‘People have grown numb’
Many political analysts and
columnists are in a quandary on how to explain the
staying power of President Arroyo in spite of the many
controversies that have rocked her office since the EDSA
2 days of January 2001.
We at Stratbase, Inc., a full service
advisory and research consulting firm, tries to look
deeper at the seeming apathy of the general public to
act with passion on the many issues hounding the Arroyo
administration. In the maiden issue of Spark, our
web-based socio-political and economic analysis of
Philippine current events, we saw something beneath the
apathy. We wrote: "The masses, including the middle
class, have grown numb to the shenanigans around them,
seemingly just waiting for GMA’s term to end in 2010."
Add to this is the fact that there is no "revolution of
rising expectations." The people simply do not expect
anything will come out of the Arroyo administration. In
short, in the words of Michael Mann, a "pragmatic
acceptance, where the individual complies because he
perceives no realistic alternative" prevails.
Aside from this, the Arroyo
administration has the good luck that the confluence of
factors like the formation of a critical mass percolated
by Church leaders playing their prophetic role to the
hilt, turn-around by military and police leadership and
shocking and dramatic events like the Ninoy Aquino
assassination for EDSA I and the non-opening of the
second envelop for EDSA II have not yet coagulated to
rock the establishment from its shaky hold to power. And
to her credit, Mrs. Arroyo has seemingly mastered the
"art of politics". She has shown "political leadership,"
which to Max Weber meant "knowing how to weigh competing
and conflicting ends, how to negotiate compromises
‘sacrificing the less important for the more important’,
how to recruit allies and form coalitions in political
battles, and so forth."
The end game is nearing and like many others, we are
keenly monitoring the events, the personalities, the
policies that will shape the future of our country. –
PROF. VICTOR ANDRES C. MANHIT, managing director,
Stratbase, vacm@stratbase.com.ph
