[Published in my column JUSTIFIED in The Mindanao Observer]
(The original of this essay won for the author 2nd prize in the 2005 Palanca Peace Essay Contest, an annual competition of essays on Peace, sponsored by the Palanca Foundation. Certain portions of the essay have been revised and updated to reflect the zeitgeist, the “(election) spirit of the times.” Several of this writer’s articles have seen print in national dailies, and mostly in The Philippine Star. A holder of Bachelor’s degree from U.P. Diliman and Ll.B. from FEU, he maintains a blog at http://justifiedmaster.blogspot.com/)
Some images can neither be ignored nor forgotten.
It was supposed to be just like any normal November morn. A local politician, represented by relatives and accompanied by a convoy of supporters and media people, was about to exercise a basic political right accorded to any free individual guaranteed by the laws of the land and sanctified by generally acknowledged basic human rights.
But this was not any normal, ordinary day. Two days before the horrendous incident, a mass grave was prepared using a backhoe emblazoned with the name of a powerful political warlord, and apparently owned by his powerful political family.
Before reaching its destination, the convoy was stopped by one hundred armed men, who abducted and later killed most or all of its members. At least some of the victims were shot in the genital area. Others were mutilated. Many were shot in the face, rendering them virtually unrecognizable.
Many victims’ relatives and the general public were at a loss for words, as truly an incident of such magnitude, considered the worst politically-motivated killing in the nation’s history, is beyond description and human comprehension.
On a more benign note, ordinary citizens, office workers, students and even the often-derided politically apathetic youth are excitedly registering to volunteer for an election-vigilance drive launched by a national media organization. They vowed to use their time during the elections to patrol their votes and be on the lookout for election and poll-related anomalies and to report them to the media and the proper authorities.
It is quite illogical and irrational why the latter image and all its positive ramifications and consequences cannot be more dominant and prevalent. This voter education and vigilance are imperative for the realization of a long desired free, orderly, honest, peaceful and credible elections in particular and a more stable political environment in general.
“The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action,” said political economist Herbert Spencer. And in this case, education and vigilance are a few of the very limited tools any ordinary participant of the political process can use to contribute to a culture of political peace.
Education in the political sense involves getting acquainted with the political process even at a surface level and knowing your rights in each stage of the process; but most importantly, for any ordinary voter, education in the political sense involves going beyond personality politics: know who you are voting for: their background and qualifications, their platforms and plans for where and for whom they serve. But it does not all end there. Knowledge must spur one to action---vigilance.
Vigilance--but not aggression---involves speaking up and standing up to what ought to be within the realm of one’s rights. It entails something as ho-hum as actually voting. For any ordinary voter, it consequently entails patrolling (to borrow that ubiquitous but definitely appropriate media slogan) your vote and making sure that your “voice” is heard and ultimately counted. It may be one tiny, little voice, but it is strong. It is your strength, inalienable and free; for in our democracy not every strength is a shout. Not even the threat of a massacre can snuff out and cower everyone in fear.
Peace is not the absence of fear, or conflict, or opposition, or dissension. It is the resolution of such fear, conflict, opposition and dissension. It entails knowing and doing: education and vigilance. And it could come in various colors.
In this season of democratic exercise, let that color of peace be purple.
