Enrico Paolo F.

Morada 2/12/2020

ZGE-1105 Mr. Ernesto Cledera

Political Analysis

In the book entitled “Moral Politics in the Philippines: Inequality, Democracy and
the Urban Poor” written by Wataru Kusaka in 2017. He analyzed the democratic behavior
of the Filipino people during the EDSA revolutions that occurred in the administrations of
Cory Aquino and Joseph Estrada. He questioned that during those people power, why
did the middle-class unacknowledged the reason of the urban poor in deposing President
Joseph Estrada, the sudden behavior of the middle class in prioritizing rational policy
debate in choosing candidates for elections, and the ignorance of the government to
prioritize the marginal sectors or the impoverished society in the country. Leading him
from proposing a dual sphere wherein the middle-classes are the “Civic” and the urban
poor as “mass” sphere. The spheres as according to Kusaka, created a perceived “good”
and “evil” dichotomy between them. That challenges the democratic stabilization of the
country, because of this the voices of the urban poor have been slowly ignored by the
middle-class let alone the elites or the rich people at the top. He also asked to what
happened with the Filipinos before that can unite together despite the hierarchy of
classes, if the government fails to protect their welfare and livelihood.

In analyzing Kusaka’s discussions, I noticed that his claims of the sudden division
of moral politics between the two classes, are still existing until today. Social media raised
a louder voice that boosted the power of the citizens to criticized the wrongdoing and
misbehaviors that is occurring inside the government. However, the majority of those
people are the youths, and though it is relevantly advantageous, discriminations are
rampantly increasing through the platform. Why? Because older generations whose
beliefs are almost immovable or unchangeable, are being discriminated for their ideals.
Now, there might be nothing wrong in criticizing a belief that is obviously absurd right?
But those same people did not have the access of digital platforms before such as social
media, in order for them to be more rationalized about their current beliefs, and are being
dehumanized by the intellectuals whose ideas are always right. Again, I did not say that
we should just tolerate such beliefs, but my point is that we should not divide the identity
of classes as “good” and “evil” people, where the good ones are the ones that has a
rational political beliefs that criticize the unethical behavior of the government, and the
evil ones are the people who side with that government. So, what should be done instead?
I believe that continuous education about how should they and why should they be
changing their ideals in looking at the government’s conducts whether should they still
side with them or not. Voices should be heard, and what is right must be done, however,
we must remember that we are equal to one another despite the hierarchy of classes, we
should point their mistakes, but we should never dehumanize them by treating them as
an evil person.

Source:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326733770_REVIEW_Wataru_Kusaka_2017_
Moral_Politics_in_the_Philippines_Inequality_Democracy_and_the_Urban_Poor