The liberties and rights promised by a democratic society are every person’s dream, a natural ideal. The sad reality is that only 26 of 165 independent states around the globe qualify as full democracies, as reported in a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Index of Democracy for 2010. According to former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno in his speech at the 50th anniversary of the Philippine Constitution Association, the survey studied the performance of these countries in the areas of electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties and the functioning of government; political participation and political culture. The results of the survey, according to the former Chief Justice is that of the 26 countries which qualified as full democracies only two are in Asia, Japan and South Korea. Fifty-three countries have flawed democracies; 33 have hybrid regimes while 55 countries are considered authoritarian. The Philippines is among the countries considered to have a flawed democracy.
What is the implication of this finding and how is it relevant to the growing awareness of peoples around the world that they deserve better leaders and genuine democratic rights?
Chief Justice Puno, quoting from the study, said that in Asia, even among the countries that supposedly have democratized elections, majority of the citizens believe that their nation’s democratic transitions have brought no improvement in their lives. This situation is particularly lamentable for the Philippines, he said, because our nation holds the record of being the first country in Asia to have established a republican democracy. Yet, after 100 years, the Philippines earned the reputation of being a study model of a country that started with a surplus of democracy to one with democratic deficit. Puno added that those watching our democratic progress classify our state as a weak or a failing state. He said that it is difficult to disagree with this because indeed our state has failed to fulfill the expectations of its people.
Tracing how our nation ended up as a weak state, Puno identified three major reasons. First, he said, was our having been colonized for hundreds of years. Our foreign colonizers not only weakened our national character but have plundered our resources as well. The second reason, Puno said, is our electoral system that has long been vulnerable to the use of force and fraud. Such electoral system breeds regimes that desecrate the sovereignty of the people; governments that do not respect their people’s rights. Necessarily, he added, leaders who come to power through the use of guns, goons and gold will leave a state only after abusing it. And when they do, the state will be bereft of strength and drained of its effectiveness. Our nation, he said, has seen the reign of illegitimate and rapacious leaders who have greedily and insatiably helped themselves to the coffers of the people. And because, by the very nature of our electoral system, where money and fraud rule, those who desire to sit in positions of power often—without compunction—strike unholy alliances with drug and gambling lords; with smuggling syndicates and others whose sources of wealth are anything but legitimate.
The third reason for our weak state, Chief Justice Puno said, is the rise of centers of power that command a critical mass of votes; wield economic power; or possess armories of death and violence. During elections, candidates make a beeline to seek the blessings of these leaders. Consequently, this results in the growth of forces that are able to extract undue economic and political favors from the government. This creates oligarchs, too, that direct the economic policies of government. And the saddest part of all is that they are never made accountable to the people.
In so many words, former Chief Justice Puno said that a weak and failing state that continues to default in delivering to the people the services they expect may be brought down by anti-democratic forces through extra-constitutional means.
And let us not forget that, as we have witnessed in the Arab world, citizens themselves may bring down leaders who serve only themselves. We need real political and structural changes to strengthen our state. And change begins by understanding where we are and why.
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