Is Noynoy Aquino just another conspiracy theorist?

Good news to all Aquino supporters! Noynoy Aquino has recently guaranteed that he will continue his mother’s legacy, a legacy of incompetence and mediocrity. How do I know this for sure? Well, we hardly hear Noynoy talk in public about his policies or platform because he doesn’t see any point in discussing them. Yet he has expressed his fears about the possible failure of elections this coming May. He was adamant in his aspiration to be first on the streets to organise another people power revolution if it happens. Wow! Noynoy went straight to a Plan B and skipped coming up with a Plan A altogether.

Has Noynoy stooped to engaging in fear mongering or what?! The worse thing is, a lot of journalists are hopping onto the bandwagon and adding fuel to rumours of factions in the military. Why is everyone scared of failure of elections to begin with? To be fair, it is the first time that automated elections will be conducted in the country but then Commissions on Elections (Comelec) Chair Jose Melo dismissed fears as “pure fantasy”.

To quote the guy courtesy of the Inquirer.net:

“This talk on the failure of election is pure fantasy. It could happen in the localities but not nationwide,” Melo said. He added he did not expect these problems to affect the outcome of the contests for president or vice president.

Melo said that those apprehensive of the balloting were not open to full automation of the electoral process.

“Some of our candidates still prefer the manual counting of votes because they know that they can cheat. Whereas under the fully automated elections, they don’t have any idea how to cheat,” Melo said.

Mr Melo further added that small hiccups in some precincts could happen or, in the event of natural calamities, the automation might not work in some towns that are affected but it is unlikely that failure could happen at a nationwide scale. Even Election commissioner Rene Sarmiento dismissed doomsday scenarios.

There is also that scenario where the military is portrayed as itching to take over. For me, this is just another conspiracy theory. Ramon Capsiple who is a member of the Comelec Advisory Council says that the “alternative scenarios stemmed from fears that President Gloria Arroyo wants to stay in power.”

C’mon Noynoy, please take the words of the people who work for the Comelec as it is and don’t read between the lines. If you find them hard to believe, don’t make statements that are obviously just shots in the dark. You see, this is why I don’t bother God so much. I know he is busy so, If there is something I can do before I even elevate something to Him, I will try and do it myself first, after all, they say “God helps those who help themselves.”

So Noy, if you fear for a failure of elections, be more proactive and don’t do what your late mother used to do all the time. The last thing we need is another “prayerful” president. You can take all the necessary precautions to avoid a “failure”. You have so many days left to ring up every precinct to find out for yourself if they are ready or not. If you can’t do the ringing around yourself, you have legions of volunteers who can do it for you and give you a report. Don’t try to guess what’s going on and what the likely outcome will be. Go out there and get facts.

As per the Comelec, a failure of elections can only be declared if the voters are not able to cast their votes due to force majeure — earthquakes and tsunami, terrorism and violence are a few examples. Again, I wonder what measures Noynoy could propose in the event that such things happen? If I were him, I would take some initiative to find out what type of security measures will be in place in hot zones like Mindanao, and suggest some ways to beef them up where needed. Indeed there are many risks that could be mitigated. Power failures are something that Filipinos are used to, generators for high-risk precincts would be nice. In case there aren’t enough generators, the Comelec has assured also that the ballots can be counted manually anyway. Rather than be part of the problem by heckling and imagining conspiracies, Noynoy, why not suggest solutions?

Failure makes those who survive it strong, Noynoy. Your personal development goal should be to learn how to embrace risk rather than fear it. Consider this a first test on how President Noynoy would handle crises. If you are certain that the election will fail, then step up starting now and propose a system that is resilient enough to withstand it. As president, the Comelec — an agency of the government — will be part of your responsibility someday. Why not show us now how you plan to manage it?

If Noynoy Aquino, who is currently very vocal about his fear of an election failure does not proactively do anything to alleviate his fear, then he comes across to me as merely someone who is (a) trying to find a good scapegoat in case he loses the election (b) just plain vanilla incompetent or, worse, (c) just another conspiracy theorist!

About these ads