At the core of our democratic life is the commitment to the idea that the people have the sovereign right to govern the people. The whole institution of the government, therefore, is simply a creation of the people—a convenient framework that allows those freely chosen by the people to effectively give life to the mandate they have received (at the risk of sounding repetitive) from the people.
Being a creation of the people, it follows logically that the government, down to the merest factotum, must serve the needs of the people to the exclusion of all other considerations. Everything that the government does ought to, by rights, be for the purpose only of securing the greatest good for the greatest number. The personal ambitions of those in the government—whether they directly received a mandate from the electorate—must always play second fiddle, even to the point of their irrelevance. And at no juncture is this standard most tested as when it comes time for the sovereign people to decide on who ought to be in the government.
During elections, those in the government are forced to confront the possibility that they might lose their power. The elected may be voted out of office; and without those elected officials, the appointed may find themselves eased out of their jobs. The notion that service to the people outweighs personal ambition, suddenly becomes a very threatening proposition, predisposing to an adversarial frame of mind. Those in power with the considerable resources of the government at their disposal, and the relatively powerless everyone else trying to win a seat at the table—both as candidates and as voters.
So, when we in government act in a partisan manner—wielding the massive influence and harnessing the enormous resources of the government for the purpose of unduly swaying the electorate to support favored candidates—we are essentially taking the powers given to the government, and using it in a way that prolongs our stay in power, thereby defeating the sovereignty of those from whom we received that power in the first place. Under such conditions, the government betrays its own creator. To use a different metaphor: whenever the government acts in a partisan manner, it is essentially engaging in coup d’etat.
When that happens, the government loses its character as a creation of the people and becomes only their oppressor. No longer is the government an expression of the sovereign will but rather a parody of that will—a farce. A government that uses its power to secure electoral advantages for itself has lost its legitimacy. Make no mistake about it: it might remain in control—its grip on the reins probably even strengthened for a little while—but a government that has strayed into partisanship forfeits its moral right to stay there.
1 comment
Interesting thought, however, this article focuses only on the negatives. This is the reason I hate Philippine media because it is full of rubbish nonsense. Nothing good or encouraging comes out of; it is mostly articles to sway public opinion on specific subjects.