Political turfs by default - CHASING THE WIND by Felipe B. Miranda

In any kind of struggle, the most experienced combatants will attest to the great advantage of being able to define a critical turf, hold it and – if possible at all – deny it to one’s opponents. In the current political struggle, practically every interested party appears to understand media turf and consequently goes to great lengths to enlist media resources and secure favorable media coverage.

Religious turf is also well appreciated, more especially so by people who might not be able to rely on a dominant religious hierarchy’s sympathy. In this particular case, minority religious groups become crucial challenges for imaginative integration so that normally noncollaborative denominations somehow get to put up a consolidated or united front – however, ephemerally – and the result is an impressive, unavoidably political statement such as the Luneta prayer rally of November 4.

Of course, ideological turf is the most readily acknowledged of political turfs. One finds in this country groups who subscribe to socialist ideologies, capitalist credos, liberal philosophies, conservative principles and reactionary dogmas. By and large, one might be tempted to speak of most Filipinos as actually grounded on – and perhaps even disabled by – pragmatic realism, an ideology which looks kindly to accepting a candidate’s money during elections and then voting or not voting as one pleases, not necessarily as one’ s conscience – which may or may not be there to problematically dictate – indicates.

Ideological turf management requires much political sophistication. It also demands a particularly sharp sense of strategy and tactics which obfuscates the politically disabling clarity of what is morally good and evil. ìThe enemy of my enemy is at least provisionally my friend,î says the successful ideological turf manager. Simple as it may sound, the communist left in this country ignored this truism in 1985-1986, boycotted the snap elections and later sheepishly tried to explain why the 1986 EDSA People Power had left them high and dry, with not even a cameo role to play in a politically dramatic theater.

Neither the left nor the right – nor the "progressives" in between – may be objectively accused of the left’ s neglect in 1986. Consequently, in the various pre- and post-Singson anti-administration rallies of the last six months, various ideological colors collectively registered on the public mind, creating a powerful image of the tactically unified opposition with so much greater political impact than the simple number of rallyists – at no time probably exceeding 100,000 – would by itself be able to sustain.

There is one turf, however, which the opposition has used to much greater advantage than the administration. For some inexplicable reason, administration people had not considered technological turf as a worthwhile investment of time. This neglect is criminal from the point of view of an administration which itself acknowledges the existence of a political crisis and its very own survival as at risk.

The Internet has not been availed of to any significant extent by those who would defend the administration. The Internet, via its e-mail and Website facilities, has been largely monopolized by those working to bring down President Estrada and his government. For any given day, months before Governor Singson announced his dramatic allegations against President Estrada, the Internet has hosted a regular offering of critical assessments of the man and his administration. Currently, at least two major e-mail groups provide people with situationers which critically reflect on the administration. They have provided public service which not only monitor current developments in both houses of Congress relating to the jueteng scandal and the progress of presidential impeachment, but also more interactively involve Internet users in campaigns to pressure Congressmen and Senators towards political actions and policy commitments favoring the opposition.

Those working with the administration have not activated any significant response to the successful attempt of the opposition to define the technological turf as primarily their political ground. (Even texting through cellular phones must be considered to date as the domain of the opposition.) As of now, those working to bring down this administration has claimed the Internet as their turf – and put it to good, politically effective use – largely by default.

One might remember how the fall of the Shah of Iran was facilitated by the use of cassette tapes where the Ayatollah Khomeini basically called on the Iranian faithful to cast out their demon. One may also recall how the fax machine was used in the private sector’ s guerrilla campaigns against yet another dictator, this time right here in the Philippines. Compared with the technical capabilities of the Internet, cassette players and fax machines would be much like the over-romanticized jeep pitted against a modern, efficient jet liner, or, on the ground or nearer it, either the bullet trains running on wide track rails, or the incredible magnetic levitation trains which dispense even with standard rails.

Need one say more?