HOW NOYNOY CAN ENABLE NEW POLITICS

Excerpt from Issuance of Presidential Candidate Nicanor Perlas, 5 September 2009

Noynoy Can Enable the New Politics
Noynoy can do one thing that will dramatically reduce the dangers enumerated above. Noynoy can refuse the temptation of accepting his “destiny” of being the presidential candidate of the Liberal Party and, by wishful thinking, the candidate of all opposition to the current administration in an epochal battle of good and evil in 2010.

For one thing, the Liberal Party of Noynoy is NOT the only opposition party.. Second, the Liberal Party, with its mixed track record, cannot re-brand itself, even with Noynoy’s blessing, as a non-traditional party. Thus the Liberal Party is a part of the spectrum of traditional parties even if there are individuals within the party who are non-traditional. The party as a whole is not the bearer of new politics. Will Noynoy survive the intramurals within the Liberal Party and present a vision and strategic agenda that transcends the Liberal Party?

And third, will Noynoy be able to unify the dozens of non-traditional movements and parties when, by a wrong decision, Noynoy will destroy the very foundation upon which these movements and parties of new politics are built?
Prominent members of the Liberal Party share some of these thoughts. Senator Francis Pangilinan recently begged to differ that the Liberal Party is the opposition party. He said that the opposition is more than the Liberal Party, more than other traditional parties opposed to Arroyo, and includes non-traditional parties and movements.

In addition, Senator Franklin Drilon, said that Noynoy “is not prepared for it” (the presidency). And Noynoy himself is not clear whether he himself is qualified or not. He is also not clear on how he would go about systemically changing the landscape of traditional politics and transforming Philippine society. Can his lack of clarity be the beacon for the new Philippines around which all kinds of forces arrayed against the Arroyo regime will unite?

There is one thing, though, that Noynoy can do to help enhance the longing and hunger of the majority of Filipinos for a new kind of politics. He can announce that he will resign from the Liberal Party and participate in a unification process with non-traditional political and social movements for new politics. He can lend his newly minted national stature to advance the cause of the new politics, both in terms of substance and process.

Concretely, this would mean that Noynoy will announce that he is willing to be part of an open process of determining who would be the best new politics candidate for president in the national 2010 elections. It is open in the sense that, at the end of the day, Noynoy himself may or may not be that presidential candidate. Yet he would still be able to bring energy to the pursuit of the new politics by supporting whoever will emerge as the presidential candidate of a unified movement for a new politics.
This is the real challenge facing Noynoy Aquino. Will he be an enhancer of the new politics? Or will he be the instrument for marginalizing the new politics?
Overcoming the Deadly Virus of Traditional Notions of Winnability,

...we should all reflect on the ultimate meaning on the current events surrounding Noynoy. It is difficult to discern what wants to come from the future. And it would even be more difficult to discern if we are infected with the virus of traditional notions of winnability.

The Noynoy event provides us with one of the most potent challenge to discern what real new politics really means in theory and practice. We can only hope that Noynoy becomes an enabler of the new politics. And I hope that all those truly seeking a better country are able to truly discern the profound conceptual and behavioral requirements of the new politics, one that we are all hoping to begin today and realize in 2010 and beyond. Our future as a nation will depend on it.