Change
It’s election period and once again the most popular word being uttered by those aspiring to be next next leader of this great land of ours is ‘change.’ Every candidate promises that they will change this and they will change that. But do they really know what needed to be changed? Do they ask us, the people on what changes we genuinely aspire for?
I was watching the early evening news today when I saw a news item that made me scratched my head. Apparently, a group of residents from the second district of Pampanga staged a lightning rally in Malacañan, they braved the 3 security details and was able to elude the soldiers guarding the palace perimeter. They ended up staging a rally in front of Malacañan gate.
On a ‘normal’ day, not even pedestrians were allowed easy access to the palace, even worst, any group of people marching will be barred from passing the Mendiola Bridge (now Don Chino Roces Bridge), any ‘abnormal’ movement of people will bring the soldiers up on their feet to be on close watch and if necessary drive them out. But today wasn’t a ‘normal’ day.
These people were urging the president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to run as representative of the second district of Pampanga, her home town. According to a Jun Panganiban (I believe he is the spokesperson of the group) “hindi po ito [this is not] scripted, this is an spontaneous and united action of people, of concerned people who wants change.” A what? [check this video from gmanews.tv to validate]
What change was he talking about? The last time I checked, the current representative of the the second district of Pampanga is named Mikey Macapagal-Arroyo, does this mean Congressman Mickey was dysfunctional? Is that the reason why these people were asking GMA to run? Or just to ‘change’ the first name of their representative?
This made me think, we speak of words that we don’t really understand, we talked but we don’t really know what we are talking. Not just because US President Barack Obama shouted ‘Change we can believe in.” during his campaign, these politicians can also use the word.
But what really is change? In my lifetime (which is nearing 40 years by the way), I’ve seen several leadership changes, from people toppling the dictator Marcos and seated the late President Cory Aquino to the ’smooth’ electoral transition of power to Fidel V. Ramos, the majority win by Joseph Estrada to his deposing in 2001, which gave way to GMA’s presidency.
But have we seen significant changes in the life of the Filipino people? I mean progressively.
If we want genuine change, we should look back and check the mistakes that we’ve committed, check back and remember the names that we’ve written on the ballots. Are we responsible for this mess that we are currently experiencing? Are we wise enough to vote for the right people? Is there any hope?
Not all politicians are rotten, I’ve seen sincere people who offered their service to the land but failed. I’ve heard comments like ‘OK sana si xxxxxxxx, pero di naman siya mananalo kaya si xxxxxxxx na lang ang iboboto ko.
Change will not come in silver platter, we have to fight for it, we need to stand up and be responsible enough to pick for the leaders (if there is) that is sincere enough to make our nation better.
