Power unfunny

RAYMUND FERNANDEZ

What do Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and Rodrigo Duterte have in common? They are powerful men. They are all funny. Or try to be. Though the joke is more often than not on us. And where Duterte is concerned, the butt of a very unfunny joke seems to be “martial law,” if one considers current “troll rhetoric.”

Consider the statement circulating about in social media that only lawbreakers should be afraid of martial law. This seems to make sense if one thinks at the level of what is immediately apparent. It takes a bit more intelligence to realize how truly false this assertion is. One would have to know a bit of history. Authoritarian logic derives from a belief that a more powerful state would be beneficial for all of us. It is necessary so our most pressing problems can be solved, problems like peace and order, graft and corruption, the pursuit of the war on drugs, an economy perennially on the edge of crisis, etc. It is old fascist rhetoric. It is an aged assertion, proven time and time again not to work, and ultimately leading to wide-scale misery.

Notwithstanding, it is an assertion that refuses to die. And partly the reason for this is the oversupply of politicians who crave power and will do anything to get it. Partly the reason are people who will cling to anything, even the sharp end of a knife, to preserve what little power they have. Power is always addictive. It is a social phenomenon. The powerful always conspire to maintain and multiply what power they have. Which is why martial law is always a dangerous proposition historically leading to institutionalized evil even if power is of itself not necessarily evil.

And we do have a long history of it. Our Spanish colonizers were not all inherently evil people. But it is the nature of colonialism to keep a firm grip over the colonized. The issue raised by the Katipuneros was not the inherent evil of their colonizers. It was always abuse of power. After the Spanish sold us to the Americans, the same issue would be raised. Our American colonizers were not inherently evil. Some of them may have been, as claimed, quite benevolent. But in the course of establishing a firm grip over us, abuse of power was rampant especially in far flung areas where colonial military operated without any accountability. Massacres and the burning of whole villages occurred. Certain countryside became a “howling wilderness;
As with Marcos’ martial law. The ideology was not of itself an evil thing. The rhetoric of martial law spoke of the dream of a better and stronger country. But if one empowers the military and disempowers justice and the rule of law, then a particular door is opened that leads to grave historical consequences. The state and its military becomes less accountable for their behavior. What results is inevitably the abuse of power. Such abuse of power as has always been with us through history.

And it is because of this that we should all be afraid of martial law, not because we are law-breakers or potential law-breakers; but because we know and we have seen what happens when political power is abused in our country. And the Duterte government has a proven propensity for abusing power and making a joke of accountability. Be afraid. Be very afraid.