THE ORIGINAL SIN

The challenge facing us today is how to make democracy work.  Political philosophers during the Enlightenment at the end of the Middle Ages cut the heads, literally and figuratively, of the Divine Right theory of monarchs to rule over the populace.  Then top it off with a  Napoleon and his military genius and voila! — one has the recipe of a true revolution – the  Ancien Regime giving way to New Nationalism and Liberalism of the thinkers, like John Locke and Thomas Hobbes.  We also have to thank our men of letters, the Novelists, whose plays and fictions cemented the Modern Era’s stride towards the basic foundation of political and social theory, that sovereignty resides in the people – thus, government rules only with the consent of the governed.

The predicament we Filipinos find ourselves in, is the harsh reality that our care-free voters do not weigh the qualities of candidates to public office in order to choose among them the best of the lot. We have to treat elections the same way that parents and grandparents process a young lad who comes a’courting their beautiful daughter or grand-daughter.  And with eagle eyes searching for wealth and manners after a long wait, they only agree to betroth their unica hija after a process of tests and trials.  Only then do they push their damsel to the deep ocean of life called marriage, a gamble that does not show its wisdom till the last breath of parents.

And so, here we are, married to the politicians for three or six years of their term, for better or for worse.  We cry corruption as the cause of all our hardships, but in truth and in fact, the original sin lies elsewhere, when we, the electorate, agree to sell our votes to the highest bidder. When we stop selling, that marks the time when we start expecting good governance.