For the people, not only for politicians

By Alex P. Vidal

“Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy.” – Benito Mussolini

THE clear sign that a country is in grave danger is when more politicians are getting rich, and more people are getting poor—even if it is under a democratic governance like the Philippines.

When the poor is easily hauled off to jail for stealing fruits and pandesal and the big-time thieves—the plunderers in government—aren’t even punished, or they can bribe their way to freedom and walk away with murder, is a clear and simple social injustice.

When graft and corruption in government has become a regular event—something that doesn’t shock us anymore—and nobody rots in jail for stealing the people’s money, it’s also a sign that the country is heading for self-destruction.

Ditto when the Ombudsman, who is supposed to be responsible for investigating and prosecuting Philippine government officials accused of crimes, especially graft and corruption, throws the books only on small fries and protects the barracudas, reptiles, and sharks.

When the Ombudsman, an independent official who has been appointed to investigate complaints that people make against the government or public organizations, is sometimes the one that should be investigated for “shielding” the mighty and the powerful instead of the ordinary citizens.

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And I quote from the Inquirer.net editorial dated September 14, 2023:

“On Monday, people were taken aback when Ombudsman Samuel Martires suggested that Congress drop a provision in the annual national budget requiring the publication of Commission on Audit (COA) reports on government agencies. The published reports, Martires averred, were ‘causing confusion’ and could prompt the public to prejudge as guilty those flagged by the state auditing agency. Martires faced members of the House appropriations panel during the presentation of the Office of the Ombudsman’s proposed P4.98-billion budget for 2024.”

I quote further, “Under the General Appropriations Act, which details how the annual budget is supposed to be spent, government agencies are required to publish on their website their annual reports, audited financial statements, and COA reports—to which they have 60 days to comment on should the audit agency find irregularities. The COA reports are a crucial tool in the fight against corruption in government, as they detail how public funds and property are used—or misused—by the respective agencies and government-owned and-controlled corporations.”

Democracy is a living system of government that can only prosper by being reinvented again and again.

It can be strengthened by a referendum if a question can be answered by a simple yes or no.

However, democracy is undermined when people are made to believe that a complicated question that involves the interests of different countries can be satisfactorily answered by a referendum in one of these countries.

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According to Clingendael, the words of Abraham Lincoln to honor the soldiers that sacrificed their lives in order “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” were spoken at Gettysburg, but these words apply as well to the countless soldiers that died for the cause of democracy in the following 150 years.

It asked: “But what is democracy? Democracy has become such a sacrosanct concept that even the harshest dictatorships call themselves a democracy.”

“Obviously,” Clingendael added, “if politicians believe that voters cannot be trusted with the truth, democracy is seriously at risk.”

For a democracy to function it is essential that a government respects the people and takes them seriously, not only those that have voted for that government, but all people.

Furthermore, in order to exercise their democratic rights properly, people should be informed as fully as possible.

Democracy is a form of conflict management within states, just as diplomacy is a form of conflict management between states.

Both therefore usually lead to a compromise between different views and different perceived interests.

That is certainly the case when a decision requires both agreement between and within states.

Democracy is a living system of government that can only prosper by being reinvented again and again.

It can be strengthened by a referendum if a question can be answered by a simple yes or no.

However, democracy is undermined when people are made to believe that a complicated question that involves the interests of different countries can be satisfactorily answered by a referendum in one of these countries.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)