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THE LIMITS OF OLIGARCHIC
POWER: Beyond the 2010 Elections
"Organization is the weapon of the weak in their struggle with the
strong."
-Robert Michels, Political Parties
by
Roland G. Simbulan
They say that
elections in the Philippines are like the game of musical chairs. In
reality, however, elections are contests exclusively for the elites and
their families who will later use their political positions of power for
private gain for themselves and their affluent families. They are
exercises for the oligarchy in sharing political power among their
coterie of the elite. While more than 70 percent of our people are poor,
more than 80 percent of the elected representatives in Congress and
presidency belong to the exclusive multimillionaires’ club, based on
their own declared assets and liabilities.
Factions of the oligarchy and bureaucrat
capitalists have maintained their power by manipulating the poor and
powerless especially during electoral contests. They have used the poor
as their tiradors or hitmen in their contention for limited seats of
political power at the national and local level.
But no matter how much they
pretend to come from the ranks of the poor, or to project themselves as
pro-masses ("maka-masa,)" especially in their electoral propaganda, one
can see how they have gained from their positions of political power.
Can the oligarchy nationalize
and expropriate land and private property under the auspices of a
genuine agrarian reform law as Cuban President Fidel Castro did in May
1959 when he led by the example in implementing Cuba's sweeping Agrarian
Reform Law by first nationalizing his own family's sprawling hacienda in
Biran, eastern Cuba?
Validation
The coming
Philippine elections are further validating the long-held truism that:
- The elections are basically contests for the
elite and economically powerful.
- The major political parties running for national
positions are basically money machines, and convenient alliances of
political clans and dynasties, and are not based on real genuine,
consistent party principles or platforms.
- Politics is still very
personality-oriented.
But these characteristics of Philippine
electoral politics are also the limitations of oligarchic power. These
limitations are on the following grounds:
- Oligarchic power thrives on the low awareness of
the people and the divisions among the non-elites. Once the people
become socially-aware and organize, they challenge the very foundations
of elite rule.
- Oligarchic monopoly of state power can never be
expected to deliver policies and services for the vast majority of the
poor and oppressed.
- Oligarchic power limits the exercise of true
political democracy and the realization of social justice.
- Oligarchic power reduces the democratizing
economic benefits that may come from economic growth. The economic pie
and GNP/GDP may grow each year, but only a tiny speck of the population
will corner this added wealth for themselves and benefit from it.
The real hope
This is why the hope
is not in the electoral struggle per se. The real hope lies in deepening
the processes of democratization, in strengthening and widening the
grassroots citizens' movements which can act as an effective
countervailing force against the economic, political and military
domination of the oligarchy - both foreign and local. Thus, elections at
the national and local levels should not be a mere contest among the
factions of the elites and bureaucrat capitalists, among whom we are
often limited to choose from. The real struggle is between the continued
oligarchic rule and the exploited/oppressed toiling masses.
And real power is not also in state power
per se. Real power is in an empowered citizens' grassroots movement
seeking to wrest control of economic and political power from the
oligarchs. The role of people's movements in their engagement with the
elite-driven state is not just to provide an effective check and balance
in the state, or to share a token of that state power. Their role is to
develop alternative local and national leaders for the emergence of a
genuine political party of the non-elite to challenge oligarchic power.
For this, it may be necessary to unify the country's diverse progressive
and left-of-center forces behind a coherent political program.
What therefore, are the tasks at hand for
people's organizations and social movements which are participating in
the coming political exercise?
- Use the whole electoral exercise to expose the
bankruptcy of oligarchic power and corrupt oligarchic politics that only
reinforce if not legitimize the monopoly of political and economic power
of the few. And we should show to the electorate whose consciousness we
are raising that we are the genuine people's alternative to the corrupt
patronage politics of the oligarchy.
- Show by example that "New Politics" and "Politics
of Change" is always a principled one; it must maintain its high moral
ground and should never imitate the practices of corrupt traditional
politicians and the parties of the elite, just to get positions of
power. It should not be used by any faction of the old or nouveau riche
oligarchy in their bid for power. To do so is to act like a hatchet
person of one oppressor against another. We should avoid riding on the
discredited political machines of the elites which are fueled merely by
money and patronage. How we win, is how we will govern.
- Maximize the election to raise the level of
consciousness of the people, to make and develop new contacts in all
provinces and regions, and to organize and further broaden and
strengthen people's organizations. Special focus and more serious work
should be given to our engagement with local government units (LGUs) for
consolidating grassroots political power.
The greater tragedy of oligarchic power and
politics is if the hoi polloi -- the poor victims themselves -- fight
and kill one another while the exploiting classes playfully swap musical
chairs in an elite game we call elections.
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