| Father Rector Talks
about Politics Donald Estero
|
Rev. Fr. ROLANDO dela ROSA, Rector
of the University, was guest speaker in atalk
sponsored by the Social Science Dept., Feb. 4 at AVR 311. The lecture entitled: A
Socio-Historical Study on Why we Vote the Way we
Vote, tackled Philippine politics. Fr. dela Rosa
explained how people vote in the present and said
that the "Filipino voter is
personality-oriented, not issue or
performance-oriented." Further, he stated
that "Personalism in itself is not bad but
our brand of personalism in politics was a
twisted result of a flawed democratic process.
Our type of democracy was something which was
bestowed on us before we were ready for it,
therefore producing a government that is by
consent and not of the government." He
related these present problems to three aspects:
historical, social, and religious respectively.
In the
historical aspect, he discoursed about KASEKISMO,
a system of indirect rule during the colonial
period when the Spaniards relied on native allies
to subjugate the Filipinos. Its negative
characteristics that have influenced present
politics are power exercised without competition
and close scrutiny, rules that are ignorant of
public issues, abuse of power, nepotism, and
indifference to human needs. These attitudes were
further reinforced by the educational system at
that time. Fr. dela Rosa pointed out that
"the past has a way of conditioning us
because we have a collective memory on which most
of our decisions are based rather than on present
convictions. He also that "history is the
past in the present."
From the social
point of view, he said that, "the present
political surveys present half-truths and as we
know very well, a half truth is a whole
lie." He advised the people not to swallow
this "crap". Media was also mentioned
as a cause of our election failures because its
"lack of insight into the difference between
publicity and public opinion. Furthermore, he
said that "mediatized politics is shaped by
image and not by performance."
Lastly, from the
religious aspect, the problem is the
deritualization of the elections, that more
people do not give meaning to this exercise of
freedom. He ended his talk with a challenge to
put meaning into the coming election.
An open forum
ensued with Prof. Oscar Diamante as the moderator. Fr.
Pompeyo de Mesa awarded the certificate of
appreciation to Fr. dela Rosa.
|
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