Practice your right to vote

For us monkeys – those who were born in 1980, the Year of the Monkey and who turned eighteen after May 1998, next year will be the very first presidential elections, in which we will finally be able to vote. But, for us to be able to cast our ballot we should register.

Though I was kinda lazy at first (not to mention that I don’t wake up so early in the morning) to register since I expected that this process would take long, blame it on bureaucracy and red tape. I guess it is because of the hellish stories that I’ve gathered from people who have gone through a voter’s registration. But then I thought if I could apply for a driver’s license, which I use every day, then I should be able to survive a voter’s registration. Choosing who should run our government shouldn’t be any different from driving through Manila’s streets – stressful, frustrating, hellish, but we survive.

Luckily, it wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be. The registration process took only an hour and 30 minutes, even less. The only agony was having to queue for 45 minutes or so. Or maybe it was just pure luck. It was one of those days that I was really thankful that I live in the south. Parañaque’s population isn’t that big, compared to that of Quezon City, so the city hallwasn’t jampacked. It didn’t look like a market place.

This article won’t be that long because I just want to remind a lot of young people out there that this is our chance to finally try to make a difference and do something. Go the extra mile and register. After the 1998 elections (and after knowing the horrendous results back then), I have this feeling that in six years’ time, youth voters would reach an overwhelming number. Maybe this time, we could probably help in choosing a deserving leader, for a change. I guess a lot of us in our generation are perceived as apathetic and selfish by the older folks. Even if in fact we may not be so. Perhaps those young slackers who have nothing else to do but pursue hedonistic lifestyles, could finally snap out of their dream world and face reality. We work and live in this country or bust, as in migrate, in which case we deal with different sorts of hassles.

Okay, I’ve asked some friends if they have registered already, but they said they’re too lazy or apathetic to bother. And I also know that when things go wrong – as things normally do in this country, they’re usually the first to rant and rave. I guess if you have the right of suffrage you have more of the right to rant.

I’ve heard again that there are some shady characters trying to bag the top spot, and of- course they will do everything in their power to grab it. I guess of all people, we the youth have the power to prevent this from happening. If not for anything else but because we’re still idealistic. There’s that fire of idealism inside us which I pray will never be extinguished. We are – generally speaking, still not blinded by greed. And, again, not for anything else, we have intuition and the ideals to guide us in choosing a deserving leader, no matter how messy and confusing the news may be.

Though this might sound preachy, it might be good to pause for a while and make a reality check. Do we want what happened in the last elections to happen again? I remember that year, a lot of us were joking that if this certain candidate would win as president, we would take the first flight out of this country. Well, at that time the joke was really only half-meant. Perhaps the joke hasn’t changed much, the Erap and Jose Velarde jokes being replaced by the Jose Pidal jokes. Only the punchlines changed. But still we like to think that it’s not too late. In time, we’ll have our own careers and businesses, and families, so like it or not, we have something at stake in next year’s elections.

By the time this article sees print, we will still have a week to register as voters, the last day is on Oct. 31. And take note they are also open this weekend. So let’s try to go out of our way just for a day, and do this for our country.

We are a people who aren’t really showy when it comes to patriotism, but heck, this is the only country we have, and we don’t want to let this boat sink. Can our boat sink further down? I have the feeling that we’ve already hit rock bottom.

For new voters, go to your municipal or city hall and bring the following:

For those ages 18 to 21 don’t forget to bring a valid id and birth certificate. And remember to wake up really early so you don’t have to go through the hassle of long queues.

Now, if only I can get my younger brother, who’s turning 18 this week, to wake up real early.

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E-mail the author at ketsupluis@hotmail.com