So goes the always quoted and cliched line from the Spiderman movie. And yet, even though nearly everyone in the world is familiar with this line, the truth of Uncle Ben's words seems to elude most Filipinos.
The recent and never-ending bruhaha about Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's Proclamation 1017 is just the tip of the iceberg in this long-going GMA resign movement. Even though 1017 has long been buried, the opposition refuse to let this matter rest -- especially since it provides them with so much ammunition against the president. There are cries of unlawful arrests, curtailing the freedom of the press, Gloria resign, yaty-yaty-yata...
Only the feeble minded will fall for tactics like this. Even someone as young as I am (with just eight years of political-watching experience) has come to realize that whenever a politician claims to be doing something for the country, he never really does. With such a long standing history of corruption in the government, after all, traitors to the country are not an exeption but the norm, and we have to ceased to expect anyone to die for the country.
Things are bad enough as it is, but the entrance of new player in this political arena is making things worst. Media, that institution which claims to work for objective truth, has been corrupted by the ugly claws of politics. Philippine media -- notably ABS-CBN -- has hardly been objective. For years and years they have been infusing a certain belief into the masa's thinking through their shows and the news they show, almost like a hidden message concealed in music. It's no secret that they choose their news, and that most of their reporters are leaning close to the opposition to the point of trying to sway the public into joining them.
While I have nothing personal against ABS-CBN, but it's abhoring the way they're abusing their power. Media is a powerful entity, and ABS-CBN being one if not the highest rated network in the country, holds much of this power. Looking back to twenty years of Filipino culture and it's easy to see that how much we have been influenced by what we see in TV. People dress as the stars dress on TV, talk in the same way people talk in TV, and even think in the same way as TV wants them to think. And in a country where majority of it's people do not even finish high school, that is a disaster. (And to think, media could have helped alleviate this by showing more quality and intellectual shows than just giving us the same shit on TV.) We're practically living in George Orwell's 1984, but with media being the Big Brother instead of the government.
Thus, their recent complains about 1017 being "against press freedom" is starting to sound like the complains of a spoiled, rich brat. Media is enjoying so much freedom as it is that it gets away with what other countries would consider libel or even rebellion. I mean, if they can censor every good things GMA does, why can't they be denied Military information when they know it would only lead to chaos rather than a spread of truth? Freedom and power, like everything else, comes with responsibility and is not absolute. I can understand this, even little kids who know Spiderman can understand this. It seems that media has already become so used to this kind of absolute power, that like an old dictator, it simply refuses to take a hint.
Vous,
