THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE FILIPINO DEMOCRACY | By: Lourenzo Manimtim

 

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE FILIPINO DEMOCRACY 

By: Lourenzo Manimtim

The state of the nation depends on states of citizens, and a nation is governed by leaders and the leaders are elected by the citizens. It is not a very big surprise to see usual the political situation of the Philippines, shown in the media are the rampant cases of corruption, incompetence of leaders, violence, and greed.  Most politicians operate by their own interests, primarily the traditional politicians, the large and corrupt big political families that rule the power and government in our country. And many of these families are fat dynasties, with their greed of power and wealth they leech and drain the country of its resources. But aside from the fat dynasties, there also other ordinary politicians that use their power for their own interests. But amidst the current situation we cannot take for granted that there are also good politicians that loyally serves and loves their country and the society.

 But if you will ponder, what do you think the is the cause of these problems? Was it because of democracy? Where the people are free to vote their desired leader. One might note that the cause of our today’s political problems is caused by democracy. The main reason is because of the bad performance shown by our elected leaders. The problems of democracy had long been observed since the ancient times, in the time of ancient Greece. Plato an ancient Greek Philosopher and one of greatest Philosopher of all time had noted down the flaws of democracy of Ancient Greece, in which is still very much apparent today. The Philippines of the current times still embodies the problems and flaws of the democracy of Ancient Greece.

            The Philippines is an island nation, an archipelago, located in Southeast Asia. It is inhabited freely by is locals primarily with “Malay” origins. But soon the Philippines was invaded and conquered by Spain for 300 years, then by the United States, and lastly, Japan, then after the war the United States declared the Independence of the Filipino people. Throughout the times, much of the Filipino history is with the Philippines being conquered and controlled as a colony, especially for the longest time by the Spanish Empire. And just like any other country that had too much the Philippines desired for freedom against its oppressors. Inspired by the actions of the French people in the French Revolution. The Filipino began a revolution for the sake achieving democracy lasting for decades until its true independence. Democracy is the right of the people to rule themselves and choose and elect people of their choice to stand as their leaders.

            In Plato’s Philosophy, beyond the imperfect world (the real world) is one called the world of “Forms”. The forms are defined as the perfect ideal world. Our reality which what we see, or the actual word is simply compromised of imperfect replica of the Ideal Form. We have achieved the democracy that our ancestors have fought so hard to achieve, to live on and pass their ideals and dreams for the country. The dream for the greatness, betterment, and glory to our country. But where have things gone now? Our democracy today is simply but an imperfect replica of our ancestor’s ideal democracy. The Filipino people always desires for a change, they yearn to have a hero that can save the Philippines from its curses. To hope and make a change into the problems of society we vote, we conduct elections and select for the leader that we “think” that can help save our beloved country from the clutches of its past. For the long time our nation has become independent and have achieved democracy, we have been electing leaders to serve our nation. But why is that changes are little to nothing? Didn’t the leaders promised to change and improve our country? Why do they make promises, yet nothing happened? Who elected these leaders?

            Humans are rational beings, they can analyze, act, and think cognitively. They have a choice, and it is within their own right. People are free to make their decisions and are free to exercise their right of suffrage at their own pace. In a democracy, people are free to vote the person they “think” is worthy. But is what they “think” is simply enough for voting the next leaders? Humans are rational beings, but they can be irrational sometimes with their choices. There are cases of many Filipinos regretting their votes to the leader that they “think” can help the country. This is exactly one of Plato’s flaws of democracy. Plato hated democracy as he observed how few people could think properly before they vote and therefore, they get very substandard rulers. Filipinos love fame, celebrities, and entertainment, they love the people who can make the biggest shows and the most captivating of speeches, so without proper discernment they vote for the populists, people that are makamasa that are very popular with most of the Filipino masses. These people primarily consist of celebrities and influential public figures that makes big promises, promises that people like and promise the things they desire. Many of these populists are elected, most observed are in the senate where there are many populists in seat. I won’t say that populists are automatically bad, but most of these elected officials, primarily the celebrities, have little to do nothing in the senate. Therefore, they become very substandard leaders. Plato implies from his observation in democracy that lack the education among the voters. May cause for the populace to vote the person not the most applicable and suitable for the job. Plato wanted to prevent people from voting until they had started to think rationally.

Education is definitely very significant in exercising one’s ability to vote. Voting in an election is not merely a small obligation, it is a skill, a big responsibility in which a person must be wise of its choices and keep in mind that the person we will desire to vote, is the leader you truly trust that can help fix the current problems of our country. Being properly educated is a must before doing any activity, you first make sure to know everything beforehand, you will be aware of the mechanics, strength and weaknesses, and the proper way of doing your desired activity for lesser chances of error and regret. And this concept applies with choosing our leaders, we shouldn’t just choose our leaders because they are popular, charismatic, a very captivating public speaker, etc. We must be wise on our choices and properly discern the best leader that we should vote for. Therefore, it is important that we know who candidates will be, their background and track records, their goal, and motivations for running for office, and what their mission is for the country. it is essential that we should properly judge our desired candidates and ask the question “Does my preferred candidate really fit the bill? Does my candidate deserve my vote?”

It is indeed important to know the information needed before we vote the next future leader. We need to find their likes and dislikes and their strengths and weaknesses as a person and as a future leader. That is why to search and find the information we seek on our candidates we go into the Media.

The word media is a plural form of the Latin word 'medium' meaning 'middle ground or intermediate'. The media serves as a bridge or a way for the people to know and share the information they desire. The media is often associated with big broadcast companies like ABS-CBN or GMA, in which these companies are responsible for sharing the right and true information the public needs to know. But right now, in the current times, these media companies are not the only ones that affects the flow of information in the minds of the people. With the rise of Social Media services like Facebook and Twitter, the ability of people to seek and share information are easier than ever. With people having the ability to share news and information in social media, makes it easier to search for the knowledge and information that you seek. It is very helpful because we can easily better access the information that we need. But despite the benefits of social media in information sharing, one must always be aware of its disadvantages. Information to be found in social media is easy to search and find but one must take note that most information you can find in social media are unfiltered and this information can primarily be false and misleading, thus the popular term called “Fake News”. In time of elections, social media is the modern battleground for Filipino Politicians to reach out and persuade voters. They are many people who use fake news as a weapon against opposing candidates of different parties. There are the people that called as “Trolls” which aims to wreak havoc and disorder to many people, by posing as anonymous accounts. The cyber warfare in social media during election times is dangerous as bombs. People must be critical in searching information, they must first verify if the content is true to avoid getting the wrong information. Many people today exercise disinformation (intentional falsehood) campaigns, and these people have victimized many giving the wrong information. As Plato reminds to the people of democracy, it is important for voters to have the knowledge and education necessary in making a rational choice. And in our venture to search for the true information, a person must be critical, wise, and not hesitant to fact check the information they see.

In Plato’s book the Republic, it main goal is justice, Plato’s desire to achieve the ideal utopia. Plato says that “Politicians should become Philosophers, until they become Philosopher Kings or Philosopher’s Kings” he implies that “philosophers would be the best rulers of society because they're able to understand true goodness and justice in a way that other people cannot. Because they would understand that the greatest self-benefit is living virtuously, they would act out morally and not out of self-interest.” And I agree on the idea that leaders must have the capacity and capability to think and act rationally like a philosopher in making their decisions for the sake of true goodness and justices. Plato also describes that Being a ruler is the same as any other profession, like a doctor with is patients, a politician must dedicate themselves to full governance with no greed and desire for profit. But even though we are aware of these values people at some in their lives, particularly the elected officials, can get corrupt. Plato had also observed this human psychology as one of the flaws of democracy, that humans are never satisfied on what they have and further and further they will get corrupt. In this day, the vice of corruption is still apparent and can be observed in the current political situation of the Philippines. Democracy cannot be efficient and achieve its full potential if its leaders are corrupt and greedy. I have always observed that human greed is the most innate sin of humans the moment they gained consciousness. Greed is a foundational sin of humankind but even so sins can be overcome. Greed and corruption of leaders can cause disorder and unlawfulness to the people. But a good man will always act lawfully even in an unlawful state. Leaders reflect and represent our country and democracy; it is very important choose the leaders that can overcome greed.

The state of the nation depends on the state of its citizens. A country or a state cannot be formed without the people especially in a democracy. It is a combined effort of the people and its leaders to make a nation thrive and be successful. The current state of the democracy in the Philippines is not just exclusive in the country. Corruption, greediness, violence, and incompetence all these bad vices are present in any democracy in the world. Plato one of the first utopian thinkers and a scholar and philosopher of democracy, hates the affairs on how democracy works in the real world due to the imperfections of the human man on how irrational human beings can become and how democracy easily be taken advantage. Still there is no perfect government in the world as any government of any type has its own problems and flaws. As stated by L.G. Writings (2020). There is no such as the perfect political system, what makes a government a good government is its people. The concept of Plato in democracy shows the fundamental flaws of democracy that is still present today. It is unlikely but we can never tell if these problems of democracy can ever be vanquished. The political situation of Democracy in the Philippines that we almost see in the media every day is bad. But I believe in these dark side of things, there is light! After all the foundation of Philippine democracy is founded in the values of freedom, justice, and goodness.

 There are things that we should learn from Plato to fix the flaws of democracy and apply it in our country; Everyone should have access to universal education as education is significant for rational thinking in deciding the right choice, The society must be free of discrimination and practice the art of respect where everyone can showcase their abilities and skills, Division of labor must be by aptitude and ability and not by gender, and lastly, Choose leaders that can overcome greed that will dedicate to full governance, leaders that can think and act like Philosophers.

Plato and his ideas on democracy, presents of the past that is still present until this very day. Plato maybe is a great philosopher, and he may have bad ideas that we could not agree with, but he is aware of that as he is simply a replica of the Ideal Philosopher (Perfect Philosopher).

Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. We must learn and educate ourselves about value of our democracy that our ancestors had fought for. We must learn from the past mistakes of democracy and incorporate the good ideas and lessons of scholars and philosophers such as Plato, to lessen the shortcomings of democracy. You might hate the current system in the Philippines, but there is no perfect government in this world as every entity in the world are imperfect and posses’ flaws.

 It is the people that run the government, and these people elect the leaders. There won’t be better states if there won’t be better man. How democracy runs in the Philippines is decided and conducted by the people. The state of the nation depends on the state of its citizens, “The fate of a nation lies within the palms of its own people.” (L.G. WRITINGS, 2021)