Refuse To Be Ruled

There's The Rub : Logic 101

Conrado de Quiros dequiros@info.com.ph
Inquirer News Service

DEAR groups opposing Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo:

Is another Edsa People Power uprising still possible? Is driving people out into the streets to storm the gates of heaven, or hell, still possible?

Archbishop Fernando Capalla says no. But just to be sure, he enjoins the faithful to be faithful to him and desist from heeding your calls to do so. Archbishop Orlando Quevedo says the same thing, noting that the people are indifferent and attributing it to public skepticism about the truth you bear.

It is true: The people are indifferent, but for a reason that has nothing to do with the one Quevedo adduces. The truth you bear is near-universally believed. We know that, from the surveys that say the overwhelming majority of Filipinos believe Ms Arroyo cheated in the elections. That makes her a usurper in their eyes, one ruling without a mandate from them. Indeed, we know that from Pepe Miranda's survey that shows the overwhelming majority of Filipinos now distrust their authority figures universally, from Malacañang to the media, from Congress to the Catholic Church. The public regards the bishops themselves to be corrupt. Well, Capalla makes a strong case for it.

What we have in fact is a paradox. The people know they are being ruled by someone who has no right to, but do not seem to want to do anything about it.

The reason for this, as I've proposed in several columns, is this: In the past two Edsa uprisings, the alternative was clear, it was implicit in the struggle to oust the tyrant itself. The affirmation was contained in the negation. Oust Marcos, install Cory: that was the universal, if tacit, cry of the first Edsa. As Juan Ponce Enrile found out the hard way when he tried to install himself in power, presuming himself to be the country's savior with a military mutiny. He was rejected. Oust Joseph Estrada, follow the constitutional line of succession: that was the universally understood, if equally silent, cry of the second Edsa. Ms Arroyo might not have earned the moral right to replace Estrada -- she was no Cory -- but she had the legal right to. As the people who called for "Resign All" also learned the hard way. They were rejected.

There is nothing like that today. Right now, the unarticulated and anguished, cry of the nation is: Oust Gloria, then what? The line of succession cannot be followed because Noli de Castro is a beneficiary of Ms Arroyo's cheating and because the position of president was never vacated, it was never occupied. There is no affirmation contained in the negation. That's what has caught the nation in its vise, causing paralysis.

That cannot be broken by all this talk of a transitional government or council of elders, revolutionary or not, eclectic or not, representative or not. And I am truly begging you to put all that aside. The idea of a transitional whatever is the same thing as the reality of a fake president: It has no legitimacy. It will rule without a mandate from the people, like Ms Arroyo. Why should that inspire anybody to want to take to the streets? It is not inspiring hope, it is stoking fear. And you wonder why the people are apathetic.

You want to rekindle the fires of rage and dreams, there is only one call, and that is (credible) elections. I agree you have to prepare for that -- which means lining up the current election commissioners against the wall, metaphorically or literally -- and some group has to do it. But only for that: the faster elections are held, the better. I myself cannot abide a preparatory group that lasts beyond a couple of months or so. You cannot agree on something so basic, you can dream all you want about the miraculous changes you will work upon the country once you are in power, but it will take a miracle for you to un-stick Ate Glue from her seat.

I disagree that elections, however credible, won't go very far in solving the problems of the country. At the very least it will un-stick Ate Glue faster, and that is far enough by itself. You will notice-if you have not buried your noses under piles of agenda-that Ate Glue is veering the country toward martial law, if she has not done so already. If the Firm can forcibly un-stick my colleague in this space, Raul Pangalangan, from his position as dean of the University of the Philippines' College of Law, then it can un-stick anything, including every vestige of democracy from this country.

More than that, elections answer completely the question of legitimacy. Which is, to repeat, the real issue: It is not about Ms Arroyo's performance, it is about her legitimacy. It is not whether she is messing up the country or not, it is whether she has a right to. Logic 101: The problem is that Ms Arroyo cheated in the elections and we have no rightful president. The answer is to have new elections and have a rightful president. The problem is that Ms Arroyo stole the vote from the voters. The answer is to give the voters back their vote. The problem is that the people have been silenced. The answer is to let the people speak.

I go back to my earlier question: Is People Power still possible?

I have little doubt that given the spark of outrage and the flame of inspiration, Filipinos will always take to the streets to right a humongous wrong done them. Today's apathy is not natural, it is induced, not least by you yourselves. But quite apart from that, why should People Power express itself only by people taking to the streets? I do not know why at this late date, you have not called on the citizens to fight tyranny with civil disobedience. The people can express their power in many ways, not least by refusing to be real citizens to a fake president. We are not powerless before someone who insists on ruling us without our consent. We can always refuse to be ruled. We can always be adamant before the arrogant. We can always do what we tell our kids to do when they are offered drugs:

Just say no.