Found this in my pile-o-papers in my Asia Herald drawer. I was cleaning up, you see, as my last day of work is nearing. Anyway, let's not bother with the sentiment just yet. I think I wrote this while I was employed at Herald last year and was, at the same time, still in school. I do not remember if I actually bothered to research about what I wrote here, but I sounds really credible. I am reminded of the research proposal I made up in high school (yes, as in lahat was all in my imagination! would you believe?) that landed me as the school's delegate to the Science Fair. I produced my setup overnight and my Dad nearly killed me. That was one of the moments I knew I was going to be a writer someday. hahaha. Anyway, for all it's worth, here goes. By the way, I got a 1.25 for this piece of work. Reading through it now, I think it sucks. My teacher was probably that naive. HAHAHAHAHAHA! The irony of life.

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After all the year the Philippines has struggled to gain and regain itself, and despite the effort to maintain perceived order, the country is still wrought with irony. I say "perceived order" because each of our mini-governments have worked so hard to create the illusion that the Philippines is stable. "Ironic" because although we claim ourselves to have successfully democratized, we really still have not. The leaders and the system havent' changed. The people still haven't learned.

What is democratization? In Potter's book (note: no this is not Harry. I forgot who this Potter character was. See? Goes to show I didn't even read) it is said to refer to political changes moving in a democratic direction. I think of what happened when the Marcos regime was supplanted by the strained Aquino government. From no freedom of speech to the recognition of minor cause-orientd and political groups, to the widespread participation of civil society in the making of policies. These elements were hoped to propel the country under liberal democracy.

However, the predominance of the elite still holds strong. Aquino successfully (??) abolished authoritarianism only to restore elite democracy (note: why didn't I just say Oligarchy? WHy didn't I just burn this?). It simply contradicts the concept of equality among a nation's people. Up until now, what Estrada, what with Arroyo, the factors that may place us under "democratic" are half-baked, discontinuous, even misconceived.

(note: what the fuck was I talking about???)

I agree with Explaining Democracy in relation to the possible approach that may be taken. (note: toward what?) It said that there's no prescribed transition pattern from authoritarian rule to liberal democracy. Democratization is region-specific. We cannot say though that the Philippines is somewhere between heaven and earth. (note: AHAHAHAHAHAHAAH!!!! HEAVEN AND EARTH DAW O!) We still are in the process of achieving democracy. IT's quite unfair to conclude that we haven't achieved anything. The Philippines is too complex a country- with increasing economic gaps, dispersed geography (note: ano daw?), undefined party systems, religious conflict, threats to security and rent-seekers- to prescribe a specific model.

"A key institutional indicator of liberal democracy is teh development of effective political parties" This seems difficult to reach as there are no clear definitions of party systems in the country. Ferdinand Marcos is an example of this. To gaing support from the electorate, he shifted from Nacionalista to the Liberal Party. This is not to mention the number of politicians who followed suit. There seems to be no binding ideology that keeps a politician in support of his party. Systems are more individualistic than public.

The Philippines is far from being democratized. Filipinos have a knack for forgetting things. This show Timberman's statement that culture has a great influence on politics. There stilll is no state-altering change, only continuing efforts to mask the mistakes.

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hmmmm.... now that I've gone through it, some parts actually made sense. However, I'm not stupid not to see that the writer hasn't read anything. I should know. I wrote it. I'm not exactly proud, but it's good to return to those times I was making my term papers one hour before the deadline. Yes. Crammer extraordinaire. This deserves a good laugh. I do hope I wrote it when I was very VERY young and very VERY inexperienced with political science. kakahiya.

My idealism has gotten the better of me. Not that I consider myself the dreamer. In fact, I am more of the underachiever than a person who actually gets to have something done. I have started 5 cross stitch projects since I was in high school and, now, at 22, I still haven't finished anything. The jack of all trades and master of none. No wonder my parents think I can never survive by myself in Manila. No wonder, how much I try to tell them that I can, they seem to have this gnawing feeling at the pit of their stomachs. I am good at anything and excel in everything, but have achieved nothing.

Or, it could be contrariwise. Perhaps I am too much of my own critic. Hmmm....