Philippine Politics

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edited 22nd Jun '11 5:50:13 AM by Kinkajou

I sympathise with you, mainly because the situation in Serbia is not that different.

After Milosevic was overthrown, those that gained money through illegal means in the period of anarchy and corruption that was Milosevic's rule had a chance to climb to the highest positions of power, and they did. More than a half of the industry has been destroyed in the process of failed, corruption-filled privatisation. Serbia is practically ruled by mob bosses and shady businessmen - they are above the government, since they finance political parties and get to pull the strings when they get the power. Politicians are both corrupt and utterly incompetent. The people have no true choice in elections, since all parties have almost the same program and are financed by the same businessmen.

Reforms are done by the principle of simply copypasting European laws, so we can enter the EU as quickly as possible, but are leaving no alternatives, and the EU doesn't truly want and need us. Laws are becoming more autocratic than even Milosevic's, at least his had the excuse of being temporary and for martial purposes. The quality of life is on almost the same level as during the wartime '90s. People are almost universally cynical, pessimistic and apathetic. 50% of the young want to permanently leave the country when they finish their studies. Many people want Milosevic's era back.

This is not unique to the Philippines and Serbia, it seems that most post-transition countries are in similar problems.

Say what they want about dictators; they did bring stability.

I'm in the school of gradual democracy - 1986 was nothing of the sort, it was the Marcos government just collapsing without any concrete plan by the opposition.

When you compare the path of China to that of ex-soviet states, switching dictatorship for democracy doesn't seem to have been an improvement at all! (on the other hand, Cuba, and Taiwan).

This is why I am for gradual democracy, rather than an abrupt one that does not jeopardize the economy.

Agreed.

It could be worth warning Egypt and Libya and Syria and Yemen then (well, maybe Libya and Yemen can't get worse).

The West is not helping the affairs, either. Oh, right, they're helping themselves. But what bugs me the most is when some rich idiot who didn't know anything about our country until he saw it on CNN starts preaching about what is good for us.

This dovetails in nicely with the Western-style democracy thread, I think - not every country can easily follow that of an OECD government's.

@Slightly: Cuba is a massive failure.

Yup, Cuba's a counter example of a country that didn't ditch it's dictatorship and still sucked, and Taiwan ditched it's dictatorship and is doing fine.

@Slightly: Also, China is not a good case for not-democracy. They are about to be smashed by depression along with environmental problems similar to the Dust Bowl.

@Erock - I would also suggest that rampant corruption, widespread poverty, repression of anything the government doesn't like and executing more people than anywhere else on earth make China a terrible example of not-democracy.

As for the Phillippines, I'm not an expert, but it may well be that the problem is that they got rid of their dictator but kept the same tiny elite group who hold a lot of the economic wealth, so there's massive inequality. An awful lot of countries are in a similar position.

edited 22nd Jun '11 11:06:38 AM by captainbrass2

China is not even 'communist' any more. They're as far from communist as I am from the centre of the political scale. Economic revolution usually precedes socio-political ones, but in China that isn't likely. It's like Nazi Germany (woo A* History GCSE!). If you're content, the government ain't gonna say a thing. If you ain't, or you're far from the norm, bang, zoom, you're erased from history. In 20 years, China will fall. The youth are immigrating, and also, they're gonna have a oldies crisis - worse than the OECD. Due to the one-child policy, they'll have a HUGE youth:old ratio.

The huge gender imbalance isn't going to help much either. There's going to be one hell of a population bottleneck.

Serbia needs another Dictator, though one who is not genocidal. Who could do the job and retain a bit of dignity while at it...

i'll be honest, i had a short stay in Cebu during a backpacking trip, and it was just amazing to see the huge wealth disparity within the city. I could literally walk, within ten minutes, from tin-roof shacks to a 30-floor skyscraper hotel. I could go from the inside of a shopping mall with vending machines selling cold bottled water to a creek filled with trash, junk, and so polluted that I felt sick just looking at it.

There's obviously a huge amount of development and westernization, and at the same time it's obvious those developments are really only benefiting the rich minority.

Spot-on. And then there's said elite pulling the democracy card to silence any genuine criticism of its oligarchy.

Just like Tsarist Russia.

@Inhoplessguy: I've said the same about China here before. You also have to take consideration the economy can't sustain this crazy growth, and will fall apart 1929 style. And their environment is being damaged very quickly.

Some more pertinent sites.

I wouldn't bet against the future of China; yes, an argument could be made that they will collapse in the near future, but an even better argument could be made that the same will Europe and/or the US - with the whole Greek crisis thing, that may happen pretty soon in Europe. I wouldn't bet on it either - the future is very hard to read - but I don't thinik China's less stable than Europe.

Sure, there are things that suck in China (pollution, free speech, wealth inequalities), but they aren't things that predict collapse much.

Anyway, this is getting off-topic.

edited 23rd Jun '11 9:06:16 AM by SlightlyEvilDoctor

Politcally, and in a sense, economically, China is less stable. Europe is 1st place in the economic league tables (it just isn't a country... damn borders and stupid government), so to bring it down would have to take a shit load. Even with the PIGS, (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain), we're still hell strong.

But off-topic.

Things I dislike about the current state of affairs here:

1. Church, church, church butting in on every damn issue. The Roman Catholic Church isn't the only religion in this country. And to top it all off, our leader doesn't have any spine to tell them to back off and let the government settle things. Not that it's gonna be much of a help, but it's a start.

2. Related to the above, I think this line from Ilustrado should say it all:

"A sign declares "Welcome to the Philippines, the most Christian country in Asia"; beneath it, a sign that says, "Beware of Pickpockets."

Granted, it's a fictional version of the Philippines, but it still applies. How can this country be proud of its status when we're caught in a state of decay?

3. Unfulfilled promises by presidents voted by people who don't know who should really sit in the seat of power. Sure, there's a vocal minority which says "Responsible voting" and all, but the problem is that the masses just don't care. They just vote who's popular and not those with an agenda that actually makes sense and has a credible background.

There are a lot of stupid things in this country. I'm not proud to be Filipino, but I'm still hoping that someone sensible would actually lead this country. Someone with good intentions and sensible solutions but pragmatic enough to put those solutions into action.

edited 28th Jun '11 3:00:29 AM by LiberatedLiberater

It's hard to keep the bishops out as long as the landed oligarchy remain in power, you know.

@S Lightly Evil: No, Europe and the US doesn't have a massive depression coming, environmental problems out the wazoo, and an oppressive government.