Dear Patricio,
When we read the press statement issued by Akbayan on the appointment of Ronald Llamas as Presidential Adviser (see below), I raised the following comments. I think the PLM statement can be based on these comments which we already circulated at the PLM and the Laban ng Masa e-groups:
• Akbayan seems to have found its final resting place. Welcome to the new social democrats. Its fortunes are now completely tied to the rise and fall of President Noynoy.
• Instead of the fawning and servile tone of the press statement (purportedly written by Akbayan’s Communications Head Emmanuel Hizon), a major concern that should be raised is the problem of cooptation. The left should have learnt its lesson. Wasn’t it not too long ago when too many left leaders had joined the Cory government and got coopted (if not later booted out from their posts) in the process?
• The entry of Akbayan leaders Joel Rocamora (secretary of NAPC) and Ronald Llamas into the P-Noy cabinet raises the following underlying and related questions: (i) How should the left view the Aquino government (is it still correct to use the framework of a “lesser evil” (i.e., still comparing it with the GMA regime) when it is now the chief administrator of an unabashedly pro-capitalist neoliberal program? (ii) Should the left entertain the possibility of changing the system from within the capitalist government (of Noynoy) or from without?
• Akbayan and the many groups that had coalesced under the former Laban ng Masa constituted the left spectrum during the campaign to oust the GMA regime and replace it with a TRG (transitional revolutionary government). But given that the political crisis of the elite during that time was already resolved not through the TRG but through the election of the Aquino presidency, a regime that is nonetheless an elite-dominated pro-capitalist regime, the left spectrum that is Laban ng Masa has now practically collapsed. Akbayan and some other groups in the Noynoy electoral coalition are expected to move towards the right of the political spectrum as they continue to prop up P-Noy and its pro-capitalist, anti-masa policy regimes.
• The left should understand that, irrespective of the personal character of Noynoy himself (a “Mr. Clean”) and his commitment against corruption in government, his government is still anelite-dominated pro-capitalist government. The left should not participate in this government, especially at the executive level, as it means bearing the responsibility for implementing a pro-capitalist program.
• Having said this, the true dilemma is that we have to go beyond being mere oppositionists, or only good on the issues. We must have the perspective of presenting a genuine alternative — not only political — but also social, cultural and economic, to the system, especially when it faces such a deep and irreconcilable crisis. This is the challenge that we face to be relevant today. Such an alternative — a truly social, socialist alternative — can best (and only) be developed today from without the system, including the “Aquino system,” rather than from within.
Sonny