Dirty, dirty campaign!

The present political campaign has turned terribly vicious. And the viciousness is disgustingly apparent in the actuations of candidates and their supporters. Casting stones and finger-pointing reveal how desperate people have become just to win the elections. The campaign has turned into a shameless display of power-lust.

Issues and platforms have virtually become non-exixtent. What's making headlines is the passionate exchange between the accusers and the accused, the chargers and the charged. And most of them have unclean hands.

If candidates and their supporters prefer dirty tactics to humane approaches, they're actually planting bad seeds. If they win, those seeds will eventually turn into bad fruits. If we start dirty we always end up dirty still. And the nation suffers in the filth.

Running for Office (Original Poem)

They are running for office.
Their mouths are dripping
with promises,
rhetoric and honey.

We are applauding.
They are moving us
with their moving tongues
and moving hands
in conventions
and rallies.

They are running for office.
Their lips are moving.
And we are listening.
We are cheering,
clapping and voting.

Then they are in office.
We keep waiting
for the fulfillment.

Then we sing the same sad songs
while we are crawling.

MUD

In political campaigns issues are never primary. Issues are raised. Then they eventually get blurred and unfortunately sink in the political mud. Ask supporters of their political candidate’s vision and platform and you hardly get substantial answers. (I admit. I too am guilty of this.) Ask them about the mud slung here and there. There will be quick responses. Political campaigns here in our country start off with grand slogans and intentions to serve people. Then the inevitable posturing and mud-slinging happen. And this is entertaining for many. Filipinos love to be entertained first. To be informed well is not first and foremost. Besides, people love posters. They remember the poster boy. But they forget the true issues because issues are often forgettable. Mud is memorable. Mud is part of the politics of politics.

QUITTER

If I were a politician running for office and I would find myself consistently lagging far behind surveys and polls, I would back out. Yes, this would make me a quitter. But this quitter is a wise quitter. It takes wisdom to discern the futility of running a race that is somehow not worth running...yet. It also takes humility to concede and bow out. This does not make me a defeatist at all. Pride and hunger for power usually push politicians to waste money on campaigns that are bound to fail. They are free to run though. But their foolhardiness would do the nation as a whole no good.