As we demonize our leader.

As we demonize our leader…

As the day of PGMA’s SONA nears there’s an increasing intensity of the attacks against the President. This is not surprising considering the evident unpopularity of the lady chief executive, thanks to the activism of the opposition and the dynamism of the media. There are only a handful of opposition stalwarts but what they say is immediately broadcast nationwide or worldwide in fact using state-of-the-art info technology.

Senate inquiries, as everyone knows, have been the favorite launching pad of the opposition’s poison darts. Video-taped, these proceedings are brought right into the salas of Filipinos or aired in farm houses where accusations are misunderstood as facts, where innuendos are mistaken as declarations.

In the last six years of GMA’s administration the process of demonizing Madam President has never abated. Starting from the Hello-Garci imbroglio to a series of alleged multi-million anomalies, the country’s news outlets have been on high gear as they crank out derogatory items with impressive regularity. Media conspiracy? Some people have thoughts so.

The truth, however, is that media only expose what newsmakers expose although it cannot be denied that the more lampoons there are the more readers there are, and tv viewers and radio listeners too. No wonder our non-democratic Asian neighbors have muzzled their press supposedly to uphold the welfare of the state. But this will not work in this country. A dictator once tried to do it, but in the long haul the temper of the masses snapped, and the fellow had to flee for dear life.

As we write this, flag-waving militants are marching towards Manila to stage protest demos on the day of the SONA. For their part, opposition lawmakers, especially those eyeing for the presidency in next year’s elections, have publicly declared they would boycott the President’s talk show in Congress. The militants will no doubt trumpet their expletives before journalists’ cameras for the whole world to see, and if things get out of hand, there would be truncheons swinging in the air to crack some bones. That would be a beautiful happening for media people to cover. For the demonstrators, however, it would be a boon for their cause before the eyes of their left-leaning financiers.

As if to add fire to the anti-Gloria movement, a former defense secretary of PGMA herself has just publicly accused her of planning to declare martial law. This, spoken on top of a former House Speaker’s revelation that at the height of the Hyatt mutiny there were secret preparations towards a state of emergency, has given weight to the rumor of impending military rule.

Juxtapose these developments against the Con-Ass plan of the House, plus the bombing incidents in Mindanao and Metro Manila, and the talks of “no-el” become more convincing. Convincing too is the demonized image of the President, and because she is the top leader of the country, don’t you think every Filipino here and abroad shares such abominable profile?

And yet the impact of all these, these unceasing slime throwing upon the country’s leadership, is more than a matter of shattered identity. As the hate campaign rages there’s a palpable feeling of disgust and distrust among the citizenry. Respect for authorities is corroded and compliance with lawful orders, such as paying taxes, is compromised. Why should I give money to the government when some bureaucrats would just pocket it, a man was overheard saying. The bureaucrats themselves have been especially susceptible to such moral corrosion, which explains the pervasiveness of irregularities taking place in most government offices. Follow the leader seems to the order of the day, aware as these people are of the alleged corruptions in higher offices. They have no proofs certainly of these high profile venalities. But since the media keep on harping about them these have taken the trapping of truth. Can the average public worker be blamed for some dishonest misadventures every now and then?

The most damaging impact, however, is upon young Filipinos. For them billions are poured every year to keep them in school where they are supposed to learn the values of honesty, self-sacrifice, upright citizenship and service to God and country. But these lessons are counter-acted by what they see and hear in the media about government venalities. Add to these the stories they hear from the mouths of their day to day acquaintances and you have a generation whose mindset is twisted towards discontent and anti-social tendencies.

Blame the media? Media, we mentioned earlier, record only what is happening. Perhaps, the fault, dear Brutus, is in the over-active opposition, which is hardly a fault of course because what’s democracy without a slew of opposing politicians? Or the fault could be in the leadership itself for its lack of transparency and suspicious actuations.

Whoever or whatever is the cause of all these, one thing to certain: As we demonize our leader we also demonize ourselves.

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