Whatever else can be said about the adoption of Makabayang Koalisyon ng Mamamayan (Makabayan) senatorial candidates Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza by the Nacionalista Party (NP), it is definitely nothing less than an event for the history books. After all, Ocampo and Maza are militant leftists, while the NP is a party headed by real estate mogul and presidential candidate Manny Villar, and also includes Bongbong Marcos, the son and namesake of dictator Ferdinand, in its line-up for the Senate.
If I understand the official statements on the alliance correctly, Ocampo and Maza, as well as the members of Makabayan, view it as a significant opportunity to shift their revolutionary struggle onto the center of the national stage and into the limelight of public affairs. It may be useful to frame the situation in classical terms: Ocampo and Maza constitute the Trojan Horse of the Left, with which the walled city of Philippine politics, sitting high on its dung heap of graft and corruption, and gleaming with impunity, will be infiltrated, conquered, and rebuilt anew. Of course, one must admit that such an explanation is not quite adequate: to resort to it is to elide the fact that Ocampo and Maza were already mainstream politicians to begin with, as both have been serving in the Lower House of Congress as party-list representatives since 2001.
In any case, already the horse has begun to roll forward, as the NP agreed to integrate the Makabayan platform into its own, leading to the production and release of the document entitled, “In Response to the People’s Concerns“—a document strangely unavailable on the official NP web site as of this writing.
Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond “Mong” Palatino, in “Misunderestimating the Philippine Left“, one of the more recent commentaries on the issue, put it this way: “Villar’s brave decision to openly embrace a platform-based unity with the left has smashed the taboo in Philippine politics. From now on, the participation of the left will be expected in future electoral contests for top political posts.”
That a taboo exists at all, as may be inferred from the assertions Palatino makes in the essay, has to do with how (orthodox?) leftists have been spoken of by various “academics and commentators”, “liberal right-wingers”, and “apostates”: demonized all and sundry as destabilizers and terrorists, leftists suffer from “not [being] recognized as legitimate political players who can use valid political practices in the electoral arena”. This is a claim not without merit: surely it cannot be just to refuse the left a seat at the table of democracy on the basis of what Palatino refers to as its “past mistakes”—ones, he adds, that the extreme left has apologized for. To reduce the left to its history of bloody violence is itself an act of violence—such an act condemns the left always and forever to irrelevance, death, or both, and denies the transformative possibilities of ideological difference.
That said, I have to take exception to how Palatino read the motives of those attacking the NP-Makabayan alliance: “The anti-left gang is mad not because the left endorsed a presidential candidate. They are mad because the left has refused to endorse Noynoy Aquino.”
Tonyo Cruz has said in his Asian Correspondent blog that, “It is a matter of public record that Noynoy Aquino shut the door on Ocampo and Maza, despite the Makabayan coalition’s earnest overtures.” Manila Standard Today columnist Jojo Robles, who recounted how Ocampo described his meeting with Aquino, thought it was “unfortunate that Noynoy Aquino and his traditionally bourgeois collection of yellow-clad supporters may have missed out on this major political development.” How, then, can Palatino’s statement make sense? If (a) Aquino rejected the left, and (b) the anti-left “gang”—whatever that might be, as I am not convinced it even exists—supports Aquino, how does one arrive at the conclusion that (c) the anti-left “gang” is angry at the left for not endorsing Aquino?
Furthermore, anti-left sentiments are hardly exclusive to any one political group: BANTAY Party-list, to cite one example, was founded precisely on such sentiments, and its leader, Jovito S. Palparan, is running as an independent candidate for senator.
It may well be accurate to say that I am guilty of nitpicking, but one would be wise to bear this in mind: where there are nits, there are lice—which is to say that more than simple logic is at stake.
If, as Palatino says, the left is treated unfairly when it is conceived of as a monolithic, hence totally reprehensible, entity, is he not doing the same thing by speaking of an anti-left “gang”, which he then uncritically equates with the Aquino camp? Does not the lack of self-reflexivity in his argument—the same lack that he decries as the “pathological narcissism” of the anti-left—register as disingenuous, as an instance of victimage?
For the members of any given minority to strive to overturn the regime that tyrannizes them is perhaps understandable, and yet what is gained if and when they accomplish exactly that? To succeed in turning over structures of oppression is certainly to redistribute power, so that what once was reviled becomes revered, but by no means does the oppression dissipate—rather, the instruments of torture simply change hands. To seek a reversal of terms is merely to honor, reinforce, and perpetuate such terms. Therefore,when a political project remains trapped in old categories, how can it claim to be truly revolutionary?
Popularity: 1% [?]
Only if they’re the ones still trying to grab power. Also, they have vote.
I dont believe in putting people political beliefs into Boxes. Like
Leftist, Rightist, Centrist, Moderates, Conservatives, Liberals,
etc…
These people have just different ways of political beliefs. They do things differently. Or we just have differences in opinion. We are just human beings who think differently. We are not CLONES.
Ocampo and Maza are going through the constitutional approved way to power. To paraphrase the old English bulldog, Winston Churchill “Elections are the worst way to get into power except all those that have tried from time to time”
And if you go through the electoral mill in this country, you cannot be a “Trojan Horse” for long. The horse will be ground into a zillion pieces. Let the electorate sort out the pieces.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s appointed subalterns if they are smart and sophisticated enough, are a more sinister Trojan Horse. And remember these people invoke “executive privilege” and don’t appear before the legislature!
One of the best promises made by NoyNoy is that one — that NoyNoy will have all NoyNoy cabinet members always appear when asked by a Congressio nalcommittee.
NoNoy said that, right???? while he was also saying that the GMA administration should be Talsik Diyan for using executive privilege when not appearing before the legislature.
The National Democratic Front changed its name to Nacionalista Democratic Front. Ocampo and Maza are running under the Makabayan Party, Makabayan is the Pilipino word for Nacionalista.
The Revolution is over! The red flag has been turned into a red rag. Pulang trapo in Pilipino.
I dunno, the argument here seems to be that one should not run for election as you have power when you win, and that makes you just like the current crop of winners.
So what is the author’s recommended better approach? What are the “new categories”?
Joe
Villar wants votes and Satur’s left can provide. Noynoy refuses to be identified and feels comfortable with his lead. Pero, kwidaw siya, ang sabi nga, daig ng maagap ang masipag.
In Congress, there is no longer any left or any right – that’s just the stark reality of it all.
Left-leaning ideologues in the party-list system serve to add spice to the political menus being ‘cooked’ in the Malacanang rubber-stamped legislature by as much as a vote of viva voce.
Perhaps, it is time to disabuse our minds that the concept of leftists no longer means they are armed, underground, and out to overthrow the government of which they are clearly a part.
Bottomline, it is still worth listening to everything the left-leaning party list representatives they say during deliberations in Congress. That is as far as it goes.
So Trojan Horse? Who can betray the president in our given contemporary political culture? Just no one.
I have read Mong’s Palatino’s essay before. I think his essay is a very accurate depiction of the taboo of the left in our politics. I also like that he pointed out that there are good leftists and bad leftists. A point that must always be cleared given the present aggressive propaganda by the right.
The anti-left gang hates Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza for not going for their equally right-wing figurehead Noynoy which is an opportunity for them to control the left. Noynoy in my point of view is a very far right individual (or better term would be ‘a complete bourgeoise’). His actions and words speak thus. In his new commercial, I can’t help but notice that he emphasized to ‘stop those who would aim to destabilize our country’. This leads me to suspect that he would be continuing the Oplan Bantay Laya which the Gloria Administration has failed in her term of 9 years. Even with a good purpose, the means by how this operation has been implemented has been tainted by Human Rights violations. Rather than talking about his negative platform, better yet is how can he continue the legacy of her mother in making a peace pact with the extreme left and making a genuine agrarian reform.
One point the Palatino made that I liked best was that if you are a leftist, you share the stigma of all of the leftists throughout the world and throughout history. I think that this is the common behaviour and an immaturity of thinking that our politics have. That the left is not a legitimate political presence.
I think Noynoy made a big mistake in not accepting the two. This paved an opportunity for Manny Villar with his pro-poor agenda to get the votes of the oppressed farmers by rich landowners. All the while Noynoy is still promising ‘not to steal’.
Ocampo and Maza running under the NP banner would have been an unremarkable event where it not for the ideological/political righteousness in which it was clothed — to wit, that it was a matter of Villar agreeing to the Left’s platform. Marxists are supposed to judge things by history and by practice; nothing in Villar’s history nor his practice can be said to remotely approximate the Left’s platform. And the Left was isolated from the electoral process for so long by its own decision: it disbanded its own NCR committee back in the 1970s for participating in elections; it set up its own party s the PNB in the 1980s without allies, with disastrous results; it boycotted the 1986 elections. It has always declared elections to be nothing more than a contest among reactionary ruling class factions. Then it turns around and allies itself with a man who was Arroyo’s senate president and whose wealth increased ten-fold while he was in Congress. So don’t cry, Palatino; you brought it on yourself. That victimology won’t fly.