Democracy has many faults and weaknesses but…

ITIS A fact that our democracy h a s ma n y f a u l t s a n d weaknesses, but it does not mean that it is dead or dying. Perhaps we could liken our analogy to our planet earth. It has many faults and weaknesses now, but it is neither dead nor dying. Even if we can say that i t could be dying, we have no choice now but to nurse it back to good health, because it is the only planet we have. Same goes for our democracy. We may have many complaints about it, but it is the only political system we have. Compared to communism that is already perceived to be dying, our democracy is still worth saving, perhaps for lack of a better choice.

Simply put, our democracy might have several ailments here and there, but none of these ailments are incurable. That is the catch however, because not unless we start diagnosing and start treating these ailments, there will be no cures and these ailments will continue to weaken it, perhaps it will even worsen.

In much the same way that we should look at the probable root causes in diagnosing ailments, we should do that too in diagnosing what ails our democracy. I may not be able to identify all the root causes on my own, but I will start the process and perhaps others can join the exercise.

To start with, let us look at the pre- election period, the entire process that starts with the selection of candidates and ends with the official campaign period as designated by the Commission on Elections ( COMELEC).

As it is supposed to be, the political parties are supposed to have their own selection process, a process that is supposed to start with their own primaries and is supposed to end with their own party conventions.

As it is supposed to be, the political parties are supposed to practice democracy on their own, hence the need to conduct consultations and elections within their own ranks.

Primaries are important and necessary, because these activities are the best ways for party members to know who are best qualified to run from among their own ranks, as a prelude to party conventions where the party members are supposed to exercise their right to vote for the best candidates, based on their qualifications and their proposed individual platforms.

As it is supposed to be, these individual platforms are supposed to become the sources of ideas for the party to eventually come up with their official party platforms. As we already know, our political parties do not hold primaries at all, and they do not seem to conduct party conventions either.

Perhaps as a poor substitute for both primaries and conventions, some of these parties would hold what they call caucuses, but these would usually exclude the participation of their general membership. The fact that these parties do not hold democratic elections within their own ranks could actually be a sign that in the first place, they may not have so many members, contrary to what they claim.

More often than not, some influential person within a political party would just anoint his or her personal choice of who he or she wants to run, again as a poor substitute for a real convention.

As I see i t, anointment violates the most basic principle of the democratic ideology, and that is to allow the participation of the party officials, but also of the general membership. continued/ PN)

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