MussoLOLen is Always Right! |

I almost didn’t attend yesterday’s rally at the Makati Central Business District against charter change because I was severely turned off by the “interfaith” adjective attached to the demonstration. I read on the papers that the rally would be spearheaded by Catholic groups and the last thing I want to do is attend a political protest led by an institution that cares more about preserving their outdated dogmas than enacting changes that can improve human lives. But I haven’t been to a demonstration in a while and anyway, I like going to rallies. They have a fun sort of carnivalesque atmosphere to them, minus the alcohol – which is good because at least people aren’t behaving like drunken idiots. But beyond the fun is also the tiny tiny spark of hope that rallies bring.To me, rallies are a reminder that there are people who actually care enough about our country’s social problems to do more than just sit and criticize current events without even immersing themselves in the real conditions of the masses. It’s a refreshing change from being around folks who roll their eyes at my political beliefs, dismiss my opinions as “outdated radical thoughts”, or who drag me away from political arguments because I can get a little too hotheaded, pissy, and downright socially embarassing when I encounter people who disagree with me (and by “people” I mean my own parents and some of my friends. I love you guys but seriously, I do get annoyed when you do that. And I’m sorry if you had to read my blog to know that but I’m too passive-aggressive to tell you these things to your face).

I don’t really like talking about politics for the reason outlined in the last sentence, but when I encountered a blog entry that dismissed yesterday’s movement as a stupid weapon-of-choice…well, now my fingers are typing away like they’re possessed. He’s got a very good point – constitutions are not etched in stone, and they ought to be open to change and revisions. Perhaps yesterday’s demonstrators did not have an adequate understanding of the provisions behind charter change; even I don’t have a very good grasp of the issue myself. But to claim that mass movements are stupid and irrational is a hasty judgment. People might have marched under the banner of “junk cha-cha”, but they did not necessarily come there to protest against cha-cha per se.

My reason for attending the rally is that I wanted to show resistance against an emasculated government that does not protect the people’s interests, a government that spends millions of pesos to murder those who clamor for justice, and a global capitalist system at the very root of all our country’s problems. To be perfectly honest, I don’t even care whether Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo stays in power or gets replaced by the next crooked politician because in the greater scheme of late capitalism, whoever sits on the presidential throne doesn’t matter. In his essay Globalization: Nine Theses on our Epoch, William Robinson argues that third world governments are basically middlemen for multinational corporations; their function is to maintain social control and economic stability, and mask the exploitation of their own people using the discourses of “national interest”, “foreign competition”, etc. What this means is that our government no longer has the capacity to regulate economic activity, the accumulation of capital by foreign investors, and stop exploitation. The real enemy here is not GMA, not American imperialists, but global capitalism – a system that worsens the poverty of the transnational working class while the few who enjoy the fruits of transnational capital frolick happily on our beaches, a system that undermines whatever democratic control people had over their daily existence.

I think that the essence of all those cries for GMA to resign is a desire for good governance and a democracy that serves the people’s interests. What is really causing the masses’ discontent is an economic system where they do backbreaking work for a few hundred pesos – and sometimes, they get even less than that. I don’t mean to sound like I’m romanticizing and idealizing the masses. I’m not. I know that there are a lot of poor people who would rather drown their poverty in alcohol, numb their minds to game shows and novelty songs, squander opportunities for a better life, or have their children beg in the streets than stand up and attempt to improve things through hard work. But just because a lot of them are like that, does not mean there are no poor people who work hard and who suffer despite their efforts because they have employers who do not give them fair wages, benefits, or even job stability.

Which is not to say that everybody attended the rally for that reason. What disappointed me about yesterday was not that people didn’t have an adequate understanding of the cha-cha issue, but that politicians and presidential hopefuls used the occasion to garner supporters by giving the same old speeches about anti-corruption, national unity, etc. etc. After the march, I tuned out the prayers and political speeches, and spent hours having political discussions with my friends, freaking out every now and then when the topic turned to parliamentary struggle vs. armed struggle. I think I need to learn to control my temper.