By Joy Aceron

LET me start by sharing pieces of a puzzle that form the concept of a project called the Citizens Reform Agenda 2010 (CRA 2010), an initiative of the Ateneo School of Government (ASoG) in partnership with other civil society groups.

With the kind of politics that we have in our country, we cannot overemphasize the significance of the forthcoming national elections, particularly that of the president, given the enormous powers that are lodged in the said position. If we are to undertake an initiative to improve the country’s political state of affairs, the take-off point should be the 2010 elections, particularly the presidential elections. What can be done to make it work?

With the 2010 elections in mind, we first turn to the electoral system. It is not good. In fact, it is so bad that saying so has already become a cliché. The credibility of the supposed manager of the elections, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), is severely tarnished by the outcome of the preceding national elections. The election laws, including laws on campaign financing, remain problematic and weak. The structural design of the electoral system remains flawed, which makes constitutional change a seeming imperative that can no longer be ignored.

However, there are shimmers of light. You have a new Chair and a few newly appointed Commissioners, one of whom came from the ranks of reform advocates. There is an effort to automate and reform the system; and there is — or what seems like — an opening to citizens groups.

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By Harvey Keh

AS I listened to the testimony of former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante, I again realized how important it is for our country to elect the right President in the upcoming 2010 National Elections.

If you listened to Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s arguments, she stated that Bolante is such a powerful person given the fact that he is able to disburse almost one billion pesos of the alleged fertilizer funds to chosen local government units and congressmen.

Santiago even said that even she as a senator doesn’t have that same power as Bolante; thus, we begin to ask, who gave such power to Bolante? Who appointed a man like Bolante to his position? Of course, it’s none other than President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo whose government never seems to run out of controversies, scams and allegations of graft and corruption. It’s been more than seven years since Arroyo took power in the 2001 People Power 2 Revolution. Since then her administration will be remembered not with helping uplift the lives of millions of very poor Filipinos but with the billions of pesos that have been allegedly used to enrich the pockets and promote the self-interests of a few.

With this in mind, many of my friends have asked where have we gone wrong? Why can’t we seem to elect right leaders to our country especially in the national level? Some of my friends who are volunteers of election watch groups, such as Namfrel and PPCRV have even told me that they are beginning to feel frustrated since it’s been more than 20 years when we started these groups.

I’d like to believe that the main problem isn’t so much because we have failed to educate our Filipino voters on who to vote for in our elections but rather we haven’t given Filipinos the right candidates to choose from.

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By Harvey Keh

AS the United States of America’s President-elect Barack Obama was delivering his victory speech in Chicago, a sense of inspiration and hope began to fill me up. Here was a young African-American, first-term Senator who has defied all odds to become the first Black President of the most powerful country in the world.

Obama campaigned on the message of “Change,” a change that every American could believe in, a change that resonated with so many American voters most especially those aged between 18 to 29 years old. In CNN’s analysis, one of the major factors for Obama’s victory was his charismatic appeal to young voters. This appeal along with his very inspiring words would rally millions of young and previously apathetic American voters to register and take part in the elections.

Obama also showed the world a new way of campaigning, earning hundreds of millions of dollars not by getting big donations from businessmen but by appealing to ordinary people to donate small amounts of $5 to $10 to his campaign. More importantly, Obama’s campaign team was a master of using the power of the Internet and social networking sites such as Twitter, My Space and Facebook thereby being able to relate to the more the younger, tech-savvy generation.

He ended his speech with the words Yes We Can and he showed the world that despite having not enough financial resources or political clout compared to Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator John McCain when he launched his bid for the Presidency more than 2 years ago, he was able to win decisively because he was able to rally ordinary people to his cause.

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