot I overheard a conversation between two parking attendants. It went something like this:
Man A: Di ko iboboto sina xxxx, xxxx at yung iba pang kandidato. (I won’t be voting for xxxx, xxxx and the other candidates.)
Man B: Ako rin. Wala naman silang nagawa para sa akin. Kay Mayor ako. Dahil sa kanya nakakadilihensya ako dito sa parking. (I won’t either. They haven’t done anything for me. I’ll vote for Mayor. Because of him I have this gig here at the parking lot.)
Man A: Nakakamagkano ka na ba? (How much have you made anyway?)
Man B: Wala pang beinte. Makukunat ang mga pumaparada. (Not even P20. The motorists coming in today are misers.)
Man A: Buti na lang di tayo pinapaalis dito. (Good thing no one’s banning us from this place.)
Man B: Kaya kay mayor tayo. (That’s why we should support the mayor.)
That particular conversation clearly highlights how some people choose their candidates. Like those two parking attendants, some people approach choosing a candidate in the simplest of ways. For them, it’s all a matter of picking the one they believe was able to help them in one way or the other. Nothing could be simpler, really.
But let’s examine the conversation again.
Man A: Buti na lang di tayo pinapaalis dito. (Good thing we’re not being banned in this place.)
Man B: Kaya kay mayor tayo. (That’s why we should support the mayor.)
Did the mayor really help those two? I don’t think so. The way I see it the mayor merely tolerated the parking attendants’ presence and activities at the grounds of City Hall. It is not as if the mayor gave those two a real job and real wages.
Over at the group blog Philippine Commentary blogger mschumey07 posted a piece about populist rhetoric and how it is used by politicians to get people to vote for them. Here’s an excerpt from that post titled Populist Rhetoric:
In impoverished and developing countries where poverty is prevalent, taking a populist stand can get you places. It can make a monster appear angelic in the eyes of the poor. It is a very successful way of winning the hearts and minds of the people especially those who “think” that you can relate to them.
mschumey07 ended the piece with a rather optimistic assessment of how Filipinos would probably vote in 2010.
Only time can tell if indeed this ploy still works. Judging from the dynamic Philippine political landscape, this may not be a formula for success.
I hope mschumey07 would be proven correct. I’m just not sure if the masa crowd is even on its way to learning that electing politicians who thrive on motherhood statements and empty promises will not do our country any good. There’s this nagging suspicion that many Filipinos will still waste their votes on undeserving candidates. Some, like those two parking attendants, would probably even support a candidate for the wrong reasons.
Aye! Indeed!
Happens everywhere, even in developed countries but the difference is that those who vote for the wrong reasons are fewer than those who vote for the “good” reasons, hence at the end of the day, most of those who do not deserve to be elected get the boot, eg., Le Pen vs Chirac in one of the French Presidential elections. The French left who abhorred Chirac voted against extreme right-wing and xenophobic Le Pen so Chirac received an overwhelming 80% result in the universal suffrage.
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lpgd Reply:
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:16 am
thanks anna for visiting and thanks for providing us with some background on how things go in other countries.
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