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To cure his depression Congressman Bukad watched a video CD of the Beatles. "Blackbird" was his favorite song from the collection. He had been hobnobbing too much with politicians.
These days it is easier for him to attend congressional sessions and committee meetings. He does not have to deal with delayed flights and the indignities of going through airport security. But his new supernatural method of transport denies him the opportunity to talk with strangers. Fellow passengers are more inclined to talk to each other. But for a period of time since the massacre he talked only with fellow congressmen. The talk had invariably been about the massacre of 57 in Maguindanao and he could not help but realize how effectively politicians delude themselves and everyone else.
The general attitude was one of self-absolution. In this country, nobody takes responsibility for anything. We are all good guys. The Ampatuans are twisted. They are not normal. And yet everyone belongs to one political dynasty or other, each with its own sinister money source, its own brand of private army, its own potential to wreak havoc when it becomes necessary. Are violent political clashes likely?
Congressman Bukad believes we sit on a powder keg. Most of the old political dynasties had been stymied by two decades of martial law which ended in the mid-80s. Since then they had slowly regained their dominance over political life. The most powerful of them invariably derive their money from corruption. It is this money which gives them the power also to steal the elections either through coercion, vote buying or plain cheating.
What can people do about it? The Maker says, "Wait."
The times they are a-changing, or so he believes. Modernism is creeping, albeit slowly, into the old feudalistic political practices. In time, political dynasties will become obsolete and fade away. Christina thinks otherwise. In times past, it might have been possible to think that old political dynasties would eventually put their ill-gotten money into legitimate industry. One would expect this because legitimate business is clearly the safer economic base. Even the Mafia in America did this by the 1970s. But with the climate of impunity that now dominates, and solidly established in GMA's term, there is not much reason for anyone to do this. Politics has become big business. It is perhaps the biggest business in this time of global economic meltdown. It will remain so for many years to come.
But this method of engagement is intrinsically anarchistic. There are no rules that the ruling classes might apply to themselves. For how can they establish the ethos between each other? How can they agree among themselves: steal only so much, cheat only so much, these are the bounds within which we operate, thou shall not kill!
They are killing the whole country while we fool ourselves by presuming the massacre of 57 in Maguindanao is an isolated fluke, an act of insanity. It is not that. Congressman Bukad knows the potential of it happening in other places in the country. The body of Philippine traditional politics is a mindless machine which gobbles with impunity. Over the years it has become less hidden and in fact more brazen. The clearest indicator is the most common statement of absolution politicians apply to themselves for their acts. Everyone is doing. It is the only way to stay in power. It is only realism. Idealism is fantasy.
In the meantime the country gets poorer and poorer still. Because politics and corruption do not produce wealth for the country. At best it will only transfer money usually from foreign loans and assistance into the hands of whoever political dynasty holds power at any given point in time. It takes away from our potential to produce wealth. The type of realism politicians shove down our throats is also a form of mass suicide.
Yet it is possible to think the political dynasties are not by themselves evil. It is the structure itself which is evil. It is from this structure that we must liberate ourselves. The structure like everything else is only a construct built like a brick tower. It is not impregnable. Take a way a few bricks at the bottom and the tower will fall apart and crumble. Congressman Ysmael Bukad pondered the question: How?
