PEOPLES' PRIMARIES: LIKE BIRTHING PANGS

Every parent knows how difficult it is to give birth to a child. Father or mother views with anxiety the delivery of a child, a new life that will come into the family. It is not just another mouth of feed but someone who will have a mind of its own eventually, a breathing and living individual who will be a long-time companion until adulthood, which means freedom.

The launching and the operationalization of the Peoples' Primaries are intertwined and related to the birthing pangs of any human being. The parents are the organizers who have conceptualized and concretized the steps towards its realization. The healers or doctors are those who watch along the way what could be the problems in its smooth conduct and delivery to the people who will have to bear the brunt of making the PP successful. The end result, the baby will be the process itself which can change the political panorama of the country, towards what the people have really imagined, wished and hoped it would be given their strong and assertive participation in realizing it.

And so, the people behind PP could be in those jittery situations where each one is trying to crack his or her head into knowing how the people think, knowing how they can be made to accept the PP, and understanding and being ready to confront/stop/solve all problems, acts of rejection and sabotage that could come their way -- from the way the media label and write about PP, to the way the communities would understand the operationalization of it, including the language to be used and the types of facilitators that could make them understand fully the implications of PP.

Hence, everyone must be guarded from here on about the operationalization of the PP, given the very limited period available for its realization. No force, material and otherwise can stop the rolling of the wheels towards full political participation of the people, from the pre- to during and post- elections. What is needed really are committed people, who will stick it out through thick and thin, and yet who would not be easily cowed by some people's exhibits of trying to lord it over the rest.

Or maybe we should treat the PP as a political game. Manalo matalo basta nakapaglaro tayo. After all, as one heroine said, every step along a political struggle is a lesson in history, where we could refine our tactics and strategy to achieve our highest mission. Our mission -- the full democratization of the country, from Luzon to Visayas and Mindanao.

Let us all pray to have that serious commitment to the Peoples' Primaries with all our bodies, hearts and minds, and let God do the rest.