Putting P.I. in proper perspective
Posted on April 2, 2006 - Filed Under General |
FOUND in my internet surfings the best description, I think, of a politician's mindset: The brain of a typical politician, it said, has two sides: the LEFT side where there's nothing right; and the RIGHT side where there's nothing left.
Still wonder why an American southerner once curtly described democracy where politicians get free rein as simply "Da mess we's in!"
Even in just the current issue of a people's initiative, a cacophony ofvoices, some sober, some shrill, some plain stupid are making an otherwise very simple proposition complex, if not misleading. Dagupan City Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez has tried to put a better sense into all the current noise by almost exasperatedly pointing out that P.I is nothing more than the first step, repeat, the first step in a ladder of processes leading to, –if nothing intervenes (like-say, the Supreme Court) — possible amendments in the Constitution.
The problem is, the less-than-enlightened (read: half-ignorant) way some lower-rung leaders are "explaining" it to the people, people's initiative is the end-all and be-all of the Pinoy's troubles. As the dullards put it across to their constitutuents, People's Initiative daw "will change the Constitution so we can have a unicameral-parliamentary form of government" when they wake up the next morning. The way they put it , the sales talk goes something like, "Sign this now so we will have a new kind of government."
Partly because they may be actually agreeing to the idea and partly just to get rid of their persistent barangay officials' pestering them for signatures, simple folks would of course just sign.
Alvin, himself a member of the Malacanang-mandated Constitutional Commission (Con-Com), has been valiantly trying to correct this impression. He has in fact ,made the rounds of radio stations and made himself accessible to newspaper reporters to stress that no quick false hopes should be fed the people as regards any quick fixes for our present political and social problems.
Thru P.I, "we just want to get the people's sentiment and send the message to Congress that people are interested and for Congress to inform the people what it shall be proposing as possibe amendments," Alvin said.
"Then and only then will there be a decision by the people, if they favor any amendment on the change of form of government to a unicameral-parliamentary," the young vice mayor and Con-com member said.
He ends his discourse with the punchline: "Now is the time for the Great Debate for people to begin talking about anything they may wish their government to do."
Simply put though, Alvin's saying : "Let's not put the cart ahead of the horse." I agree.
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[...] After All is exasperated by some pro-amendments propaganda. big mango tackles the argument that irks After All: amendments are the cure! No, big mango says. A more methodical and intellectually-honest effort's the only cure.A similar reluctance to get sucked into political assumptions is what makes My Liberal Times so uneasy with those grumbling about the "ignorance of the electorate." [...]