Stop the vicious cycle

WE are now 8 days from May 10, 2010.

An excited electorate is visibly amused by the frenetic activities and antics of the candidates in both the national and local levels. They are being entertained, wined and dined like they’ve never been before. Freebies, whether these are T-shirts, caps, candies, phone loads, grocery items, etc., have become a regular part of a campaign sortie whether the candidate is running for a national or a local post.

We see throngs of people in barangays, towns and cities gathered for rallies cheering lustily for host candidates in return for the dole-outs and the entertainment dished out to them. Many leave with “claim stubs” in their pockets as they wonder where the next rally of the generous candidate would be. All the hype in the media and by ward leaders only tend to excite many to feel that “the best” is yet to come.

And what could “the best” be? Historically, “the best” is the price that candidates are prepared to pay for the votes to be cast and for voters to give up their votes. Either way, a voter is king on election day. Yes, a king for a day.

But the minute the polls close for the day, the electorate becomes an insignificant entity, an irrelevant factor in governance or non-governance. The voters are reduced to feeble mortals who don’t deserve any entertainment unless it provides an opportunity for publicity or “side income” for the elected official.

Such is the vicious cycle that the electorate has not learned to stop. Perhaps, with the pro-active involvement of more of the youth sector whose numbers have swollen enough to be the swing vote for any candidate, there is finally a chance that  “the best” will finally earn its true meaning for the electorate.

Hopefully, the images of the decades of apathy and negligence by our elected officials and the years of display of arrogance and profligacy by the corrupt among them would finally dawn on us, those who tolerated the system too long, that enough is enough,

It is time we learn to make our elected officials not only to deliver on their promises but to learn the meaning of accountability. It is time to make the democratic system of choosing our political leaders work for the next generation.

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