This is my article of the week. Meaning, it’s the one article that really affected me this week. Powerful, powerful message, especially for us, the youth.
This reminded me of my own duty as a citizen of my country. I may not be an activist who can rally in the streets and publicly defy the administration. I may not be a media entity who can thoroughly examine and expose an official’s motives. I may not be a celebrity who can endorse the candidate that I believe is deserving. But I am nineteen years old, and I can VOTE. This much I can do.
Come on guys! Let’s register and vote!!
MUSINGS OF A FIRST-TIME VOTER
Everything we do boils down to three possible choices: to create, to destroy, or to protect. We can build on what has been built, tear down what exists, or keep things the way they are. Such is the case with voting: by exercising the right to vote, we can create, destroy, or protect the establishment. It’s all up to us.
Or is it? We keep hearing from experienced voters that it doesn’t matter whom they vote for–we end up in the same rut over and over again. Corruption is still rampant, unemployment is still high, poverty is still ubuquitous. Allegations of cheating always crop up during elections and in the end, we never know who really won. Often, the results of Philippine elections do not depend on the platform of the candidates or their qualifications, but rather on how much money, land, or rice the candidates give the voters. And sometimes, nobody is qualified enough, just popular enough.
For these and other reasons, some people choose not to vote.
I am not an experienced voter. May 2010 will be the first time that I will be eligible to vote, and this election being, hopefully, the first national computerized election in the country is definitely an added bonus. In the past, I looked at politics from an observer’s point of view. Every election, my parents would discuss between themselves whom they would vote for, and would listen and ask why they chose this and candidate and that. The whole family would troop to the polling station, where we children observed how elections were run. This was the extent of my participation during elections. The adults ultimately chose the country’s leaders for me, and I was free to express my views about our country’s politicians without feeling guilty that I had selected them.
This time, it will be different.
The question is whether I should vote or not. That in itself is a big decision. If I decide to vote, then I would be responsible for the outcome of the elections. Whom should I vote for? Whom should I not vote for? Of course, if the elected official turns out to be good, then all is well. But if the person elected turns out to be a failure, I would be responsible for that. Suppose I had to choose between an unqualified but very popular candidate, a moderately qualified but moderately popular candidate, and a highly qualified but unknown candidate. Would I feel guilty if the popular but unqualified candidate won because I chose to vote for the most qualified but virtually unknown candidate instead of the more popular but only moderately qualified one? Should I choose the the ideal good over the lesser evil? If I choose not to vote for anybody, would I not be equally responsible for the results of the elections?
And if I become more and more experienced, would I not be disillusioned?
If I choose not to vote, I would not have to think of these matters. I could argue that no one is qualified enough to run this country,and there is therefore no point in voting for any of the candidates. I would not take part in the election of officials who turn out to be failures. I would not have to choose between the ideal good and the lesser evil because no such things exist. I would not have to think about platforms and “winnability”. In short, I would be relieved of all such anxieties.
However, the truth is, whether I vote or not, I will be responsible for the outcome of the elections. If I vote, I will be responsible for those I elected into office, even if they turn out to be failures. But if I do not vote, I will be responsible for not doing anything to try to make this government a better one. There is no guarantee that choosing to vote leads to better outcomes than choosing not to vote, or vice versa. But once we become eligible to vote, we will be responsible whatever choice we take.
There is one thing that makes a difference, however: by choosing not to vote, we effectively let go of our right to complain because we chose to do nothing.
That’s why I choose to vote. I choose to vote because it gives me the privilege to speak out, to be heard, and to correct my mistakes. It doesn’t matter if my vote doesn’t get counted because the candidates cheated–I don’t have any control over that. But I do have control over choosing who I want and do not want to run this country. I just have to do my best, that’s all.
By voting, I would be choosing whether to create, destroy, or protect, whether to build on what the current government has achieved, destroy the old order and build a new one, or keep things running as they are. But I still have until May 2010 to think about that. In the meantime, I should register with the COMELEC.
-Mikaela Irene Fudolig
Instructor, National Institute of Physics, College of Science, University of the Philippines, Diliman
