Elections here in the Philippines are always a pandemonium. It is the high time to realize a leader’s “hidden skeletons in the closet”, where everyone is swimming in a sea of infomercials and advertisements on platforms, promises, has-beens and what-not, and where candidates throw stones and daggers, literally and figuratively, at each other. Yet, it also serve as everyone’s chance to take part in our nation’s transformation, to cast our votes along and against a million more, and best of all, a fresh opportunity to choose a set of people who we’ll entrust our future to.
But time saw us wasting this valuable break. Looking at the past elections here in our country, the voters’ turnout is not even near absolute. There are a lot of us who don’t participate, who appear not to care at all. Worse is, we complain about corruption, the lousy system, and whoever won that election we did not took part in.
Aside from blaming it to Filipino’s apathetic attitude, perhaps we should also look at the fact that maybe, and just maybe, politics and its promise of a fairy-tale country has lost its appeal and luster to the electorate. Maybe, and just maybe, Filipinos are already tired playing trial-and-error since whoever they vote, he or she tends to be unconstructive in the end anyway. It may look futile, but it makes a lot of sense.
Today, the proliferation of mass media, and the Internet as well had changed the outlook of the Filipinos on elections. I always get to hear people who talked about the election alongside topics like recipes or telenovellas. Everyone seems to have a say in the elections and it always starts with something like, “that’s what I read in the news” or “that’s what I saw on TV” or something they saw on Facebook.
Although it is ironic to think that the press and media profits or get subsidy from these aspirants’ ads, it is amusing to note that they are also the ones responsible in spilling the beans about these hopefuls. They cover the issues that could destroy them but it also celebrates with them on fine times. If you go over it, there is no such thing as “the perfect leader.” For a reason or two, they have some skeletons hidden in their closets or secrets they would rather carry to the grave.
That is also what makes politics amusing: We don’t vote for who seems to be the best nor have a lot of achievements. We support the ones with lesser mistakes, the ones who are not in the middle of scandals and issues, or the ones who are endorsed by our favorite stars.
The media serves as the check and balance to our nation, that’s the reason it is called the Fourth Estate. It looks over the three entities leading our country—the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. So it also has the responsibility to inform the electorate of what these aspirants are doing up close and personal. The media saves us from our idiocy of giving our votes to candidates who appear on TV with the most famous singers or the common tao who is not sure of getting that same attention from their bet after the elections.
Elections are big occasions that don’t simply make us exercise our right to suffrage. It leads to other rights like option, appointment, freedom, and life. It is a rare chance. We give them the power to hold us in their hands and it is the media’s duty to lay the sketch of everyone who aims to lead our country that we may scrutinize them one after another. Let us put in mind though that the media tends to be objective.
The final vote is still our choice.
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Guys, sorry I cannot look for the link in the Midland Courier's site.
I hope this will do. Thanks for the support and readership.
You've spoiled me sooooo much on this little journey.
I hope i can keep up with the other good wishes you have for me.
(Except for the accounting stuff of course: Carl, Melowin, Mae, Alex, Gem, Vange, Rhea and Josaine).
Thanks guys. :)
