Campaigns
Excerpt from the blog of Levi Johnsen
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Better Late Than Never
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(Levi visited the Philippines last summer and gave talks organized by CPM about his experience on the Obama Campaign).
Read more here.
I went around the country speaking at forums on changing politics. I shared my experience working on the Obama campaign as a field organizer, and how important grassroots community organizing is in bringing change. After my talk/speech there would be a Q&A session. The most frequent situation I encountered was as follows…
Someone would walk up to the microphone, ranging from young to old(er), man to woman, student to professor. They would clear their throat, introduce themselves, and then say something like this;
“Good afternoon sir. It was nice to hear about your experience on the Obama campaign, but that was in America. This is the Philippines, and we have had change before. We have had three socio-political revolutions, and we are still in the same place where we started. It is inspiring to hear about what happened in your country, but this is not America. Is change even possible?”
Is change possible? Yes, of course it is possible. We all know that. The question that should be asked instead is, “Is sustained change possible, and how do we create sustained change?”
To the person asking the skeptical question at the forum, I would always challenge them. If it was an old(er) person, I would tell them that they brought change, but did not sustain it. You can have a revolution every weekend, and can put anybody in power, but the real measure of your success is how that change is sustained. You can’t simply elect the best candidate (or, in many cases, the lesser of two evils) and then leave them with all of the power and problems. It is not enough to say “Ok we elected you, now go change our country and fix everything. We will check back with you next election time.”
If it was a young(er) person, I would tell them that the last thing the Philippines needs is another revolution, and to a certain extent the real goal is not to only have peaceful elections. The real goal is to create a sustainable movement of change. The difference between an election/revolution and a movement is that the former is finite. It has a measurable beginning, middle, and an end. A movement is ongoing, and regularly re-evaluates the goals and priorities, and works continuously towards a common goal. So, if the goal is just to have a peaceful election (which is all fine and dandy, don’t get me wrong) then you know when it will begin, and when it will end. The day after the election, everybody returns to back to “normal” life, and leaves the elected official to do their job. What happens if you don’t sustain that change, and hold that person accountable? They will be quickly swallowed by the monster of corruption.
People in the Philippines were quickly losing faith in the political system, and the election process. They would tell me that even when they did elect the right people for the job, they would quickly become corrupt and cross over to the dark side of the force. I would ask in reply, “Now, whose fault is that?” I was usually met with a blank stare, either because the person did not know the answer, or they were reluctant to admit that they knew the answer. Eventually, it would come out.
