Partisanship in the realm of politics is not uncommon in our country. In fact, it is engaged all year round hence no chance for the wounds it inflicts on society to heal resulting from heated cyclical election seasons.
And without realizing its ill-effects not only on personal relationships but on the life of the larger society itself, political partisanship becomes a boon and a bane to the nation. It hinders development and stagnates national growth.
Expectedly, politicians will forever be partisan in their politics. They can’t be faulted for that since partisan politics is their lifeblood even if it is not always good for the general weal.
But for the majority of the citizenry to engage in havoc-wreaking partisan politics should be shied away from. Engaging in it all year round until the next election season doesn’t promote anything good and desirable. On the contrary, it is very destructive to the life of the nation.
Ideally, partisan politics should only be engaged during election seasons when voters are presented with choices on whom they will repose their trust and confidence through the ballot. But extending its practice beyond the election season is not normal anymore.
Sadly, that is what is being practiced nowadays not only here in our country but even in highly developed countries such as the United States. Partisanship has become the norm rather than the exception.
Normally, after the election and proclamation of the winning candidates in any election the people, voters and non-voters alike, should stop being partisan to the point of being blinded by it thus appear like dumb and stupid politically.
When the winning candidates assume office, the duty of the citizenry is to be vigilant to prevent the elected officials from become abusive, unjust and corrupt because when they do they become incompetent. It is the duty of every citizen to the country for them to be always engaging in the business of governance by holding their elective officials accountable at all times.
More often than not, this social responsibility of ensuring good governance in all levels of government is passed on by the people to the mainstream media. They seem to think it is not theirs to perform. And with the influx of social media public accountability had been obscured by troll farms hired by sitting politicians to purposely muddy the situation.
Nowadays, social media trolls have replaced to a certain extent the role mainstream media used to play specifically in bringing to fore abuses, injustices and corruption in government. All they do is obscure through fallacious argumentation the issues that need to be highlighted for the enlightenment of the general populace.
The transformation of the social media into a tool of disinformation, a vehicle in pushing for lies is a great disservice to the country and its people. While everyone is taking social media trolls to task for their atrocities to good leadership and good governance, many are inclined to take in what they read and see in social media as gospel truth. This is ruining the very moral fabric of Philippine society as the only Christian country in the far East. Today, we have become just like anyone else. No more distinction can be drawn between us and the others in the region and in the world. And in large measure, this is greatly contributing in pushing partisan politics to a level of implosion if not seriously addressed soon by the people themselves since politicians are not expected to arrest the situation for they are benefitting from it. (Reactions to [email protected])
