Filed under: Philosophy of the Person
I’ve been meaning to write about this earlier. Well, it’s not yet late. Let’s hit the keyboard! Yes, let’s!
In February, while I and my friends were having the usual Saturday night drinking session, we touched a topic about the upcoming elections. I told them I have decided not to cast my vote for I cannot find anyone worth exercising my right of suffrage for. (Of course, it was just the intellectual way of hiding my vanity—truth is I just cannot find anyone worth sacrificing my pointer fingernail for. The COMELEC indelible ink is utterly disgusting; it makes your nail look dead after a few days of application. It won’t even come off in a manicure session or two; the third gets it off almost completely—such a troublesome deal of waiting for a clean fingernail. Besides, I don’t plan to get a manicure in summer as long fingernails get soiled by beach sand so easily which makes building sandcastles an annoying task rather than invigorating.)
To put it simply, I’ve become too vain and I’ve lost my faith in politicians so why bother. (Insert sound clip of Sting’s If I Ever Lose My Faith for a more dramatic effect.)
But, but, but… I told my friends that if K would not join the opposition party proclamation, I might vote.
K? Who is K? Allow me to give two anecdotes.
When I was in college, an old friend and I were strolling in a mall when we crossed roads with K. K was already a famous personality then because of his marriage with a big shot actress, so we knew it was him. We decided to greet K and to our surprise, he greeted us back with a shy smile. K smiling shyly like a ‘kid with a teenage crush on a school day.’ Adorable. But that’s not really what made us swoon. What got us was that K made us feel like we were just equals—he did not act as the husband of a big shot actress; he acted as if he was merely a commoner who was nice to everyone he passes by. This incident, we told to another friend who we met for coffee in that same afternoon. The other friend said, “Yeah, I was at a bookstore in Megasmall scrounging for stuff. There’s this big man sitting on the floor who got in my way and I grumbled something because I was irritated. He quickly stood and apologized to me. When I looked, I recognized it was K. I said, I was sorry, I didn’t notice it was him. K said, ‘No, I was in your way and was taking my sweet time. Sorry for that.’”
Another anecdote. Way back in 2003, when my sister got sick and we were running out of funds, my mother went to the senate to ask for financial assistance from senators and politicians. (I will not bother to tell the story about the other senators and their staff who complained when people were asking for help. I will just focus on K and his assistants.) My mother went to K’s office and showed his secretary my sister’s picture. My sis was suffering from renal disease and SJS back then. Long story. The gist is, unlike the other senators and their assistants who were good at making poor people wait very long only to tell them that they have to come back the other day if they really wanted assistance, K’s secretary and staff were helpful. K gave my mom a check amounting to a considerable amount of money, out of his pork and discretionary funds, and K’s staff even told my mom that K was willing to help my mom get a lawyer for pro bono services in case the family decides to sue my sister’s nephrologist for malpractice.
Now, why do I have to give a condition when the anecdotes above would already suffice for reasons to go and have my nail damaged in the name of K? Helping someone in need and being nice to strangers is one thing. Principles and character are another. You can help someone and be nice to anyone even if your ideas are crooked. A good servant-leader possesses these: a good heart, a warm smile, principles, and character.
It is common knowledge that politicians take the easy road—switching political parties, betraying friends, etc. etc. just to grab a favorable arrangement for themselves to get their asses on one of the senate’s swivel chairs. Imagine the sudden right or left turns by trapos here and there before deciding to file their COCs, ending up rubbing elbows with someone who they just had an expose on. This is disgusting. Disgusting is an understatement—it’s sickening, maddening, infuriating!!! Simply put, it’s not worth sacrificing my fingernail for. If K rides the bandwagon and joins the opposition—despite of what he showed me, my friends and family—I will no longer vote.
(Bantering Übermensch Mode: This circus that is the elections and the mockery it slaps on the thinking Filipino pushes the patriotic Juan and Juana dela Cruzes into the abyss of apathy—losing faith in political systems and the government, and passion for the Philippines. But it will do something great for the Pearl of the Orient in the long run. When Juana or Juan realizes that s/he can no longer put her/his future in the hands of the government, s/he will strive for success by her/himself and not rely on the government or anyone for success or destruction—becoming a full-fledged self-made individual who puts the blame on no one but the self should things go kaput—which, in my opinion, is how things should really be. One strives for the self and in a few decades or so, it will create a domino effect—enriching one’s family, the community where one belongs, then hopefully the nation. But for Akbayan, Bayan Muna, etc. things must work the other way around. Such that, because the government can no longer do anything for the individual, it must be thrown out of its post or at least, be destabilized until replaced. This makes Party Lists more of a threat to the nation rather than a ladder for its recovery and progress. Why replace the government when all we have to do is to turn the direction inward? So, the government can’t do anything for you? Do something for yourself then help your government. Stop rallying, you Party List Maggots! May everyone forget to vote for a Party List Rep! They’re just stimulating economic instability by 300%.)
Back to normal mode. Where was I? Oh, yes.
K, yes, K, decided not to join any political party and refused any political assistance / influence / machinery that political parties / affiliations offer which might help him win a slot for the senate! What does this mean?
That K, who is not only adorable, admirable and wise but also a man of principles and character, is indeed worth voting for.
Yet, I am still at a loss. Will I vote in May or will I just stay home and watch DVD?
I still don’t know as of press time. I love clean fingernails and I am so vain.
But at least… losing my faith in politicians is no longer an issue. I have K and K means hope that in the senate where usually there are 24 phony people whose asses rest on swivel chairs provided by income taxes, foreign investments, and what more, perhaps laundered money, the phony 24 could be reduced to only 23.
I am not endorsing K, for the record. Also, I am neither encouraging nor discouraging anyone to vote. I just want to pound on my keyboard until my nail beds die because in May, I might be sacrificing my fingernail for the one man with a character. Might as well get used to the sight of my dead-looking fingernails.
Why am I doing this when it seems that elections for me is nothing but a sacrifice of my precious fingernail? Because this K gets me into considering the triviality of my precious fingernail compared to having the ass of a man of principle resting on one of the senate swivel chairs. K gets me into thinking so much that he makes me want to express my opinion though as a government employee, I am not encouraged to give any opinions on any candidate for a local / national post.
End of text. Hope no one in the office makes a big deal out of my opinion.
