CONGRESSIONAL CANNIBALS

CONGRESSIONAL CANNIBALS
by Lualhati Madlangawa-Guerrero

This morning, I watched a news and I was quite thinking badly as the rightist cohort Jovito Palparan passed his certificate of candidacy running as senator in the next year's elections. Thinking badly due to his "opportunism" as he think of a way just to counter Liza Maza and Satur Ocampo, whom he is against with.

Well...
That anti-communist, Pro-Gloria for sure said of "checks and balances" and "to counter the red menace" a la McCarthy or any other American conservative who has a distaste for anything left. Same as any other candidate whose backgrounds are of carrying their "heritage-prone" name as a means to accumulate votes. Worse if again, as some people may expect more and more money will be extracted from their budget just for electoral activities-especially illegal ones like guns, goons, gold and questionable ones like those in Maguindanao!

In addition to that,
Somehow the threat goes on and on as Palparan, known to be as the "butcher" may tried much in reviving the infamous "Anti-Subversion" law for to him as a means to counter the red menace and even blackmailing the progressive lawmakers and other personalities for goddamn's sake! Well... Perhaps the rightists tend to rally behind him, even Arroyo's cohorts who wanted him to join the Lakas-CMD-Kampi as their senatorial candidate! But will the rest of the people vote for him? Ya, but only a few will pass through the ballot.

Aside from Palparan, there are other personalities who tried much in exploiting this so-called electoral circus. And these people somehow tried to curry people using sugar-coated populist rhetoric while at the same time unleashing bitter ones from behind, and if they win-what kind of platforms will they set through? Protecting a rotten system in a guise of National Security? Of Encouraging foreign investment? Of building bridges and other sugar coated sort of things then using their names as its benefactors?

Bah! They are more of a nuisance candidates with legal backgrounds and experiences as I may say, full of "dreams" just to win this electoral race, of wasting money and rhetoric just to accumulate votes then eating them alive as they sat in their posts! Perhaps if the Late Lu Xun is alive, he would called them as Cannibals, as what he hath said in his work "Diary of a Madman":

"...After extensively studying Chinese history as outlined in the four books and five classics of his culture, he began to see the words "Eat People!" written between the lines of the texts. Seeing the people in his village as potential man-eaters, he is gripped by the fear that everyone, including his brother, his venerable doctor and his neighbors are preparing to eat him. It is anti-traditional in the sense that the other characters are portrayed as heartless, bound to tradition, and cannibalistic."

For sure in his words are seemingly similar to the Filipino situation, of heartless cannibals defending 'tradition', including their seats in their respective posts both civilian and military, and benefiting in "eating people" through their "decrees" and of "promises" which are too contrary to their intentions. And in addition to that, Lu Xun's writeup "A Madman's Diary" is an attempt to describe the effects of feudal values upon the Chinese people. And he uses an analogy of cannibalism to describe the way such outdated values eat away at the individual. And Somehow feudal values are retained in the Philippines despite the growth of the bourgeoisie, that even them are being eaten by these so-called "values", that the rotten system encouraged to prevent "immorality" and of "destroying tradition."

Well...
These congressional cannibals, just like their predecessors, will continue devouring people in the name of "national security", "tradition", "progress", "peace" and anything that comes from their minds. And if people continue to remain apathetic, apolitical and asocietal, for sure they will be the victims of their plans.

And to end this phrase, I will say what Lu Xun said:
"Perhaps there are still children who have not eaten men? Save the children."