Thursday, January 17, 2008

RP dropped from list of world democracies

Lahat na lamang ng larangan, papaatras tayo. Pero ang tanong, balita pa ba ito? Ang balita at ang headline ay kung kuntento na ang mga Pinoy sa sistema ng paggugubyerno at ang mga Pinoy, batay sa isinasaad sa Constitution, nakatatamasa ng rule of law, kalayaan at demokrasya.

Sa pagkakatanggal sa listahan ng Pilipinas bilang tumatalima sa demokrasya, panigurong magre-react, magsisisihan at magtuturuan ang mga pulitiko at Malakanyang. Ang katawa-tawa pa, baka pati Freedom House, isang watchdog, pristihoso at international na institusyong nakabase sa New York, USA ay paghinalaang bahagi ng destabilization plot. Ang nakakalungkot pa rito, baka palabnawin, baka idistort ang tunay na kahulugan, substansya at basic principle ng demokrasya.

Sa mga nakakalimot, balik natin ang makaysaysayang mga kataga ni Abraham Lincoln may mahigit isan-daang taon na ang nakalilipas, "democracy is the government of the peoeple, by the people and for the people." Ang tanong ule, totoo pa ba ito, tinatamasa ba ng isang vendor, ng isang urban at rural poor, katutubo, kababaihan, ng isang manggagawa't empleyado ng gubyerno, kabataan, guro ang demokrasya?
(larawan: Mga PEKENG Partido sa Pilipinas; Lakas-CMD, Nacionalista, Liberal Party, Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) at Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL), "pare-pareho, walang pinagkaiba")

Hindi na balita ang ulat na isinagawa ng Freedom House at randam ito ng bawat Pinoy sa lansangan, sa komunidad o sa isang barangay. Ang isa sa pundasyon at sukatan ng DEMOKRASYA ay ang REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY o ang kasabihan ni Lincoln na "government of the people" at dito pumapasok ang usaping electoral politics. Ang tanong, tunay nga bang nirereprenta o kinakatawan ng mga "halal kunong mga pulitiko" ang taumbayan?

Ang mga
pulitiko (Tongresman, Mayor, Gobernador at Senador) at mamamayan ay masasabi ba nating iisa na? Tunay nga bang kumakatawan sa kanila (mamamayang Pilipino), tunay na hinalal nila, tunay na boses nila ang mga pulitiko? Kung ang mga pulitiko bang ito ay tumatalima sa partidong tunay na naninindigan sa prinsipyo, may conviction, may vision-mission at handang isakripisyo ang sarili alang-alang sa country. (Photo sa baba:violent dispersal, http://www.indymedia.org/icon/2004/06/111359.jpg)

Masigla ba ang direct democracy sa country? Nainstitusyunalisa na ba ang (partisipasyon) papel at kahalagahan ng aktibong mamamayan (active citizens) bilang kontra balanse sa elite politics o bilang bahagi ng pang-araw-araw na takbo ng buhay ng mga Pilipino mula antas barangay hanggang Malakanyang?

Nasaan ang demokrasya kung ang EO 464 o ang pagbabawal ng mga tiwaling opisyal na makadalo sa Senate hearing, nasaan ang demokrasya kung ang proclamation 1017 o ang garapalang state of emergency ang palagiang ginagamit bilang political survival ng Malakanyang. Ang pinakamalupit, ang Calibrated Preemptive response (CPR) o ang "no permit, no rally at tratong terorista sa mga journalist."

Nasaan ang demokrasya kung talamak ang TORTURE at extra-judicial killings. Demokrasya ba nating masasabi kung ang mga pulitiko ay nailulukluk lamang ng MAKINARYA, command votes-VOTE BUYING-dagdag bawas, PADRINO, pananakot at hindi ng mamamayan? Nasaan ang demokrasya kung ang matinkad ay ang karaniwang patayan, personalidad, ang sobrang gastos sa kampanya, dayaan, political clan, dinastiya, warlordismo, mga larawan ng ilang dekadang election sa Pilipinas.

-Doy Cinco

January 18, 2008

http://www.philstar.com/index.php?Headlines&p=49&type=2&sec=24&aid=20080116110
January 17, 2008

WASHINGTON – The Philippines was one of three countries relegated by a pro ang ivate democracy watchdog organization from a list of totally free countries to partly free.

The New York-based Freedom House reported that freedom declined significantly in 2007 in almost four times as many countries as registered improvements last year as the world was less free for a second consecutive year. (Freedom Map:http://markhumphrys.com/Bitmaps/map.freedom.2006.jpg)

According to a survey by Freedom House, 36 percent of the people in the world – about half of them in China – were not living in freedom.

The Philippines received a downward trend arrow due to a spate of political killings specifically targeting left-wing political activists, the organization’s website said.

Reversals in freedom were seen in one-fifth of the world’s countries, including Pakistan, Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria and Venezuela. One country, Mauritania, joined the list of democracies, while three – the Philippines, Bangladesh and Kenya – dropped off it to partly free. Two countries, Thailand and Togo, were upgraded from not free to partly free.

While the number of countries judged not free declined by two to 43 last year, “There were many and overwhelmingly negative changes within countries already designated not free,” the survey found.

The number of countries judged free stood at 90, representing 47 percent of the world’s 193 countries, and those considered partly free stood at 60, or 31 percent.

Those found not free accounted for nearly 2.4 billion people, about half in China.
Expectations of government concessions on human rights or modest democratic reforms in advance of the 2008 Summer Olympics did not pan out in China, where the government continued to crack down on political activists, Internet journalists and human rights lawyers, the report said.
South Asia, the former Soviet Union and the Middle East did particularly poorly, giving “an alarming signal about the development of freedom worldwide, something formerly viewed as inevitable,” said Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House.

Four stark reminders of the perilous condition of freedom were singled out:

• Parliamentary elections in Russia were held under patently unfair conditions.
• Democracy in Georgia was sullied by imposition of a state of emergency and a violent police crackdown on demonstrators.
• In Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, and terrorism by Islamic extremists rose.
• In Kenya, hundreds were killed in rioting in the wake of “highly credible reports of vote-rigging by the government” in the country’s presidential election.

In Russia, political parties and candidates who challenged President Vladimir Putin were sidelined, and the news media, largely controlled by the state and Putin’s supporters, gave overwhelming coverage to the president and his allies while the opposition was kept fragmented and tame.

Using its enormous oil and gas resources, Russia exerts influence in former Soviet republics, providing political, moral and material support to authoritarian regimes that dominate Central Asia, the report said.

Three of the countries in the region – Belarus, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan – have consistently ranked among the world’s most repressive societies, Freedom House said.
Modest gains in the Middle East, where President George W. Bush focused his hopes for democratic change, came to an end last year, the report said, with major declines in both the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli-occupied territories.

The Authority was down-rated from partly free to not free, due to the collapse of a unified government after Hamas took over Gaza. Israel’s military incursions, restrictions on delivery of food and violent dispersal of protests led to a decline in civil liberties, Freedom House said. - AP