Palaspas at Pulitika

Ang pagwawagayway ng palaspas ay isang pampulitikang protesta noong panahon ni Hesus. Ang palaspas ay simbolo ng tagumpay ng pakikidigma at hindi lamang pantaboy ng aswang o kaya ay para may masunog tayo para sa Miyerkules ng Abo sa isang taon, kagaya ng alam natin ngayon dito sa Pilipinas.

Sinakop noon ng mga Romano ang mga Hudyo. Inalipin sila, pinahirapan, inabuso at inalipusta. Brutalidad ang naranasan ng mga mamamayang Hudyo sa kamay ng mga mananakop. Ang palaspas ay simbolo ng tagumpay ng madirigma. Ang pagwawagayway ng palaspas din ay isang paghamon, isang protesta o banta ng insureksyon noong panahong iyon. Sabi nga ni Bo Sanders sa kanyang sulatin noong 2013 sa Tripfuller.com na may titulong Palm Sunday is the Most Political Sunday, “Laying down palm branches ahead of a man riding a donkey was an act of defiance and an aggressive political statement.”  Sa Pilipinas, ang kaisipan at historikal na katotohanang ito ay hindi gaanong napag-ukulan ng pansin at pagninilay. Dangan kasi naman, tayo man ay bansang sinakop din ng mga Kastila na siyang nagdala sa atin ng Kristiyanismo.

Papaano natin aasahan na ipamulat nila sa atin na ang orihinal na Linggo ng Palapas ay maituturing na isang kilos-bayan o aksyong pulitikal. Dagdag pa ni Sanders, “Palm Sunday might be the most flagrant example of ignorance and misappropriation. Palm Sunday is call for revolution against the powers of oppression, the systems and institutions that occupy foreign lands and repress its citizens with unjust practices and economic policies.” Sinong pari kaya ang mangangahas na iugnay ang tunay na diwa ng Linggo ng Palaspas sa mga aksyong panlipunan?

Pero hindi ko sinasabi na dapat gumamit tayo ng mga bagay na labag sa batas para tayo makalaya. Pang-aabuso, pananakot at panlilinlang ang gamit ng pamahalaang Romano noon para mapanatili ang kanilang paghahari. Ang pulitika ng matandang Roma ay nakatuntong nang labis sa otoridad at kapangyarihan.

Iba ang pulitika ni Hesus sa Pulitika ng Roma. Opo, si Hesus ay hindi pang-espiritwal lang. May pulitika sa Kanya, maniwala man kayo o hindi.

Halos lahat ng antas ng kanyang buhay, simula sa pagsilang Niya sa sabsaban hanggang sa pagkamatay Niya sa krus ay may pampulitikang kaugnayan at kahalagahan noon at ngayon. Ipinanganak Siya sa malayong lugar dahil sa kailangang silang masensus para mabuwisan at ipinako Siya sa krus, na parusa noon sa mga kumakalaban sa gobyerno. Ang pagbabayad ng buwis at pagsasalita, pag-aalsa kagaya nang ginawa Niya sa templo ay pawang mga pampulitikang gawain. Ang pulitika ay nasa sentro ng buhay ng Salitang Nagkatawang Tao.

Ang mga turo Niya tungkol sa pagdatal ng Kaharian ng Diyos ay maituturing na isang adyendang pulitikal. Ang Diyos ang totoong hari at ang kanyang kaharian ang siyang lulupig sa mga kaharian o mga terminong pulitikal  na gawa lamang ng tao.

Ayon kay Isaac Morehouse sa kanyang blog post noong Agosto 10, 2009 na Palm Sunday and Politics, “Physical freedom is a worthy goal. Defending oneself from violence and oppression is not immoral. But as a Christian, to use government to enforce the morality you believe in through law, backed up by the agents of the state, is to contradict Christ Himself.”  Ganyan ang sitwasyon ng lipunan ni Hesus noon. Ganyang din ang sitwasyon ng lipunan natin ngayon. Sinong tagasunod ni Kristo ang mananahimik sa mga pagpatay sa tungki mismo ng kanyang ilong? Sinong Kristiyano ang hindi kikibo kung ang kanyang Diyos mismo ay minumura? Sinong Kristiyano ang hindi magagalit sa panibagong pananakop ng mga dayuhan sa ating bansa kagaya nang naranasan noon ng mga Hudyo sa mga Romano noong unang Linggo ng Palaspas?

Sa pulitika ni Hesus ay una ang paglilingkod kaysa sa anumang kapangyarihan. Ang pulitika ni Hesus ay may kababaang-loob, may paggalang sa paniniwala ng iba, hindi makasarili, nagbibigay ng pagkakataon sa iba pang ibig mag-lingkod. Hindi kumukuyapit sa pwesto. May totoong pagmamahal kahit hindi paulit-ulit na bigkasin.

Ang masaklap, hindi pulitika ni Hesus ang ating salalayan sa pagboto at pagwawagayway ng pampulitikang palaspas kundi pulitikang Romano. Pulitikang Romano na ang mga hari ay kapit-tuko sa kapangyarihan, marahas, mapanlinlang o kaya naman ay abusado.

Ang mga taong palaspas, malamang sa hindi, sa halalan ang ibuboto ay mga makabagong Hestas!

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Sources :

Photo: Imagenesmi.com

https://trippfuller.com/2013/03/25/palm-sunday-is-the-most-political-sunday/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/teachingnonviolentatonement/2016/03/the-subversive-politics-of-palm-sunday/

https://isaacmorehouse.com/2009/08/10/palm-sunday-and-politics/

Biased Crowd Counting

Political rallies are all over and as expected, crowd counting will always be contentious. Sure thing is, both political camps have a devolved interest in the counts. The rally organizers want to project a higher count and the rival camp(s) naturally want to project a lower count.

Well with the absence of estimates or data from credible and competent authorities such as the Philippine National Police (PNP), among other agencies, numbers are sexed-up thus used as political propaganda material. Nonetheless, all political rallies or gatherings will always be disputed. For instance, no matter how huge is the crowd a party draws in certain municipality, the adversary can always claim that it is just a tiny portion of town’s population. The opposing camp will claim that a hakot system was employed or even vote buying just to gather enormous crowd. Accusations that are most of the time as real as water and power shortages that the people are currently experiencing. 

In Philippine election where patronage politics prevails, a massive crowd drawing isn’t the true measurement of support or vote for particular group of candidates. In a community where the spirit of volunteerism is not put into flesh, the number of people attending a political event is not a manifestation of heartfelt support but a display of abundant resources,- material, manpower, and most of all financial, of those seeking for public office. As long as political campaigns are fueled with money, money will always be the ultimate crowd-drawer. How can one hire movie personalities and entertainers from the city without huge amount of campaign fund or to hire social media mercenaries?How could the organizers bankroll the event with meager funds and so forth and so on? As long as nobody applies a scientific method of crowd counting, it will always be subjective. Therefore, it is  mere empiricism, political strategy-wise.

The simplest way to have a fair crowd count is to know the square footage of the venue or its site carrying capacity, the percentage of the venue occupied by participants and the crowd density. This technique originates from a journalism professor Herbert Jacobs of University of California, Berkeley, who devised the process by watching students protest on his campus against the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

Jacobs’ premise was simple: Area times density will yield more accurate results than biased guesses. Density differs whether people are standing (at about five square feet per person) or sitting (at about 10 square feet per person), and observers know that the fronts of crowds are always more dense than the rear of crowds. I assume that it is one of the methods the PNP is employing today specially in mass protests.

When one crowd estimate in the ground, its result will always be over-estimation. According to sociologist John McCarthy in his book (co-authored with Clark McPhail) Who Counts and How: Estimating the Size of Protests which was published August 1, 2004, “If you’re on the ground, it’s easy to overestimate. Because if you’re in the middle of it, it looks like a million people.”  In this particular case, we must keep our feet off the ground.

Aerial photography via drone can help determine the carrying capacity of the venues or sites and make guesses at density especially in a stationary crowd like in political campaign or rallies. The interpretation from competent authority is also essential. If I may repeat, unless a system or a scientific method is applied we cannot have a believable product. 

Bottom line: Crowd counts are used as mental conditioning to create a band wagon effect but the true arena is still in the precincts, not much in crowded political gatherings. The silent majority and the fed-up onlookers are very much aware of that. Even if one is bent on using it as a sole determinant of election success…

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(Photo: GMA News Network)