The Political Youth, A Year After…

Friday, 03 June 2011 05:51

Written by Aaron Benedict De Leon

Almost a year after the 2010 Presidential Elections, it seems that youth volunteerism and engagement in political affairs seem to have dwindled, if not, gone to levels of extinction.

With the exception of support groups from the Yellow Camp, many organizations seem to have either dissolved or simply is in the process of re-tooling for the next political exercise in 2013.

You can call it alarming, but you can also say that it was somehow expected, as many youth organizations were used for political and seasonal purposes.

This is what worries, if not makes me irate about our attitude as the supposed “change- makers” in society. Political reform does not take shape overnight, and the youth is in a better position to subject our public servants to political pressure in order to get important legislation passed in Congress.

Social networking, for some groups, has simply become a den of trading tirades, and throwing mud against our government. They would rather play with the President’s photos, mingle in his supposed love affair(s) and spend energies on being attack dogs for several groups.

We are not a country defined by our political colors, and we’re not supposed to mouthpiece what trapos have been echoing for years and decades now.

Political activism does not stop in a political exercise, because political exercises are only the beginning steps toward the change and reform we aspire. Engagement is not defined by support for certain advocacies on Facebook or in other social networks. Making your voice heard on a matter of national importance is futile if you don’t make it count.

What am I trying to say?

1.) Let’s stop acting like cry babies because 2010 was a year ago, a year ago where we should have learned our lessons, learned to accept things for what they are, and start supporting or helping our government fulfill its duly elected responsibility. There is no point in saying this government is illegitimate.

2.) Facebook is not the end all of political activism. Figurative support, for example, does not provide ably basic social services to our less fortunate brothers and sisters. We must try to outlive symbolical engagement, and start being action men and women of our time.

The younger generation is rich in talent, in dynamism, in creativity and in energy, but if these potentials will be wasted in non-productive endeavors, then we can call our efforts a year ago a waste.

For youth political party organizations, now is the time to work together to help strengthen the atmosphere of our political system by supporting initiatives to enact the Political Party Reform bill. Only when the political system is injected with rules that focus on less campaign spending and more efficient and equitable resources to all political parties will corruption, at its root, be minimized.

For youth organizations, this is also the perfect time to outgrow our ideological leanings, and start getting our acts together towards the ratification of important measures such as the Freedom of Information bill, amongst others.

We also need to work specifically for the benefit of our constituencies. It is time we re-invent the wheel and create new programs which will make education more inclusive and comprehensively available to every young Filipino. Let us support initiatives in Congress to pass the Student Loan Mechanism bill and also work towards empowering our young leaders to be capable in leading their own communities, through the SK Reform bills pending in Congress.

Some organizations are doing the work, but they need our utmost support in the passage and enactment of these important measures. They need our help, through our constructive criticism and increased participation, so that the collective aspirations of the youth are captured in the final output, to allay claims that youth initiated bills are backed by left- or right-leaning ideologies.

At the end of the day, our decision and indecision to help, and the rightness or wrongness of some youth sectors, shall not only affect a specific segment of the youth sector, but its entirety.

The future cannot wait for us to grow up, and it is up to us to continue what we started a year ago. It’s time to fulfill the promises we shared and the ideas we supported, and not rely on the death or the invincibility of the personalities we campaigned hard for.

Their generation is getting old, and soon, will vanish. Ours isn’t, but will die soon, if we don’t act now.

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