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By BenCyrus G. Ellorin

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – After returning home two weeks ago from a Peace Fellowship in Myanmar, I have keenly observed the political scene from the deluge of paid TV advertisements to reconnecting with friends who are actively working with various political parties.

And my sources from the political front gave me interesting comments, from the hardships of campaigning for Nicanor Perlas, a world renowned advocate of sustainable development and environment to front-runners Manny Villar and Noynoy Aquino. Perlas by the way is an alumnus of the College of Agriculture of Xavier University.

I have worked with him in various sustainable development and environmental advocacy. I know by heart his theories on development, vision for the country and capacity to lead the country. Pound-for-pound he is the undisputed topnotcher. But sadly so, he may be the best president we shall never have. But he is no pushover and miracles do happen.

But as I have observed, traditional politics has become so ingrained not just on the politicians but on the electorate. There is now a battle of paid ads, which aside from treating people with outright lies, half-truths and nonsense entertainment, it is also a way of flaunting a candidate’s wealth with the hope of gaining patronage from an increasingly poor people who would gladly work their arses for the candidate they believe would give them some bread crumbs come election day. But this is only part of the picture. If you integrate yourself in the political campaign, you would see an army of selfless advocates and supporters of candidates and political parties. People with whom we may disagree with our politics, but would gain our respect through their volunteerism.

One of the things I observed now though is that while we do not have a shortage of partisan volunteers, overspending in very expensive political advertisements have resulted in some partisan volunteers digging their already deep pockets and, worse, sometimes reduced to begging for campaign resources due them.

There are vast limitations to political advertisements which cost by the tens of thousands per second. Advertisements are primarily used to sell products. It is a marketing tool. Reducing election campaign into a battle of political advertisements is very dangerous as it limits the people’s ideas of their candidates to the micro-minute soundbites. Designed to create awareness of the consumers of a product, advertisements are most often based on labels and the single concept of a product. An infant formula, for example, sells itself as already sufficient for the nutrition of babies and tries to create a consciousness that infants and toddlers are okay with just feeding of said milk. This is a half truth. Aside from infant formula, you need to feed babies and toddlers real food. This is aside from the fact, and as mandated by our laws, that infant and baby formulas are no substitute for mother’s milk.

The same is true with political advertisements. It over simplifies what our country needs. Governance is so complex a task to be branded as anti-corruption or about poverty alleviation. Packaging candidates on such labels is hugely insufficient. The electorate needs to be educated about how these candidates will govern our country. Anti corruption is good but even if the President does not steal but is an incompetent manager or has a background of an incompetent lawmaker, nothing good will happen to our country. Poverty alleviation is good, some states have reported high poverty alleviation rates but are under draconian or authoritarian rule.

The best way to run a campaign is to engage the people in an informed discussion and debate.

Although there is a prevailing perception that people will participate in the election, be partisan and would volunteer in the election campaigns of candidates and political parties in exchange for money, I do believe that monetary consideration is not the primary concern of the people.

Many community leaders, out of their genuine concern for reforms in our government and society as a whole, would allocate their time, talent and limited resources to campaign for a candidate they believe would make a difference. This is not alien to Filipino culture. The bayanihan tradition is something that baffles other cultures. But for us, we do contribute whatever we have into something we believe would contribute to the betterment of our friends, loved ones, community and society as a whole.

But for a community volunteer in partisan politics, it may be a little unsavory to learn of billions spent for political advertisements and volunteers sometimes reduced to begging for support to their community mobilization and campaign for their candidates.

Many are looking how Barack Obama won the US Presidency. The trick to Obama’s success, which made him the first black president in a country which still discriminated on people of color less than 50 years ago, is good old Community Organizing.

Community organizing is something the sitting US President learned from his fellow dude from Chicago, Saul Alinsky, whose work Reveille for Radicals (1946) and Rules for Radicals (1972) have become the textbooks of American Community Organizers. Even our community organizing methods and strategies here have some stamp of Alinsky, aside from its Marxist, Freire (Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed) and Gutierrez’s (Gustavo Gutierrez’s Liberation Theology) influences.

Since election is winning hearts and minds, good old Community Organizing is needed to engage the people. Sound bites from advertisements is only good for awareness but does not necessarily convert into votes especially for the masses who do not have access to information about candidates due to the digital divide and the low educational level of most in the C, D and E levels. The educated in these classes I know are too busy making ends meet to devote time creating an informed opinion about the candidates. Community organizing by partisan volunteers can address this gap.

Eventually governance is about engaging people. With people participation in governance eventually forming the substance of the good governance and the dynamic democracy we all aspire, candidates should invest in direct dialogue with the people. Candidates should invest in mobilizing the volunteers and reciprocate their contributed time and talent with resources they need to forward their campaigns.

Business, which uses marketing to sell their products, on the other hand, is impersonal and too focused on the bottomline of business, which is profit. I am afraid that if our candidates are too swayed by the business strategies in this election, our democracy will be the net loser as people participating in this important workings of democracy are alienated. Only the multi-billion advertising industry and media giants will benefit from the election. In sum it is still a conspiracy of the rich politician and rich business in prostituting the sacred votes of the people who to start with are the source of the sovereign of power of government in our democratic and republican state.

With just a little over three months before election day, I enjoin our politicians to engage the people in an informed discussion and debate on their persons and platforms. I enjoin them to reciprocate the volunteerism of the people whose primary motivation in working in the elections in a partisan way is their aspiration for a better life.

The least politicians can do is to reciprocate their volunteers with appreciation and treating them with dignity. Dangling to them the riches of candidates is not only demeaning to the political volunteers but is a way of prostituting them and our fundamental democratic process called elections.

Ellorin, a member of the Environmental Broadcast Circle Association, is a Peace Communication Fellow of the Norwegian volunteer organization FredsKorpset. He was posted in Myanmar and is now on the post-foreign posting phase of his Fellowship. Comments can be sent to bency.ellorin@gmail.com.

[First published on MindaNews]