'Necessary Evil'
'Necessary evil'
Updated 10:26pm (Mla time) Sept 12, 2004
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the September 13, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
I REMEMBER that Bobi Tiglao dismissed the Ibon version of that finding by saying the group never published its methodology. As though the other survey organizations-Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia in particular-did. But comes now the SWS corroborating Ibon's finding:
Most Filipinos believe Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo won the elections by cheating.
Specifically, 23 percent of SWS' respondents said they believed Fernando Poe Jr. and Loren Legarda were "definitely cheated" and 32 percent said they believed the two were "probably cheated." That makes 55 percent of the population believing GMA (and Noli de Castro) cheated in the elections, to the extent that the SWS' sample represents the population reasonably accurately.
The SWS itself admitted a couple of months or so ago to making some very wrong predictions about the elections, which is at least a B+ for honesty. Those mistakes, of course, are more than a matter of passing academic interest since pre-election surveys do more than just predict outcomes, they influence them. Surveys have become the biggest advertising gimmick for candidates, something that's bound to get worse in the future. Some rules are needed there. But that's another story.
Ignacio Bunye bristles at this revelation and says: "The polls on cheating are a throwback to the past. The Presidential Electoral Tribunal has already taken jurisdiction over the issues. We have to shed off these perceptions and get on with the difficult task at hand."
Pray, why is ferreting out the public's perception about whether we have the right president or not a thing of the past? Unless, of course, Bunye means to suggest that honesty or the search for the truth is now dead and buried. He himself says we face a difficult task at hand, which is dealing with an impending collapse of the economy. Now surely, it helps in facing a difficult task at hand that we know we have the president we voted for? Indeed, surely it helps in facing the wilderness that we know the person who is leading us out of it is not chronically given to lying and cheating?
I myself have no doubt GMA cheated in the elections. That is patent. The only question in my mind is the extent to which it affected the elections. That is the only thing that remains arguable. But the fact that she cheated in them must make the entire exercise suspect, with disastrous consequences for the future.
You do not have to dig deeply for signs of cheating, the thing was done barefacedly. Four of them easily leap to mind: Benjamin Abalos (he didn't just bungle the mandate to computerize canvassing through ineptitude, he did so through criminal complicity, yet he was retained); the use of government funds to put up billboards and ads (on election day itself Honeygirl de Leon was on TV relentlessly pitching for her boss); the statistical improbability that was the Cebu tally (giving GMA a bigger margin over FPJ than in her own province of Pampanga); and Raul Gonzalez's and Francis Pangilinan's railroading of the Senate counting (the word "noted" will never be the same again; no wonder Gonzalez got an instant promotion).
No, I am not amazed that the SWS has confirmed Ibon's revelation. You can fool all Filipinos some of the time and some Filipinos all the time, but you can't fool all Filipinos all the time.
I am amazed, however, by one thing. That is the equanimity with which we are taking all this. Elsewhere, news like this would be greeted with angry editorials and calls for the President to resign. Or at least for a full-blown investigation to be made. Here, we've met the news with a shrug of the shoulders and mutterings of "what else is new?" Truly, every day raises the bar in our capacity to tolerate iniquity.
What is especially frightening here is that our lack of outrage does not come from ignorance but from tolerance. GMA has gotten away with murder in several instances because of public complicity, particularly of the more influential sectors of society, including the businessmen and the intelligentsia. The cheating in the elections happened in the first place because those sectors agreed that it was all right for GMA to cheat to prevent a "greater evil," which was FPJ becoming president. The intelligentsia-a most ironic word-was willing to turn a blind eye to the rape of sovereign will for expedience's sake.
The same appeal to expedience is bound to be used again to stymie any public protest against the cheating in the elections, if at all that protest erupts. Bunye's argument indicate so: "We have to shed off these perceptions and get on with the difficult task at hand." That is going to be the official line: Let's forget about the cheating, what's done is done. Let's concentrate on the coming storm and rally around our president. That is the logical continuation of the previous line, though never articulated, which was: "We have to shed off our inhibitions about screwing the vote and get on with the difficult task of preventing FPJ from winning." Both trot out the bogey of a "greater evil" to justify a clear and present one.
In fact, the only way we can deal with the difficult task at hand is for us to stop shedding our scruples about wrongdoing. The concept of a "necessary evil" is the most dangerous thing in the world. The only thing worse than financial bankruptcy is moral bankruptcy. We already have the second, the first is waiting round the corner.
We want to deal with the difficult task at hand, we need a leader who is honest, upright, and forthright, not one who lies, cheats and steals. We want to survive the crisis, we need a necessary good, not a necessary evil.
Even if that has to take the form of another Edsa.
Updated 10:26pm (Mla time) Sept 12, 2004
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the September 13, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
I REMEMBER that Bobi Tiglao dismissed the Ibon version of that finding by saying the group never published its methodology. As though the other survey organizations-Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia in particular-did. But comes now the SWS corroborating Ibon's finding:
Most Filipinos believe Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo won the elections by cheating.
Specifically, 23 percent of SWS' respondents said they believed Fernando Poe Jr. and Loren Legarda were "definitely cheated" and 32 percent said they believed the two were "probably cheated." That makes 55 percent of the population believing GMA (and Noli de Castro) cheated in the elections, to the extent that the SWS' sample represents the population reasonably accurately.
The SWS itself admitted a couple of months or so ago to making some very wrong predictions about the elections, which is at least a B+ for honesty. Those mistakes, of course, are more than a matter of passing academic interest since pre-election surveys do more than just predict outcomes, they influence them. Surveys have become the biggest advertising gimmick for candidates, something that's bound to get worse in the future. Some rules are needed there. But that's another story.
Ignacio Bunye bristles at this revelation and says: "The polls on cheating are a throwback to the past. The Presidential Electoral Tribunal has already taken jurisdiction over the issues. We have to shed off these perceptions and get on with the difficult task at hand."
Pray, why is ferreting out the public's perception about whether we have the right president or not a thing of the past? Unless, of course, Bunye means to suggest that honesty or the search for the truth is now dead and buried. He himself says we face a difficult task at hand, which is dealing with an impending collapse of the economy. Now surely, it helps in facing a difficult task at hand that we know we have the president we voted for? Indeed, surely it helps in facing the wilderness that we know the person who is leading us out of it is not chronically given to lying and cheating?
I myself have no doubt GMA cheated in the elections. That is patent. The only question in my mind is the extent to which it affected the elections. That is the only thing that remains arguable. But the fact that she cheated in them must make the entire exercise suspect, with disastrous consequences for the future.
You do not have to dig deeply for signs of cheating, the thing was done barefacedly. Four of them easily leap to mind: Benjamin Abalos (he didn't just bungle the mandate to computerize canvassing through ineptitude, he did so through criminal complicity, yet he was retained); the use of government funds to put up billboards and ads (on election day itself Honeygirl de Leon was on TV relentlessly pitching for her boss); the statistical improbability that was the Cebu tally (giving GMA a bigger margin over FPJ than in her own province of Pampanga); and Raul Gonzalez's and Francis Pangilinan's railroading of the Senate counting (the word "noted" will never be the same again; no wonder Gonzalez got an instant promotion).
No, I am not amazed that the SWS has confirmed Ibon's revelation. You can fool all Filipinos some of the time and some Filipinos all the time, but you can't fool all Filipinos all the time.
I am amazed, however, by one thing. That is the equanimity with which we are taking all this. Elsewhere, news like this would be greeted with angry editorials and calls for the President to resign. Or at least for a full-blown investigation to be made. Here, we've met the news with a shrug of the shoulders and mutterings of "what else is new?" Truly, every day raises the bar in our capacity to tolerate iniquity.
What is especially frightening here is that our lack of outrage does not come from ignorance but from tolerance. GMA has gotten away with murder in several instances because of public complicity, particularly of the more influential sectors of society, including the businessmen and the intelligentsia. The cheating in the elections happened in the first place because those sectors agreed that it was all right for GMA to cheat to prevent a "greater evil," which was FPJ becoming president. The intelligentsia-a most ironic word-was willing to turn a blind eye to the rape of sovereign will for expedience's sake.
The same appeal to expedience is bound to be used again to stymie any public protest against the cheating in the elections, if at all that protest erupts. Bunye's argument indicate so: "We have to shed off these perceptions and get on with the difficult task at hand." That is going to be the official line: Let's forget about the cheating, what's done is done. Let's concentrate on the coming storm and rally around our president. That is the logical continuation of the previous line, though never articulated, which was: "We have to shed off our inhibitions about screwing the vote and get on with the difficult task of preventing FPJ from winning." Both trot out the bogey of a "greater evil" to justify a clear and present one.
In fact, the only way we can deal with the difficult task at hand is for us to stop shedding our scruples about wrongdoing. The concept of a "necessary evil" is the most dangerous thing in the world. The only thing worse than financial bankruptcy is moral bankruptcy. We already have the second, the first is waiting round the corner.
We want to deal with the difficult task at hand, we need a leader who is honest, upright, and forthright, not one who lies, cheats and steals. We want to survive the crisis, we need a necessary good, not a necessary evil.
Even if that has to take the form of another Edsa.
posted by Dante at 12:24 AM
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