Politics in our Daily Life

Kayeann Choi

When I was younger it is a common view for me and I believe

also to most people that politics is unrelated to one’s everyday

life. I believe before that is “only” related to politicians, legal

and official business that the average person knows nothing about,

and care nothing about, and therefore should not be bothered with.

Now I realize that it is an ill-fated view because politics is

about life to begin with!

Government, enforcer to lawmaker make decisions that affects

our everyday life. How? In a simple walking or not walking (more

of a “Pinoy way”) to a pedestrian lane when we crosses the road

to even what purpose we gave unto ourselves such as future dreams

of job, house and even family and we will be tackling this more

later on. It is not new to us and we all know this, of course. But

to what extent do we actually practice it or how in-depth do we

know how it affects our life? For a nation to move forward, its

people must take their future into their own hands. A nation is a

people, an entity, a concept; all of which are about more than a

‘country’ as defined politically, but about us and our lives. To

be politically conscious is to care about your life. When we see

politics as something distant, we forget how personal it really

is.

Politics change how (we think) people perceives us. We would

like to believe that our political process depends on us knowing

how closely our personal views align with those of the existing

political ideological groupings such as being DDS or Duterte

Diehard Supporters (Not Davao Death Squad) or being Dilawan, Marcos

Loyalist, Liberal, Nacionalista and so on… but if you are going to

think of it, has been… is there really a difference? Without this

knowledge, electing future TRAPO or Traditional Politician who

will promise heaven then will not fail to give us hell of a

government would be even more chaotic than it already is. The

political party system lets us know exactly what type of citizen

we are and, more importantly, what sort of misguided idiot we most

certainly are not. The reality is that no matter who we sided to

with the proliferation of propagandas that brought about this “Fake

News” we have no self-awareness or if we have we only have a

misguided and faulty awareness of what is and what is not and with

that we became gullible over and over again.

As a young person with a keen interest in politics I am

passionate about the process through which the decisions that have

a direct impact on our daily lives are reached. As I talk to

numerous people it is sad to realize there is a strong apathy

towards politics and government and there is nothing new about it.

This is perhaps the greatest challenge we face currently in our

democracy: re-engaging the common Filipino working class in the

political process, and is a subject that needs to be addressed.

Filipinos are disillusioned, and they have all the right to

be. It is evident in the previous elections when most people

believe to someone who promises death and bloody Philippine setting

yet he won the elections. The chronic lack of forward thinking and

inaction is shameful then. But being disillusioned doesn’t mean

that we can simply give up on politics, to do so would be to put

our democracy at risk where it is now today. Politics is the

vehicle by which progress and change for the people occurs (Change

Is-Camming). I believe firmly that the purpose of government is to

meet the needs of the Filipino people. And we are the Filipino

People! While we are all tired of the old style of politics, much

good has been accomplished.

 Every aspect of our daily lives is influenced by politics.

From how much we buy a piece of 1 peso candy to how we pay taxes

to the price of gasoline, politics has a direct impact on our daily

lives. In family life now with politics even sex is influence by

it with the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act or

the most commonly known as the RH Bill.. now a law. Political

decisions have a profound impact on the lives of families.

We are still fortunate to live in a country like ours to enjoy

the freedom of a democracy. We must never lose hope in the great

endeavor that is politics. The purpose of politics is to better

the lives of the people, and to give up on politics could have

extremely negative results for our daily lives. So we have no

choice that next time we feel disillusioned by politics, think of

everything that has been accomplished, but not be blinded by its

flawed systems and have faith in the future. A future we will make

and determine

When one lives life aware of the importance of politics, aware

that every decision has an impact on an entire population, aware

that your individual behaviour is not the result of just you and

those immediately around you, but it is also a result of

governance, one can acknowledge why it’s “worth fighting for” and

as the late senator Ninoy Aquino “worth dying for”. The way forward

is to acknowledge this, accept that we have the power to influence

the outcome of the government more than it shapes our life. Knowing

this we should act now and finally put it into practice. Once we

realize that a better government is not one dependent to a strong

leader but also to a strong willed citizens, improve infrastructure

here and there to resolve our economic miseries, but one that will

actively contribute to our everyday life for the better, then maybe

we’ll decide that that is something worth dying for, fighting for,

and living for.