A sleepwalking society

A sleepwalking society

2010 election is in the offing and still our country is reeling in economic crisis. The government boasts that our economy is improving because it grounded on sound economic principles and that ours is comparatively better than those of our Asean neighbors. This presumptuousness of the government is belied by widespread unemployment, skyrocketing prices of basic commodities, and the sight of poverty along the country side, among others. Our national leaders, instead of focusing themselves on how to address these national concerns, they embroil themselves in politics of mudslinging, finger-pointing, and popularity contest. Instead of getting a national consensus of pooling ourselves together and collectively seek solutions to these crises, we wallow in a national shame of unending scandals of graft and corruption and immorality which make life in this country hard and almost unbearable.

The government cannot alleviate social poverty by handing out a measly amount of money to those who could hardly afford to pay their electric bills or to the needy senior citizens. This only creates a culture of mendicancy and a society of parasites and far from being a solution to resuscitate our dying economy. These palliative steps are cheap political ploys and gimmicks which were poorly worked out to create an image of a compassionate national leadership and to boost its popularity.

We are likened to sleepwalkers and sleeptalkers. Sleepwalkers and sleeptalkers are difficult to awaken. However, once awakened, they are often confused and disoriented. In 1986, we were awakened and we overthrew a dictator. After that historical awakening, nowadays our confusion and disorientation are recurrent. Like the sleepwalkers and sleeptalkers, we are being awakened by our prophetic church and some well-meaning members of the political opposition but we seem to be in our deep sleep that we do not get up amidst our screaming with terror.

When shall we wake up? I contend that people who are sleep dislike having their sleep disturbed. But this is an emergency case. It is high time that we open our eyes wide. It is time for us to be awakened and realize that many political crooks and clowns are fooling us and flooding our consciousness with their mean and shameful political games. We should wake up not soon but now. Unless we still have to wait for a worse thing to happen, that is, for us to experience bedwetting in our slumbers.