TRAVELING on the road to the land of milk and honey is an arduous and challenging trek.
When Moses led the Jewish people to escape the clutches of their oppressive Egyptian masters, he had to contend with their impatience, incredulity and insatiability.
Despite miracle after miracle—the parting of the Red Sea that allowed them to flee the wrath of pursuing Egyptian soldiers; the evening quail that covered their desert camp so they could eat meat; the manna or bread from heaven that God showered on them for their sustenance—the Israelites still doubted if Moses could really get them to the Promised Land.
Didn’t they construct from melted jewelry and ornaments a golden calf to idolize and worship, out of fear, impatience and intransigence? This was when Moses left them on their own for 40 days and 40 nights to go up into the Biblical Mount Sinai to commune with God Who gave him the Ten Commandments etched in two stone tablets.
Perhaps, this is where democracy is at, at this very moment in this fast-changing world of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, where falsehood is the new norm. The perception that democracy has failed to deliver a better quality of life has resulted in some people carving out demagogues in the false belief that these golden icons can save them from hunger and depredation.
We now have to contend with the populist agenda of the alternative right—the alt-right politics—which threatens the world’s liberal economic and political order, and to a large extent the spirit and machinery of liberal democracy.
Dambisa Moyo, a global economist and author who analyzes macroeconomy and international affairs, believes that, across the world, democracy is under siege.
While political discourse tends to zero in on the failings of blatantly non-democratic countries, such as China and Russia, critics of liberal democracy have become conventional, as leading democratic nations become sources of unprecedented political unpredictability.
Who would have thought that Donald J. Trump—he who foments fear, anger and hate—would become the president of the United States, which for the longest time has been considered the bastion of the free world? Just recently, celebrations and protests rocked the streets of Rio de Janeiro after far-right Congressman Jair Bolsonaro, known as Brazil’s Donald Trump, became president-elect, having defeated by a wide margin leftist ex-Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad. Bolsonaro’s triumph capped one of the most polarizing and violent political campaigns in that country’s history,
The ascension to power of alt-right politicians and the Brexit vote come at a time when leading evolving establishments, such as China, Russia, Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, are swiveling away from liberal democratic systems.
Their populist agenda stokes people’s primordial response to unfounded danger. They mouth rhetoric that fan the flames of pride, hostility and hate. They’re not shy about disparaging women and people of color. They publicly spew curses, zealously mow down dissent, and run after politicians on the other side of the fence and the press. Their words often incite their rabid followers to commit violence against their targets.
Just recently, the world expressed horror and rage when a gunman, later identified as Robert Bowers, shot to death 11 people in a synagogue in Pittsburgh. The shooting during a Shabbat service was said to be the deadliest assault on Jews in US history, according to the Anti-Defamation League which monitors antisemitism. The shooting immediately came after an earlier act by Trump supporter Cesar Sayoc in southern Florida of sending pipe bombs to critics of Trump, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Jewish billionaire and philanthropist George Soros. Thirteen of the devices were declared on a federal criminal complaint. A 14th contraption was reported by billionaire Tom Steyer who has called for Trump’s impeachment. Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric was said to have inspired these people to go after his critics.
Here at home, President Duterte employs the same populist approach. Palace Spokesman Salvador S. Panelo explains that Duterte’s boorish style of governance was what made him president in the first place. People laugh and clap at his misogynist remarks, unrestrained cursing and incessant derogatory comments directed at his detractors. He has jailed Sen. Leila de Lima on trumped up drug charges, and kicked out Maria Lourdes A. Sereno as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court through a “quo warranto petition” (void from the very beginning). He is now bent on putting Sen. Antonio F. Trillanes IV behind bars on an executive order that nullifies his amnesty.
While more and more Filipinos go hungry, the body count on Duterte’s war on drugs increases by the day. Human-rights advocates believe that his administration is the cruelest to the poor. “Suspected” drug addicts are killed mercilessly, while drug lords remain scot-free. Corrupt people in his government are “recycled,” with some even being promoted. What really cuts deep and deals the harshest blow to freedom-loving Filipinos is that his net approval ratings remain at a very-good level, according to the recent survey done by the Social Weather Station (SWS).
Ironically, it is the same democratic space which Duterte abhors that has put him in Malacañang. This is the same freedom accorded to the Marcoses which they are now using to deodorize the late dictator’s image. It has parallelism in the US where the views of neo-Nazi groups are protected by the courts and the nation’s First Amendment. In one well-known case, the Supreme Court cited the First Amendment in defending the right of a neo-Nazi group to march through the predominantly Jewish town of Skokie, Illinois, and display swastika signs.
The major columns of liberal democracy in our country are being severely eroded. The health of the three pillars of government—the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary—is what makes democracy vibrant. Under Duterte, the clout of each is being battered. In the Executive, Duterte made sure that his political weapon is always loaded, as he enacts sweeping executive orders to dodge the legislative process and even instigate conflicts. The power concentrated on him swells as both houses of Congress meekly relinquish their powers in partisan politics. What has come to the fore is that Congress is being manipulated by the same party, even as the system passes laws that benefit Malacañang’s present occupant. The Judiciary has not been spared either. Our Supreme Court now wrongly draws its powers from an appointing authority, and has not been level and fair. We now painfully suffer from a generally corrupt Judiciary where the rights of dissenters are being trampled upon. On the Judiciary’s lower level, the poor has always been at a disadvantage.
The social media have enabled the explosion of “fake news.” The proliferation of poisoned sources of information has made most people incapable of making intelligent decisions because they are culling from biased, unverified or false information. The only option left for democratic warriors is relentless vigilance at the ballot box. In the coming election, they must campaign to the death and vote for those who will raise the country from the quagmire of indecency, corruption and disinformation that it has sunk into, and lead it back to where integrity, propriety and healthy political discourse are sacrosanct. The road leading to the land of milk and honey is a slow, difficult voyage. It’s never been easy, but democracy is our only hope.
For comments and suggestions, e-mail me at mvala.v@gmail.com.