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Peace and unity

Once upon a time, a couple of powerful political dynasties from the north and south decided to form an awkward alliance in order to consolidate their grip on power. It is uncertain if they were doing it just for kicks, or if they were really worried by a pink lady’s movement that would’ve threatened their respective business models and way of life, but the alliance was made in the name of “unity.”

Aside from greed and power, the two families didn’t have a lot in common, but they pretended to like each other during the campaign period and using the combined forces of their war chests and unlimited resources, they won the election in record-breaking fashion. Their win was so record breaking that it was actually unbelievable, but because no protests were filed by their opponent who was probably sick and tired of fighting for a country that didn’t want to be helped anyway, life went on and the power of the political dynasties were poised to flourish even further.

During that time, it became clear that their definition of unity was a state, society, or party where there is no discord or criticism. When they say they are united, it meant that nobody was going to complain or whistle blow or ruin the party. When they preach unity to the people, it means they expect everyone to be happy with how things are, because those who complain are not cooperating and just make everyone else look bad, which is a terrible thing when we want to look good, even if we are actually still pretty bad, if we are honest with ourselves.

That definition of “unity” has been adopted by many other political groups and dynasties all over the land, and they have formed alliances where the goal for those who are united is to be able to talk among themselves to assign who will take over the reins of power next, making elections unnecessary.

In their minds, with that kind of unity all over the land, there will be no rivalries and conflicts. Everyone will just follow their lead and with that, “peace” will be achieved.

Never mind if their constituents’ lives are not improving, or if the common people are being slaughtered, as long as there is unity and peace, their Philippines will be alright.

Armed with such a big election victory, the political dynasties were supposed to live happily ever after, as long as they regularly swap positions in order to retain their grip on power indefinitely, so no election rules are broken. However, after just one year, the cracks of the alliance started to show as the veil of unity was blown away by the harsh winds of reality.

The vaunted UniTeam didn’t even survive until the next elections, when discussions for their power sharing schemes as the way forward were going to be necessary. The Marcos and Duterte families are now at open war against each other, and for those who have been watching their country grow up, it looks like this one’s going to be interesting as they dig up mud to throw at each other, starting with the Duterte flagship drug war that is turning out to be not only a massacre, but a criminal enterprise as well. Heck, if they keep up, we may even find out what really happened in the 2020 elections, and how they got such amazing results.

Without unity, the peace was also broken, and for some people who were enjoying the political fairytale, that is a damn shame. Perhaps that is why the great power broker of the land, the Iglesia ni Cristo, held a “Rally for Peace,” a show of force aimed at convincing their beloved UniTeam to get back together again.

For the regular Filipino, unity and peace mean totally different things, which unfortunately for us, do not align with what the political dynasties want. What we want is for our standard and cost of living to improve, for quality education to give the next generation a better chance to compete in the global stage, for a health care and welfare system we can count on when things don’t go our way, and for the corruption that has plagued our country to go away. Unlike unity and peace, these are things that don’t magically appear. These are things our leaders have to fight for through debates and arguments, using statistics and metrics instead of the tyranny of numbers in a government where silent obedience and loyalty is packaged as “unity” and “peace” is when nobody complains for the sake of the people whose taxes are being siphoned away through overpriced and useless projects.

If a political dynasty’s idea of peace and unity is a world where everyone is silent and everybody immediately jumps into action when they say so, then I’d rather have discord and democracy where high expectations and criticism of public officials and leaders is expected, and challenges to the rule of mediocre rulers don’t give them a peaceful night’s sleep during their time as a public servant.*

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