If this is a War (then you’re losing it for the rest of us)
From radulce.livejournal.com
In a country where the vast majority of Filipinos have no access to the internet, it is inevitable that voter education efforts such as www.votester.yehey.com have still a long way to go.
Yet, for everyone of us who espouses "new politics", a quick peek at votester is very heartening. In its online poll, Bayan Muna has placed at #5 (not that they need it, its been projected that only massive cheating can stop them from being the #1 partylist for 3 straight elections), Gabriela Women’s Party at #3 and KABATAAN Partylist at #1!
The Inquirer has already documented how some politicians have recognized the internet as a good medium of reaching out to certain sectors of our society. As Jenny pointed out (Happy Graduation!), senatoriables such as Chiz, Sharon’s Kiko, and Manny Villar have websites with feautures pandering to the easily impressionable youth. Lieutenant Trillanes has a friendster account (I resisted the baseless urge to add him.. Haha!).
But I guess the biggest proof would be how KABATAAN Partylist, as proved by votester’s poll, is the most talked about partylist group among Pinoy netizens nowadays. Friends have told me how they have encountered people campaigning for KABATAAN in mIRC and Y!Chatrooms. A video in which Angel Locsin, Dennis Trillo and Dino of Brownman Revival (among others) endorses KABATAAN Partylist (for free, of course!) has more than 10,000 hits in Youtube.com. Asides from the video, other stuff such as downloadable songs, poster designs and KABATAAN’s platform can be found in their official website and multiply site (www.kabataanparty.com and http://kabataanparty.multiply.com). And a peek at KABATAAN’s official friendster account (oh yes! friendster! kabataan.national@gmail.com) has a testimonial containing a video in which Fil-Ams in a Washington rock concert endorse KABATAAN!
But of course, arguably the biggest factor is the Pinoy blogging community. Mong Palatino, the partylist’s first nominee, is well known in the Pinoy blogging community. But asides from that, hundreds of bloggers are promoting the said partylist in their blogs. Not to mention hundreds who use their friendster, multiply, hi5 accounts and other websites to promote KABATAAN.
Hopefully, certain readers will get the hint and promote KABATAAN more aggressively in their sites. Harharhar.
So whats with the negative-sounding title of this post?
Its actually inspired by someone me and a few of my colleagues thought we knew. Taking to cyberspace is a welcome move for any political group, especially a partylist group that espouses the interests of the youth. Its a move that smacks of change. Its a move that befits the youth as a sector of our society that is theoretically a sector of change.
Yet to actually give emphasis to blogging and cyber-campaigning is not the opposite of traditional politics and campaigning. It is not the new that is counter-posed against the old. They are in fact, two sides of the coin.
Candidates in motorcades, shaking hands, giving out plastic or cardboard fans with their faces plastered into it, supporters wearing shirts with the candidate’s name written all over it, etc. Such images are connected with traditional politics. The politics of traditionalism. The politics of elitists. Elitist politics.
But pandering solely to cyberspace is just as elitist. Anyone who claims to "serve the people", who claims the title "Iskolar ng Bayan", or even just the claim of being a "critical thinker" should know that. They should know that the vast majority of Filipinos have never even seen a computer, much less used Friendster.
Yet these are the people that compose the majority of our population. The sea surrounding the small islands of elitists such as Forbes Park, UP, Dasmarinas, Hacienda Luisita and Malakanyang. The same sea that slowly erodes the islands and when stirred up, violently smashes and floods into the islands themselves.
So how will blogging stir up the sea?
In the end of the day, a blogger’s self-worth will be determined not by the # of posts he/she has made, the # of comments one has received, the pictures one has posted in their online album, the aesthetic value of the layout, or even an award from a so-called bloggers group.
As with everything, it can be divded into two, as a great Chinese warrior-poet said: "For, or against, the People".
Blogger, are you for or against the People? Is your blog’s content for or against the People? And finally, do your actions match your blog’s pronouncements?
