Money talks louder than politics
Written on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 11:56 am | by benign0Cocoy is once again spot on. The reason politics occupies the limelight that it does is that economic activity in Pinoy society is so atrophied and impotent as to not provide enough clout to overshadow politics in people’s psyches.
Interesting too, is what he said here: “the most basic thing is that anyone with resources can manipulate Law to suit their own purposes”. I realised from reflecting on this that maybe influence in politics (beyond elections) is all about economic clout. In societies where wealth is distributed more evenly, the difference in political influence between the elites and the masses and middle class is less pronounced.
In the Philippines where the elite monopolise a big chunk of national wealth, their political influence sticks out out like a sore thumb.
My point is, it all leads back to developing that economic clout in the masses to tip the balance a bit in their favour. It’s not about drumbeating and footstomping about political rights. The reality is that influence will always NEED TO BE BOUGHT. The elites do it because they can. People who take a crybaby approach and blame the elites for doing so won’t get anywhere. The SOLUTION lies in the non-Elites figuring out how to develop their OWN arsenals of influence. Nobody else will do it for them.
The Tsinoy community built their power around economic clout and not political clout. They did not go around stomping their feet about how little representation they had in politics back in the 50’s. They more wisely focused their energies on slowly buying out their boss’s balut and taho factories.
The OFWs are another case in point. If you think about it, they have less physical influence over Pinoy politics than the islanders. In fact you’d think, they’re out of sight and therefore out of mind. Yet they are recognised and sought collectively as a power to reckon with despite being physically absent. But by far the only thing OFWs really contribute to Pinoy society is money. So let’s go figure. At the end of the day, money talks. OFW money talks louder than their physical presence. Many of them don’t even bother to visit the islands for decades. Yet the oligarchs and politicians pander to them. Look at the INQ7.net website. To hazard a guess, maybe 90% of their banner ads there are targetting overseas Pinoys.
It is in this regard that I beg to differ to Cocoy’s looking to the OFWs as a political force. My take is that OFWs become OFWs because of a need for money. And conversely, the only way they collectively know how to exercise influence is through the money they make (kind of like where the Chinese were several decades ago). I think we should leave OFWs to do what they do best — make money. Any expectations beyond that is only bound to disappoint.
We keep slagging politicians because we think all they really follow is the money train. Yet a simple aspect of this reality is not capitalised upon:
Why don’t we focus on making and applying more money so that they will listen?
When Pinoys start gaining economic clout, not only will politicians listen, the Henry Sy’s and Ayala’s of this world will take notice as well. It’s win-win.
But where do we choose to direct and organise our energies instead? Let me count the ways: street “revolutions”, civil disobediences, boycotts, and other hare-brained antics like those. Strange the way we resort to these, considering that we already are a society that has the power to choose its leaders and representatives — that is, we already have the constitutional channel to choose. But choosing is different from influencing. The missing ingredient is the REAL channel — moolah!
The street antics are quaintly entertaining, BUT they don’t really deliver the punch we really need. Economic clout (i.e. MONEY) is what delivers that real punch. And Pinoy non-elites need to figure out how to make MORE of it if they want REAL representation in politics.
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benign0,
It’s useless to preach money to these people, dude.
To them money is simply the root of all evil, that devil’s plaything that the corrupt and the rich play with and “deprive” from the poor to whom they should simply give it.
Preach entrepreneurship to these people and they will say that “it’s not the answer to all problems” OR “it’s not for me” OR “not everyone could be an entrepreneur”. Those who do claim to be entrepreneurs turn out to be sari-sari store owners, jeepney and tricycle drivers, or owner of your neighborhood karinderia.
And all of these people look suspiciously at Henry Sy whenever he announces his latest SM project, thinking that he must be “very very evil” to become THAT rich.
To these people, money is nothing else but a weapon of evil. Ironically, they do not realize that when you shoot Russians using AK-47s, they get wounded too.
I think it is unfair to characterize OFWs as people who are incapable of effecting change.
When a group of people tries to do something, it’s definitey okay to be pessimistic. What’s not okay is to continue heckling them without even giving them the benefit of the doubt. This, I think, is crab mentality at its worst.
J,
Don’t you realize that in the article benign0 actually praised the OFWs in saying that, because they are good at making money, they should learn to be able use that money to effect real and genuine change?
benign0, well… i’m not saying i’m looking to ofw’s to be a political force… i’m just happy that they started. whether or not they do succeed… or actually can be a political force is another matter entirely.
you are right… OFWs should make (and keep) making money a top priority …as to being a political force, they have to try, but making money must be the top priority. so i’m totally onboard with this:
“I think we should leave OFWs to do what they do best — make money. Any expectations beyond that is only bound to disappoint.
We keep slagging politicians because we think all they really follow is the money train. Yet a simple aspect of this reality is not capitalised upon:
Why don’t we focus on making and applying more money so that they will listen?”
With this… “When Pinoys start gaining economic clout, not only will politicians listen, the Henry Sy’s and Ayala’s of this world will take notice as well. It’s win-win.” i’m uncertain.
i’m sure they’ll work it out eventually. but new found power and new found wealth… now that’s delicate. understanding the intricacies of power and how to use wealth to maximize the potential of power… are two different things entirely.
a newly enriched ofw family for instance would start putting up their own house. because they’ve never had that. they’ll make mistakes with hiring a good architect or be fooled by a contractor, for example. my point being, learning how to use money, learning how to be rich… is a life changing thing.
i’ve seen people win and lose wealth just like that because they weren’t ready for wealth.
part of me is glad that this new political force is learning how to do it now… until such time as the ofw community become more adept at handling power and using its wealth. no time like the present to learn, i think. let them make mistakes now.
i fear that it is somewhat embedded in the Filipino psyche that enterpreneurship is evil. So i think it will be a lot of hard work to make that happen. I think things are changing on the local level that making money isn’t evil but it is a long road to acceptance. people, in general i think still think being an employee is the best thing that could happen to them.
I believe at being enterpreneurs, building and strengthening local industries, “growing wealth” is a far more imporant enterprise and should take greater precedence over any political activity but it is not to say, the OFW community shouldn’t start now with any political ambition. No time like the present to learn, i’d say.
to clarify… my position is that i think, being a political force is a secondary priority. I agree with you that making money, and learning how to properly reinvesting it into new businesses, local or otherwise is a far more important activity though, somewhat a challenging one, as jon pointed out but i think it is do-able.
one more thing, i think this is relevant. today, local politics, especially in the province, is more about who you know, who your friends are, who owes you a favor, who is loyal to you, which is still a degree higher than how large your bank account is (well, sometimes anyway). of course, having money can’t hurt and can open doors a lot faster.
Jon, I think people who think of money as “evil” are the ones who don’t have much of it and have utterly no idea of how to get a bit of it. Tough luck is all I can say in that instance.
Cocoy, I’m not saying the OFWs shouldn’t be a political force. As a matter of fact, they already are. And they achieved it through the power of the mighty dollar, yen, mark, franc, and other non-peso currencies. Earning money is what they do best and it’s their single biggest contribution to Pinoy society.
In a sense they are like the Tsinoys. Lots of economic clout but no political power.
Maybe being a political force need not be ’secondary’. Rather the approach to becoming one should be different. For example, there is no characteristically Tsinoy political party. But their ability to influence politicians is definitely there.
Lobbying could be an alternative to wasting precious time going up against the “Genuine” Oppositions, “Lakas” this-and-thats, and the “Laban” whatnots of this world — political exercises are an arena where even morons like Trillianes, Erap, and Tito Sotto end up as winners.
These OFWs’ idea is to eliminate those morons. The same way they helped eliminate the Pinedas and the Lapids of Pampanga by electing Panlilio. Doing this is an uphill battle, of course. But it is possible.
J, I’m with you. OFWs have seen how a well-run country can be and at the same time wonder why the Philippines can’t be better. OFWs can make a difference, they just need to get organized. Let’s hope PPP is the way forward.
I did write back in 2003 how we seem to be unable to harvest the collective experience of our OFWs and apply them to development within the islands (refer here).
In that article I asked:
(Click here to see the full article)
Considering we’re going into our second and third generation of OFW’s one is still hard-pressed to find any evidence of learnings from abroad being applied…
Indeed money speaks very loudly. But once in a while we have a Panlilio who wins against jueteng and trapo money. This gives us hope that maybe there are more important things than money and that possibilities are there as long as enough people unite.
Pochero,
Panlilio, Padaca, and even throw in Way Kurat: they are all exceptions that prove the rule. You still need money to, say, be able to campaign around the country to win the hearts and minds of the pathetic masses who root for the kinds of Erap.
Sure, money isn’t everything, but it is an important, if not vital, tool in the whole issue. And a lot of it definitely makes the job easier.