Former communists are today's campaign operatives and political mechanics.

as told to Luz Rimban

This piece was based on an interview with a political consultant who was, once upon a time, an activist. This first-person account records the interviewee's thoughts on one of the realities of the current election campaign: the vital, though not often visible, role that former leftists are playing as political consultants and campaign operatives for various candidates. This issue of i magazine being on elections, we thought it instructive to include this piece in our lineup of stories.

While many articles have been written on the split and the debates within the Communist Party of the Philippines and the national-democratic movement, this piece is not one of them. It is not a critique of the movement and its leaders, neither is it an apology for ex-leftists who are perceived to have sold out. It does not aim to delve into the reasons why they "left the Left" (in the words of one political science professor). It is merely a reflection on a life after the Left. The subject's views, however, may not necessarily represent those of the thousands who once colored themselves red.

	Leftists are adept at staging rallies as well as conducting armed struggle. But they are also today's most sought-after campaign operators.

JOSE Ma. Sison should cry at all the wasted talent. He could have won the revolution if the movement had stayed its course and kept its children from straying into the forbidden capitalist and reactionary world. (He shares a large part of the blame, too, of course, for steering a hard-line course and ousting — not to mention possibly ordering the elimination — of some of the best cadres from the party.) At any rate, these days, many of us who used to be part of the underground are all over the place. Some of us run telecommunications companies, public utilities, banks, and even the highest offices of government. Many form that segment of the middle class that supports decent candidates.

Being a successful former activist creates its own ethical crises. We have this need to reaffirm our activist roots every three years by supporting and voting for the right candidates, and by bringing out our checkbooks and donating to groups like Bayan Muna and Akbayan.

But some of us go even further. Indeed, the unseen hand in the 2004 elections is the Left — not as an organized bloc, but as the womb from which the savvy men and women running the current election campaigns have emerged. The activists and communists of the 1970s, '80s, and '90s are today's campaign operators. I could name at least 50 of us ex-leftists in each of the presidential candidates' campaign organizations. Hundreds — if not thousands — more are running campaigns at the local levels all over the country.

An activist has the kind of skills that aren't taught in school and the kind of skills for which you don't get a diploma. When he or she returns to his hometown from college in Manila, with or without a diploma, he or she becomes an asset, with talents that would be easily parlayed by politicians in need of organizers, propagandists, and operatives. A candidate running for national office doesn't hire an accountant, an architect, or an Ivy League graduate. He needs someone with political skills, someone used to doing battle on the ground, and not in some ivory tower. And the politician will soon realize that he will get more bang out of his buck if he entrusts his campaign to an ex-leftist.

After all, elections are basically propaganda wars, the "expose-and-oppose" kind of advocacy. It is the kind of advocacy we leftists have been primed for since our youth. The organizing and propaganda tactics honed by activists — through decades of involvement in underground or aboveground political work — are easily transferred to an election campaign.

For this reason, the leftist movement was a good training ground for political operatives; it is the best finishing school for campaign managers and organizers. First of all, leftists have a good grasp of policy issues, and an election is one whole policy debate. As activists we studied the national situation for years through teach — ins and various levels of leftist indoctrination. As teenagers, we committed to memory the whole spectrum of Philippine politics, and we knew by heart the nature and characteristics of social classes.

We were honed in close-quarters fighting, mano a mano. We are used to an "all-or-nothing" kind of war. In the movement, we believed we had nothing to lose but our chains. We developed an instinct for survival along with the killer instinct — the instinct to subdue the enemy through legal, semi-legal, and even illegal means. We are therefore uniquely equipped for political struggle.