Politicking

DESPITE calls by some sectors to keep politics out of the effort to end the Covid-19 pandemic, politics is mostly behind much of the noise on the actions done so far by the government on the matter. This is apparent in Cebu where leaders want to be portrayed as competent and creative while their political opponents want nothing from them but failure.

It is not difficult to see how politics has influenced the narrative in the local battle against the Covid-19 spread. Surf online and you will see two main forces trying to dictate the direction of the discussion. One camp is portraying the incumbents in a favorable light while the other pounces on every failure of the administration.

This is the same at the national level where the Duterte administration and its so-called diehard Duterte supporters or DDS is ranged against the political opposition and the socalled yellows, yellow being the dominant color of the opposition in the past elections. The issues discussed are not meant to be resolved but are raised merely to prove the competence or incompetence of the incumbents with an eye to the next elections.

Consider how different the reactions are by the incumbents and the political opposition to the data on the Covid 19 spread. People identified with the political opposition pretend to be alarmed by the rise in the number of people infected by the corona virus in Cebu City but are actually rejoicing at the chance of being able to say to the electorate: See how wrong you were in voting for these leaders in the last elections?

The incumbents naturally tried to downplay the numbers and made sure these were not associated with their actions or inaction. Which is a natural response to the attempt of the opposition to pull down the administration. Of course, the two sides are politicking at the expense of the genuine interests of their constituents.

Interestingly, the biases and prejudices of the ordinary folk are themselves shaped by the prevailing political mood. Supporters of the previous administration do not readily see the good that the current incumbents are doing and exaggerate complaints. Supporters of the administration see politicking in the complaints of supporters of the previous administration even if these are legitimate.

But I prefer this compared to people acting indifferent. I am confident in constituents eventually being able to sift through the political garbage and find something politically worthwhile. It may take time, but this is how a process unfurls. For example, more people can now differentiate fake news from genuine information.

Even then, it would be good to remind people from time to time that not every information, complaint or post they find online is pure. These could be fake or tainted with the biases and prejudices of politicians or political groups. On this, not jumping to conclusions is the best advice. More so because of the highly politicized setup we are in.

But again, that is better than us being reduced to silence.