Can we get back to work now?

Okay, so we voted (at least I hope all of you who could did) and they're now slowly - but hopefully surely - counting our votes. Can the Comelec start implementing the computerization of our electoral process now so that it can be operational by 2004? We were lucky to have received official (as well as unofficial - from a candidate) notices of our precinct number so voting was not a hassle, but there were as always those frantically looking for their names and shuttling from one precinct to another. Can we finally have some semblance of order and efficiency by 2004 - or is that asking too much?

I was surprised and quite amused by the differing views of Philippine-style election expressed by two guests we had the weekend before. Both of them are working with a multinational organization and have been resident in Manila for the past ten months. One a Chinese-American, seemed absolutely petrified, wanting to know if certain people would "try something funny", perhaps referring to the May 1 "incident". I suggested that maybe he should stay home on election day, but he reminded me that his institution has its own list of holidays and election day is not in the list.

The other, as Kano as you can get (blond hair and blue eyes but he eats rice and speaks Chineses and Filipino), wanted to know how we do our voting; do we punch holes in a form like they do in the US? He was as shocked by our answer as we were by his question, but his shock turned out to be greater when we told him how we count the votes. This guy, by contrast, had no apprehensions whatsoever; I guess if you bicycle around town as he does (even all the way to Parañaque for his house-building project with Habitat for Humanity) your courage index should be pretty high.

Now we analyze the election and the results - when we have them, and when we don't get any results we can analyze that too - to death. We can pick the electoral process apart, scrutinize campaign strategies and decipher the "messages" that certain victories and defeats are conveying. But don't you think politics has distracted us long enough? Can we focus on the less exciting tasks of getting educated, creating jobs, improving productivity, competing in the international arena and keeping up with the rest of the world galloping away into the 21st century?