Duterte is not the Enemy: The Problem is Elite Democracy

By Christopher Ryan Maboloc, PhD

For most Filipinos, Manila evokes images of high rise structures, elite schools, flyovers and a very horrendous traffic situation, while Mindanao is often associated with the Moro rebellion, the rural life and indeed, massive poverty. But as the research of Asuna Yoshizawa and Wataru Kusaka shows, there is actually cooperation between Christians and Muslims in their everyday life. A modern myth identifies EDSA and the Aquinos with freedom and democracy, but in view of his radicalism, President Duterte with unfounded insinuations of tyranny. 

When Walden Bello described how fascism emerged in Europe, he mentioned Hitler and Mussolini. Yet, the book of Michael Wildt tells us that racial exclusion was prevalent as early as 1911. In Hitler's Volksgemeinschaft and the Dynamics of Racial Exclusion, Wildt argues that rural villages were practicing racial prejudice, long before the rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany. None of that sort exists in the country. In this way, Bello's criticism of the President should be taken with a grain of salt.

The truth of the matter is that we miss in a huge way the fact that we belong to one nation, and that if we do not correct the ills of elitism in this society, from every purok to the nation-state, we will continue to sink as a waste basket of democracy in Asia. Mindanao has suffered for a very long time from economic exclusion and the domination of power-players in the capital that any big ticket project outside of Manila is seen as not making any economic sense. Precisely, how can a poor region achieve some form of equitable progress if it is not given the means to attain the same?

Nation building is about our love of country above self. Our dreams will remain impossible because the elite in our society look down on the poor and give them no chance. And so, we are a country of dreams - dreams of peace and justice, dreams of love and hope. EDSA failed because of our elite type of democracy and a patronage system that undermine the choices of people, exploiting their weaknesses. The lack of political will of then President Benigno Aquino III was no more than the fact that he was simply held by the neck of the oligarchy. 

Duterte is not the enemy of the Filipino people. The problem is elitism. We remain under the spell of a dark colonial past and the condescending attitude of the self-righteous. Menelito Mansueto clearly explains why: "Duterte is perceived as a challenge to the traditional elitist politics of the Aquino and the Liberal Party. Duterte, being outside the of the once dominant political circle reigning in the country, is considered an adversary of the vested interests that the elite are trying to protect..."

Good people care about their liberties, but we have to reclaim our true identity as a nation. We are not just divided by geography, but by our pride as well. High culture is still licking its wound with the rise to power of a Bisaya. Right now, the greatest threat to our freedom remains to be our divisiveness, which has always been the main obstacle in our desire to overcome decades of misery that millions among us have been subjected to. The antagonistic nature of Duterte's leadership is not the issue. Any sort of consensus today only means those at the top of the hierarchy are taking advantage of us.

We need a sense of self-introspection. We must not lose track of the ultimate mission of scholarship. The goal remains simple but difficult - to help people understand what social justice means. This requires recognizing difference and fighting the evils of structural injustice. Our task at hand is to continue the struggle against the ills of exclusion and domination. The experience of ordinary people says more about life than any of the most elegant theories. After all, we are not in disagreement that what we seek is that kind of society in which justice and equality reign supreme.