Reacting to Vice President Sara Duterte’s meltdown last week, sober political figures and observers are horrified the current incendiary political climate is not going to end well for us.
Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero, for example, worries that “dealing with the erratic and troubling behavior of a high-ranking official needlessly distracts us from attending to the urgent needs of the nation.”
Similarly, former senator Panfilo Lacson, in calling for cooler heads to intervene, suggests that “if they cannot reach an agreement, at least have a ceasefire so we can address the country’s problems.”
Lacson also appealed: “We should not feel entertained. These developments are sad and not good for our nation.”
Aside from the politicians, eminent Filipino sociologist Randy David warns: “This is no longer mere political theater. As the saying goes, when elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers. The public’s growing frustration with their leaders drains the energy needed for national progress…the current climate of distrust and disillusionment only deepens the country’s political malaise.”
Overtly, their reactions can be seen as anxiety over the unpredictable political repercussions the glaring and cursing Ms. Duterte unleashed during her midnight online rant.
But, their reactions can be interpreted for what it really is also — Ms. Duterte’s turn to political nihilism.
Untrendy political nihilism is largely unfamiliar to us. It can’t even be defined exactly. But it is there in our politics, particularly in the common distrust of politicians and our political system.
Still, one likely instance rancid with political nihilism is when politicians will do anything, however detrimental to the country, to advance their political agendas.
And given our already nihilist political climate — which Ms. Duterte’s father failed to rectify with his strongman politics — that stance further inflames public disillusionment, disengagement, and radical skepticism towards politics.
It is these grim anarchic outcomes that Escudero, Lacson, and David are indirectly warning of and that are causing their anxiety.
Ms. Duterte and her allies, of course, don’t pride themselves as political nihilists.
Instead, they assert — and in fact they already have — that the unrelenting “political persecution” by their erstwhile political ally caused Ms. Duterte’s angry, incendiary flare-up.
Her anger is nothing but her defensive elbowing of her rivals, in short.
It’s a plausible stance. Appreciating political nihilism presumes some degree of political smarts and it is plausible Ms. Duterte and her allies don’t even know they have become political nihilists.
Ms. Duterte’s and her allies’ assertions, however, are ironic. For one, they fail to see that they themselves caused their predicament, a pronounced political failure they’re now scrambling either to repair or deflect with farcical spectacles.
Many political observers, in fact, say the unfolding drama is meant, as a news colleague of mine says, to distract the “public from the real and key issue: holding public officials to account. How the second highest official of the land spent confidential funds — many unanswered questions that point to corruption and abuse of power.”
That same political context also explains Ms. Duterte’s vehemence: the congressional probes jeopardize her carefully crafted political persona that she is above accountability, above suspicion of corruption, and above explaining anything to anybody. She, in fact, had clearly declared, “I don’t recognize anybody above me.”
Anyway, a thing or two can be said about her nihilistic embrace of political chaos, in first laying siege on Congress and then threatening the incumbent.
Of all the famous chaos dictums, Mao Zedong’s unverified quote, “there is great chaos under heaven, and (thus) the situation is excellent,” clues us in to Ms. Duterte’s political intentions.
Mao’s quote, in politics, means that when a politician’s rivals are dealing with engineered chaos and unpredictability, it presents opportunities for a politician to thrive. Did Ms. Duterte practically apply Mao’s dicta?
But then, did she actually believe she would not only survive but thrive in the ensuing political chaos and come out even politically stronger? Or is it a unique level of political delusion? Let us see.