Smartmatic-PCOS violates the human right of Filipino voters

The most important issue before us today is the Smartmatic-PCOS election on May 13. We are being disarmed of the only weapon - voting - that we have as sovereign citizens against bad government. It is not being done through force by authoritarian government or martial law. It is being stealthily maneuvered through a computerized system of elections.

The play of this political strategy is to “seize power “ through machines. It happened in 2010 and it will happen again in 2013. Comelec is banking on a passive citizenry that will allow it.

Whoever conceived using the Smartmatic-PCOS system as the way to control the country is very smart (excuse the pun) indeed. Look clean hands. Revolutionary government, martial law, takeover of institutions are too obvious besides being messy.

It is serious. What we do will determine our future as citizens in a representative democracy. Therefore those who think that they can “guard” this election or any other automated election are misled. The problem is in the automatic electoral system itself. It is the vehicle for fraud.

Happily, more and more Filipinos are beginning to understand the peril of the PCOS elections that already are on top of us. Their helplessness is palpable.

“What is the use of voting? “

I have heard many say this but I think this needs hard thinking. If the machines can invent numbers then individual boycotts are useless. The boycott must be visible to overcome the numbers churned out by the machines.

Comelec is taking us all for a ride. We need to organize for collective action. Anything other than that will have no effect. Numbers are irrelevant in wholesale fraud by an automated electoral system. These cannot be checked or tracked down.

The Comelec will have no compunction to drive the juggernaut into the helpless electorate even as they rail and rant. Frankly, I will not be surprised if it should even produce a last-minute source code because computer experts have honed on having a source code. Ha! We have a source code but it is deposited in the vaults of the Central Bank and no one may see it. A source code is proprietary. That happened in 2010. Was there anything we could have done when the elections were over?

While debates were good for spreading information on the defects of the Smartmatic-PCOS, we need a more comprehensive perspective about “machinated elections.” It is a fundamental question that the Germans asked and left it no choice but to ban computerized voting.

It decided that the problem was moral and philosophical — e-voting violates human rights.

There are US groups that are tackling the issue from that perspective like Democracy for New Hampshire/Election Defense Allianceand Black Box Voting.

“We believe that counting votes on computers controlled by insiders violates inalienable rights, specifically the right to public scrutiny of public elections.” the groups said.

But a far more important aspect is being overlooked.

“The use of voting machines which electronically record the voters’ votes and electronically ascertain the election result only meets the constitutional requirements if the essential steps of the voting and of the ascertainment of the result can be examined reliably and without any specialist knowledge of the subject. “ In other words safeguards are not enough even if it is made public. It must be understood.

“The use of electronic voting machines requires that the essential steps of the voting and of the determination of the result can be examined by the citizen reliably without any specialist knowledge of the subject

If seizure of power is the objective of PCOS machine elections, then let us look at what may be in store after.

While rosy figures of the Philippine economy are being trotted about, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), the statistical arm of the country’s highest economic planning body, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has come out with figures that there has been no change in the number of poor in the Philippines.

Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, an anti-poverty specialist says that out of 98.558 million Filipinos more than 27.59 are poor. And when they say poor they mean people who eat from garbage dumps. They are dirt poor.

Whatever economic formula is being followed by the government, it has not worked for the poor and 27 million is nothing to sneeze about.

Therefore, shall we have more of the same economic policies courtesy of Smartmatic PCOS machines? That seems to be the logic. I can understand if keeping a government in power means better lives for our people but that is not what is happening and that is according to our own statistics, not from some foreign ratings.

For the long term objective of nation-building, a PCOS election will be catastrophic. If the aim of the election machine would be for a 12-0 victory for the Liberal Party then we can expect that a liberal program copied from Western liberal democracies is here to stay. Never mind if it causes poverty. This is not to say that it cannot be successfully implemented in countries at certain periods of their history.

Is liberal democracy appropriate for East Asia? asks Daniel Bell. He argues for morally legitimate alternatives to Western-style liberal democracy in the region.

“Beyond Liberal Democracy, which continues the author’s influential earlier work, cites three main hallmarks of liberal democracy — human rights, democracy, and capitalism. “These features have been modified substantially during their transmission to East Asian societies that have been shaped by nonliberal practices and values.” he adds.

Therefore Western-style models need not be the only norm. There are “alternative practices that may be more appropriate for East Asian societies.”

“If human rights, democracy, and capitalism are to take root and produce beneficial outcomes in East Asia, Bell argues, they must be adjusted to contemporary East Asian political and economic realities and to the values of nonliberal East Asian political traditions such as Confucianism and Legalism.”

Beyond Liberal Democracy is indispensable reading for those concerned about China’s political and economic future and how Western governments and organizations should engage with it.

The 57th Congress of the Liberal International took place in Manila in June 2011. The Liberal Party of the Philippines ( Partido Liberal ng Pilipinas) is the current ruling party after the election victory of Benigno Aquino III as President of the Philippines. The Liberals control the House of Representatives while it is part of a coalition government in the Senate.


(2013-04-27/philstar)