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I will not dignify De Quiros' name-calling and Jesuit-baiting (and I am no Jesuit!) with a direct response. Moreover, I am afraid if we engage in this kind of attacks, we will fall into GMA's divide and rule trap. But allow me just to forward Boyet Dy's email yesterday which corrects some of the critics' misreadings of the SJSA Guidelines, while at the same time also pointing to the limitations/weaknesses of the document. Boyet is currently Training Manager at the AIM TeaM Energy Center for Bridging Societal Divides. He was Ateneo Student Council President, AB Development Studies summa cum laude and Class Valedictorian 2006. Let me also reiterate that the SJSA Commission does NOT say (contrary to misinterpretations) that GMA should stay in power till 2010. You just have to read the sections, "Uphold the Truth" and "Exact Accountability" in the Non-negotiable Principles, and our critiques of the views associated with "There is no problem with GMA" and "GMA is not the main problem". From hindsight, we probably should also have stressed that the "GMA resign" call is an example of what may be called "discursive politics" (or to use an older term, "propaganda politics") which does have a delegitimizing effect on GMA, even if we know she will not resign voluntarily. In that sense, it can be powerful "symbolic politics", which especially in the post-structural age, may be considered as "real" as any. And thus, such a position does have a political constituency, waiting to be organized and mobilized (if it hasn't been yet), and is supportive of the independent counsel proposal and of a genuine impeachment process. I also agree with Boyet (see below) that the SJSA Commission should have also clarified that the action points we identified in the Guidelines constitute a range or continuum of immediate options which may not be the only ones, depending on how the situation develops and how our people organize and engage politics to strengthen and transform democratic institutions. I am happy that the SJSA document is stimulating communal discernment, discussion and (hopefully) political action, as we had intended it to be really a reflection guide rather than a statement (again, if you're looking for one, see the Ateneo Polisci Department's statement which came out on Easter Sunday, the same date as the Guidelines). I just hope that the discussion leads to the building of political common ground rather than unnecessary division among us. Write Comment
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