SOME IDEAS FROM A VIEWER OF THIS BLOG!

I read a good work from one of the viewers of this blog. This message was written by Jeanette Bonifacio of the Ang KaSaMa group in the Philippines. Here is the message:

Gov’t subsidy of the electoral process! The reason you have a rotten society is because you have rotten leaders & a rotten system. In order to create a new society, you have to have a new system & new leaders. They have to create each other. Leaders have to create system and system have to create leaders. A system where we allow MONEY to dictate the destiny of a people is a highly-questionable system. Loose talks from some reliable sources point to the fact that since time immemorial nat’l campaign money comes from the host of illegal activities like jueteng, drug-syndicates, kidnap for ransom, bank robbery, etc. This is the main reason why this gov’t & all succeeding administrations will never be able to solve the drug-problem of this country. On the other hand, the Gov’t subsidy of the entire electoral process will immediately and effectively put a stop to the campaign-money coming from vested interest groups & illegal activities. This will make politicians & public officials become BEHOLDEN only to the gov’t. Big businesses’ control and monopoly over the political destination of this country by way of lucrative investments to favored politicians must end. If I may quote from the Phil. Daily Inquirer issue dated February15, 1992, from its Editorial entitled “Money and Politics”, last paragraph, which says “Until Congress passes a law subsiding the major candidates campaign for the president and other national posts, candidates and parties will have to think of creative ways of breaking the hold of money on Phil. Politics. If we are to have a real democracy, money must stop determining the outcome of elections.”Number 7, under Section 2 of Letter C on Commission on Election, Article IX on Constitutional Commission, defines the powers and functions exercised by Comelec under Section 2 to, (#7) Recommend to Congress effective measures to: 1. Minimize election spending 2. Limitation of places where propaganda materials are to be posted. 3. Prevent and penalize all forms of election frauds, offenses and malpractices. 4. Remove nuisance candidates. Perhaps one of the many challenges that faced Congress, hitherto, is that mandate in the Constitution, where Comelec in its exercise of its powers and functions (may) recommend to Congress effective measures to MINIMIZE ELECTION SPENDINGS!The ff. suggestions hope to dramatically minimize, if not entirely eliminate the role that money plays in the outcome of elections. To this end, bills may be filed in Congress precisely for this purpose: Shorten campaign period! Many candidates become sick because they have to cover the length and breadth of a certain constituency. Specific areas like barangay halls, plazas, basketball courts, etc. are places where meetings can be held. Aspirants should then be effectively discouraged from wasting their time, for example, using door to door contact. This is one of the main reasons why campaign periods take sometime. The more time spend to campaign, the more money is spent - e.g. let national campaign be done via multimedia - radio, newspaper& nationwide TV coverage like the impeachment trial or Comelec hour, w/out the candidates covering the length & breadth of the archipelago. Remove or eliminate the fiesta atmosphere as a traditional campaign strategy. Motorcades and lavish miting de avances which more often than not include expensive fireworks, entertainers, actors and actresses, celebrities, etc. must all be banned. In the words of P.R. Sarkar, “The farce of sham democracy has been likened to a puppet-show were power hungry politicians pull the strings from behind the scene.”Some so-called democracies" have reduced elections to mere popularly contests and survival of the fittest. Generally speaking, the traditional ways and approaches made by political demagogues, catering to people’s emotions and sentiments, to popularize themselves, in most cases, is primarily what is important to the people at large and to the “trapo” politicos as well. Entertainment, by and large, instead of the urgency of mass education, etc., becomes the name of the game. Society had degenerated to the point that the “MOB” is able to dictate even to the leaders of this country, to “seek and aspire for popularity”, rather than “righteousness and soul-searching”. All the education, issue-orientation, principles and ideology, and platforms of government, are all thrown in the dustbin of history. In fairness to the so-called MOB, deep inside them, they really want genuine change, for after all, their poverty is definitely beyond mere reform. Frankly speaking, all these posters everywhere, TV, radio and newspaper ads, motorcades and lavish star-studded miting de avances, etc:, don’t mean anything at all, as far as “Voters education is concerned!”In fact, many times over, they tend to becloud the issues, and inmore ways than one, MONEY, almost single handedly dictates the outcome of elections. At this point, may I state categorically, that there are basically three (3) ways to know a candidate: 1.) Educational attainment or credential 2.) Track record – in public office for re-electionists and NGO’s or private sector records for neophytes 3.) Platform of government- which contain among others: a.) plan of action (short, medium and long term) b.) vision of society- contains all the ideal features of what a candidate perceives to be an ideal society. And as a fierce advocate of Alternative Political and Electoral reform-programs, I've watched over the years with keen interest, precisely, reforms that maybe instituted by the Electoral Reform Committees of both the Senate and the House-and the result is that up to now, “zero-reform”, is their proud record of achievement! Again, in fairness to these brilliant lawmakers, particularly the heads of these committees, they saw no need for reforms, lest they “rock the boat”, so to speak…I rest my case...........