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PRINCIPLE, pragmatism, policies, party programs and
political philosophy, personality, popularity and propaganda all
play a part in Philippine politics. This piece and prospective
pieces progressively portray, explore and probe into these phenomena
for the purpose of comprehending how much the Filipino public or
populace places a value on or prices each part in relation to the
others, particularly in the light of the past elections, so that the
public’s voting patterns can be apprehended, appraised and
predicted.
“Principle” is used to refer
to personal qualities, as in “a man of principle” and not to
doctrines or tenets, as in “a set of principles.” A politician
is said to be principled if he is a man of conviction and has
integrity. He is transparent and honest in the sense that he does
not hide his true stand on public issues and does not deceive the
public, say, by endorsing or campaigning for a popular cause which
he actually does not believe in. He is reliable and true to his word
so that he will defend, fight for and try to put into action the
causes he advocates and the policies he espouses.
He is loyal not only to his
beliefs, but also to the people whose beliefs he shares or whose
assistance he has benefited from.
“Pragmatism” relates to the
personal trait of being practical or having prudence. It involves
the art of political expediency. It connotes a politician who says
the right thing at the right time, who knows what to say, when to
say it and how to say it. Thus he is careful to appear on the
popular side of the public issues, which predisposes him to conceal
his true stand on those issues until the public is willing to accept
it. He allies himself with the persons or party that will help
further his career or goals. It provokes images of the traditional
politician, disparagingly referred to as the trapo.
Being pragmatic, however, is not
necessarily a negative trait. Whereas being principled concerns
doing the right thing because it is correct or because it is what a
virtuous man would do, being pragmatic involves choosing the most
effective means for achieving a desired goal. It is thus ethically
neutral. Its rightness or wrongness depends on the morality of the
means used to achieve the goal and of the goal itself.
Sometimes the goal may be a
worthy one, like promoting public welfare or protecting human
rights. Contrariwise, the goal may be a personal one, like winning
an election or staying in power. Moreover, the means used to achieve
such goals may be ethical or unethical, as in cheating in an
election or deceiving the public.
Successful politicians must be
pragmatic to a certain degree. The elections which installed Prime
Minister Tony Blair and President Bill Clinton, for example,
depended heavily on their ability to downplay their more radical
views so as to attract the middle of the roaders, those who were not
strongly of the right or of the left and who provided the swing
votes.
Pragmatism played a great part in
the recent Philippine elections with mixed results. It paid
dividends for the congressmen, mayors and other local officials.
They chose to ally themselves with the administration party for two
important reasons: (i.) the administration had the machinery and
financial resources to facilitate their victory in the elections;
and (ii.) their constituencies would get preferential treatment in
the allocation of funds from the national government.
The senatorial elections painted
a different picture. It can be concluded that former senators
Vicente Sotto and Tessie Oreta suffered greatly from switching sides
to the administration. Senator Edgardo Angara, however, did not
endure the same fate. Although his pragmatic move to the
administration party was actually counterproductive, his principled
performance as a senator with respect to public issues and policies
was sufficient to dissuade the electorate from junking or discarding
him. It appears that the public was able to forgive his lack of
principled loyalty to former President Estrada and to the opposition
by paying homage to his anticipated principled adherence to the
policies and causes he espoused.
The situation of Senator Joker
Arroyo is more difficult to analyze. Rather than run as an
independent, he chose to side with the administration.
E-mail: eqfernando@
hotmail.com
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