Come 2010, we will witness the demise of the Leftist-leaning partylists. Bayan Muna and Gabriela, I heard, are serving their third terms in Congress. And there are suggestions that maybe, these organisations field a senatorial candidate. One name being floated about is Bayan Muna Representative Teddy Casino. So, the next Congress will probably lose the rational voice of the Left.
So, the question is—what fate awaits the Left in 2010? Peace talks have stalled and CPP-NPA-NDF Consultant Joma Sison aka Armando Liwanag has ordered an intensification of the people’s struggle against the US-Arroyo regime. Will we see the People’s Protracted War attaining strategic offensive soon? Or, will the organized legal Left do a tactical legislative offensive via new organisations fielded for the partylist elections?
While the Left is looking for its soul and searching for new fields to conquer, the idealistic Right is gaining more strength. It is morphing and its influence rising. It is subverting the system through the entry of its members in more government enforcement agencies, such as PDEA. Question—are we looking at a new PDEA with similar sinister powers like the dreaded MISG of former strongman Marcos? I posed this in my entry over at New Philippine Revolution last year, the very same moment that General Santiago unleashed his expose against graft and corruption.
Question—will the idealistic Right seize political power soon? As fears of subversion increases, some analysts say, this is the reason why Mrs. Arroyo announced her supreme ascendancy as anti-drug czar. Was this the “compromise” between PDEA Magdalo group and Mrs. Arroyo prior to their entry into PDEA—that these guys would serve as Mrs. Arroyo’s personal armed hatchet men?
Popularity: 1% [?]
Patricio: What is your opinion? Do you think that there is some agreement so that the Magdalo group will be serving as GMA’s personal armed hatchet men in 2009-2010?
My dear Patricio
Who do you suggest could be the Dear Leader of the idealist Right?
Could it be the One who Labs You?
BTW his slogan “Kaayusan” is the right name for a far right party!
It is likely that Magdalo ain’t viable without someone like him!
Geez, this is where I’m supposed to come in with my “Conservative Party for the Philippines.” Maybe during the weekend.
Pat, we should force the right to coagulate into something more tangible for the voting public. They have Danny Lim and maybe Villar.
Pat,
I guess I am more worried about the LEFT infantile disorder that has been going on since the First Quarter Storm, the protest movement ossified into a permanent protest culture barely able to hide the violent insurgency it has immorally allied itself with. Now that the NPA is using land mines, will it drive the aboveground farther from the underground? I doubt it since there have been no denunciations from the front organizations. Besides they kill revisionists and traitors, err, deep penetration agents, when they are discovered by their sudden distaste for the more sinister aspects of revolution.
But if Satur or Teddy were to denounce Joma, turn state witness against him, foreswear violent revolution and sincerely take the parliamentary road towards reform and progress, I might even vote them into the Senate.
As for the Magdalo, and the RID, I do believe there was something very important going on between LtSg Antonio Trillanes and President GMA in the weeks leading up to the Oakwood Mutiny. But I have no idea, exactly, what it was all about, maybe corruption in the military was certainly a part of it. All I know is that it led directly to the mutiny and these last few years of mysterious and unconcluded legal affairs.
It is amazing to me that a Senator of the realm sits in the Marine brig. it’s an outrage, but it is Sonny Trillanes’ own uhmm, INFANTILISM. He played his four Kings and an Ace badly.
I just heard from a friend from Ifugao that there is an NPA resurgence in his province, although it is not yet as bad as it is in Benguet but expect the Right to react and play into Joma’s hands. The Right’s reaction is usually to use the same anti-human rights tactics of Joma’s Left and human rights abuses by government and government sanctioned groups has always been Joma’s best recruitment tool.
By the way, aren’t these PDEA Magdalos the ones who cut a deal with the government in exchange for the dropping of charges against them and their release from prison? UP n grad may be on to something.
Why do we limit our future based on the whims of these petty tacticians? Can’t we be more proactive? We already have a principled Right-wing type presidentiables in Lim and maybe Villar. Why can’t Magdalo tap on these people for leadership?
“We already have a principled Right-wing type presidentiables in Lim and maybe Villar.”
BrianB, can you explain to us if you know what are Lim’s or Villar’s Right-wing principles?
Hm, are you referring to the adjective principled or the fact that I believe they subscribe to the conservative side of politics?
The Philippines have trouble reaching political maturity because a conservative party espousing Filipino conservative ideals have not been formed. Even among intellectuals, conservatism is shunned. The result, no doubt, of American media influence. Our own liberals are irrelevant and ineffective for the same reason: without an established conservatism, liberalism is a flightless bird.
“searching for new fields to conquer”.
patricio, what “field” has the leftist ever conquered in the philippines? i think you’re right. the “leftist-leaning partylists” are on the verge of demise, but for no other reason than that the majority are getting more and more convinced of their irrelevance.
Or more like a bird trying to fly in a vacuum.
alright, BriabB, what do you mean by conservative side of Philippine politics that Lim and Villar subscribe to?
Well, for example, Lim ignored due process when he spray-painted the houses of prospective drug dealers and Villar submitted a bill banning porn.
If you want an entire history of conservative politics from both men, however, you will not find it, which is precisely why we need a party that will give focus to conservative personalities like the two men.
So Philippine conservatives are essentially due process violators and champions of prudery? I’m being more confuded now BrianB.
more ‘confused’ now.
Not particular on Lim and Villar, they’re just the most consistently conservative pols I can think of (even Cory vacillates between conservatism and liberalism, just because she had liberal advisers during her time), though I understand all pols are practically unprincipled or in a criminal ehm “situation.” The act of spray-painting those doors is paternalistic politics, isn’t it? I should think that’s conservative.
Maybe you can focus on my plea for the establishment of a Conservative party. What do you think. I’m sure the Kirams of Mindanao would join up.
Sorry, I mean paternalistic governance not paternalistic politics.
I guess what I’m trying to drive home BrianB is that in the Philippines, if a politician is not a Leftist, he is simply unideological.
i have a basic question: what are conservative principles? especially in the philippine context?
another basic question: is left equivalent to liberal?
also, here is the liberal party platform:
http://www.liberalparty.ph/platform/vision.htm
is this what the liberal platform should be? if yes, what is its difference from the conservative platform?
this post is full of hallucinations. aren’t you tired of GMA-Magdalo conspiracy plots and subplots?
First, the thesis of PM rests on a mistake. Left leaning congressmen will always be part of the regular menu in our realpolitik via the party list system. While most are already serving their third and last terms, the next breed of party affiliated leaders will carry on the cause, if we can call it that. In other words, they are not about to leave, may be never. If Crispin Beltran died, the cause did not die with him, did it? If Satur has to end term, did the cause end term as well? No sir, you are positing the wrong predicate, I would suppose.
Second, the leftist extremist cannot be pitted against the rightist extremist in terms of their strength or ground covered in their tactical offensive since obviously the leftists remain the only threat to national security. The rightist cannot operate outside of the system like the leftists and so they can only do so much. They are like a raging bull with a chain on the neck.
Third, I do not at all suppose there had been a compromise to the recruitment of some 18 Magdalo officers into PDEA after they have served jail terms and again, after they were actually dismissed from the service by PGMA. Why should PGMA want them be fielded in PDEA as enforcement authorities? Maybe, you have to explain more why you think there had been such a compromise.
Fourth, I don’t get why you call the Magdalo a kind of right infantile disorder a phenomenon? Are they infants? If you consider them as an emerging political power bloc, I don’t think it is proper to call them infantile political elites?
Lastly, you are rather biased with the PDEA chief and the Magdalo. If the recruitment of former military officers into civilian government agencies is synonymous with a growing political power for the right, then your thesis may pass scrutiny.
Anywhere in the globe, military officers make good managers in both public and private. And if we go by ordinary thinking, it just happens that way. PGMA has a higher reason for preferring to have them in her administration especially so when he knew how to apply Skinner to each and every one of them, if you can follow the historical drift.
If you were PGMA, would you trust these military officers who once launched a major coup attempt against your administration to be your hatchet men?
My dear Blackshama,
I don’t know who are you referring to. Could you refresh my memory, my dear colleague?
Who founded Karapatan?
Karlpopper,
I am amazed on how you misinterpreted political reality (realpolitik) and how you wrongly analyze the present Philippine political infrastructure.
You said that the Left will still be in the midst of everything political. Of course! Who said that they’ll be relegated to oblivion? What I wrote is that they are in the midst of change. They are in a bind sir, since their terms would expire come 2010, they would be deprived of a legitimate venue to articulate their causes. Plus, of course, they would now be “naked”, so to speak, since most of them will be deprived of the legislative immunity which has been proven to be a very effective tool for them in the past years.
And of course, my dear Karl Popper, the causes which they so espouse for decades, will still be there. You should attend a political forces seminar.
On the title ” Right Infantile disorder”, I am not referring to the Right as a group. Read Lenin’s ” Left Infantile Disorder” to fully understand the entry. I am sorry, but you need to brush up on political polemics to be able to understand this. For your benefit, let me succinctly explain this to you.
” Infantile disorder” talks about preliminary efforts at creating disorder. What is happening right now is disorder is being created from within so that the entire superstructure will be pliable enough for the taking. Before, the paradigm is change from without. Now, the newer paradigm is creating dissent from within, leading to an expected “implosion.” To create such an infantile disorder, compromise of certain aspects is expected.
Hi Djb,
I’m really amazed on how you come up always with very, very good insight! Yes, there were insinuations before that Mr. Trillianes has this “secret deal” with Arroyo prior to the supposed Oakwood mutiny. Question–is Sonny making sweet music with the devil infant? Another intriguing thing—the November affair. Was it a tragedy or a permissible mistake? Or was it to forestall a legitimate revolution? What do you think DJB?
By the way, my reference to the “Right” here is the “idealistic Right”, not the Fascists who populate Malacanang.
hi Bencard,
The “fields” I am referring to, is plain to see. They went to Congress right? Play of words lang. You know me. I do this sometimes.
On the “newer fields” to conquer, that is the question posed by the entry.
Kiram
“I guess what I’m trying to drive home BrianB is that in the Philippines, if a politician is not a Leftist, he is simply unideological.”
The Left don’t know how to think in a truly liberal sense. The commies are too literal in their communism. Why they think they can even run the Philippines is beyond me. Their ideology is totally artificial. That most politicians are unprincipled is a given. But just because our leaders are neither left nor right or are frequently seen going from one side to another doesn’t mean that the two dichotomies Left-Right do not exist. Filipinos are in my observation neatly divided between liberals and conservatives. Talk to an ordinary Filipino at length and if he’s sincere he’ll give a lot of indications of his political leanings, whether he realizes it or not.
GabbyD,
Our liberal party is only liberal by name.
Patricio Mangubat:
It is me who is even more amazed now at how you reacted to my comment – missing the point or argument altogether – by a convenient reference to a book by Lenin titled, “Left Infantile Disorder”. This new work titled “Right Infantile Disorder” is one by acronymous Patricio Mangubat and the author feels free from any kind of rebuttal which is the whole essence of this FV in any case.
However much I follow your original work and your comment as response to my comment, I just cannot see the fine logic on how you argue. And that ought to be disturbing for those who read your work in any event.
Probably your work is something that can be characterized as vulnerable to misinterpretation since I don’t see any thread that can quite sew what you read and what you wrote – just nothing.
Don’t worry now. The next time I read your work, I’ll try not to comment on it so you don’t implode from the inside from without, whatever that meant.
I would not myself discount my exposure many years back in the simple understanding of what you claim as political polemics. It will be an insult to Prof. Hernandez and Prof. Magno if I do.
Sorry, writer. You don’t have to call your colleagues your colleagues – it does not add any.
Karl,
Probably. Yes, my work could be vulnerable to interpretation, if we don’t really follow the same line of reasoning. Imploding, yes. Political masturbation or polemics, probably.
And yes, rebuttals are welcome.