If the function of elections were solely to elect leaders, we might be better off not having elections. Elections are not only very expensive and often violent, they are also not the most efficient way to choose leaders. We expect our leaders to be skilled and knowledgeable in statecraft, yet elections yield the merely popular. … Read more
It has been thirty years since Ferdinand Marcos broke the traditional cycle of elite rule by seizing upon the martial law provisions of the 1935 constitution to install himself dictator. However, a full assessment of the significance of that episode to our political life has still to be written. The Marcos years will continue to … Read more
The ongoing 57th Session of the United Nations General Assembly is a defining moment in the history of this world body. Its authority, long eroded by failure to act on urgent issues and by the willful noncompliance of some member-states with its resolutions, will be put to a final test over the Middle East. The … Read more
“No man’s land” is the title of one of the outstanding films in the recent Cinemanila International Film Festival. It tells the story of three wounded soldiers at the height of the war in Bosnia – one Serb and two Bosnians — who by chance find themselves trapped together in a foxhole on disputed territory. … Read more
It is very difficult to characterize the Malaysian government’s recent action against Filipinos living in Sabah. The cruelty is astounding. One can only call it “nationalist fundamentalism” – the belief in national identity, in this case Malaysian, as a source of rights, to the exclusion of all other human affinities. If the situation had been … Read more