A MESSY DEMOCRACY

For Filipinos, of course, noise is part of politics and of our democracy. It is a democracy that has been messy as well, and one sometimes wonders why a poor country would cherish it so much when it has yet to deliver on most of its promises. 

	A VIEW of the PAD-occupied Makhawan bridge, with the banner accusing the government of destroying the country. (This was taken just before the Constitutional Court ruled against Samak, but the protesters remain.) [photo by Johanna Son]

Some would say the Philippines is a battle-hardened nation — one that, like many other countries, decided at several junctures in its history that foreign rule and local despots were unacceptable, and in more recent decades, that civilian rule is to be held supreme at all costs. Yes, Filipinos blocked Edsa in February 1986 to protect the coup leaders at Camp Aguinaldo. But the citizens’ move was part of a popular revolt, long brewing before the military decided to switch sides, to make sure Marcos’s rule ended. In the late ‘80s and again in recent years, Filipinos also made it clear that the military should stay in the barracks and not toy with the idea that it can have a role in the political arena.

And yet the messiness of democratic processes has meant that elections may put in power rogues and the corrupt, and do not, on their own, translate into good governance, or tear down undemocratic structures like oligarchies or reduce the gap between rich and poor.

These truths hit home even more clearly when one has been living overseas for some years.

A question asked of me from time to time is: The Philippines is known for its capable workers, has some great minds in international diplomatic, political, and activist circles, so why is your country like that? “Like that” could mean many things at any one point, a situation where corruption charges against people close to the president remain unresolved, or one where the economy is bad shape.

Then again, we are among the world’s largest exporters of human labor due largely to our perpetually sorry economy. Pinoys sing in probably most of the world’s hotels and lounges (Thailand included), work as seafarers in most of the world’s ships, clean houses across the globe, and send home record remittances each year. Our continued push for outmigration is far larger and steadier than many of our Philippines’ neighbors, and there is no indication of that changing anytime soon.

The challenge remains very much how to make our system of democracy, warts and all, deliver the economic goods.

DEALING WITH POLITICAL TENSIONS

What Pinoy-style democracy has consistently provided is space. In general, any group feeling strongly about a cause is able to go to the streets to voice out either its support or protest. Violence has occurred in the past, but this has not deterred many from speaking out. To some, photos and reports of groups shouting slogans and carrying insult-and-humor-filled banners, are just gulo, evidence of disorder. But the rowdiness, the open anger mixed with fiesta make for normal political culture in the Philippines — until the next rally to release frustrations and bring pressure on the government.

By contrast, Thailand is not exactly a society that is used to rallies left and right or easily finds ways to let its stresses out (even if it is the land of great massage places). Media reports and academic papers often describe it as a hierarchical society, having social structures that for a long time have seen the voice of Bangkok-based elite and middle class, determine political fates. It is this same bias, analysts say, that drive groups like PAD to argue that the rural voters who brought to power people like Thaksin and Samak did not know any better when they chose these figures, and that this now has to corrected through means outside the normal democratic electoral process. A key PAD leader, publisher and businessman Sondhi Limthongkul, was quoted as saying in the International Herald Tribune that Thai elections lead to “a very shabby democracy.”

In a commentary in the English-language The Nation newspaper, journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk asked why in recent weeks “the views of ordinary people — especially the rural poor — have been conspicuously absent from media reports.” He also asked, “What has happened to the opinions of the 70 percent of the population who are not members of the middle class and elite?”

Some Thais say it is not easy to see beyond the personalities involved and note that in a democratic process, the means to remove elected leaders is the ballot. Van also echoes others in saying, “My fear is that though Samak may be gone, some others can be chased out the same way. I can’t really give you any solution because it has been like this for ages — people, power, and money. We can’t escape.”

	THE ornate arches that dot Rajadamnoern Nok Avenue in old Bangkok contrast with the PAD rally site. [photo by Johanna Son]

So far, the usual possible scripts have not played out, including the military stepping in. In recent weeks, many have also expressed the hope that the King would intervene as he has in the past, and bring some order and stability back.

The green activist says the present situation could be a threshold of sorts, offering a chance for Thai society to try to find a way to deal with these stresses. He points to the fact that non-violence has so far been stated and affirmed as a norm and standard by all sides, especially after a violent confrontation on Sept. 2 that resulted in one death.

The activist says he would not like to see another coup in a country that has already had 18 since Thailand became a constitutional monarchy in 1932. “Maybe, maybe there is a little opening here for some kind of change,” he says. “We’ve never had real, deep change. All the changes have been just at the surface. Other countries have had revolutions, colonization, and other pressures that result in a change of structure. For us, it’s been the same for a long time.”

He adds that the crisis is not really about Samak or Thaksin, or the corruption or electoral charges against them. “This is about class,” says the activist, noting the conclusion by groups like PAD that the rural vote for populist leaders carries less weight than that of the Bangkok-based elite. “(And) we haven’t really had a way to deal with such tensions.”