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Warning: Long Post! Go get a sandwich or some boy bawang to munch on while read this.
The first ever automated elections is over and we move on for a few more roller coaster years. The indelible ink seems more like incredible ink with its awesome ability to be unmoved by constant bathing. The results are up. Whether we like it or not, we have a new president and mostly the same old senators. The election process has changed but can we really say the same about the majority of people?
Being interested in the IT field, I was more excited for the elections. I did not vote nor did I really want to but I wanted to see how all this would go. I wanted to see what the technology would change. The results really do surprise me. The technology has changed but the people haven't.
You may say (and according to the funky Manila Bulletin ad) I have no right to complain since I didn't vote. Well, I'm not really complaining I just want to state what I observed. So here it is in a number format since we all loves lists, numbers and rankings.
Arranged in no meaningful order.
1. Platforms Don't Matter Because We Don't Care
Quick question. Give me the what current senator and soon-to-be bald President Noynoy Aquino will do when he goes into Malacanang (How do you do the maarteng n anyway?). Ok so we ALL know he won't be corrupt. What else do we really know? Not much.
Even though GMA, ABS and etc makes all those get-to-know-the-candidates shows, we really don't care much on the platforms. We're treat the election like a showbiz. We're more interested to find out the personality of the person. There's nothing wrong about that but it would be nice if we even remember the things these candidates will do. Some of us actually know these things but I don't think they're the majority. Most people,I would guess, knows more about the past works of these people than their platforms.
2. We Love to Know Personality
Speaking of personality, we all love to know who the candidate is. Gibo looks smart, Gordon looks tough, Estrada looks and speaks like a drunkard, Noynoy looks like homer simpson.Ok what was I saying again? Oh personality.
Most of the people prefer to just know about a candidate's personality rather than his resume. Maybe we think that if he has a good enough personality he'll be a good enough politician. I'm sorry but I just don't agree. He maybe nice, smart and bald but I'd rather have go for the one who knows what's he doing.
Analogy time! Who would you rather choose to help you with your car trouble? Your close friend who doesn't know shit about cars but is nice enough to give time to help you or a certified professional who knows every single detail on how a car works. Most of us (I hope) would choose a professional.
Why can't it be the same with voting? I have nothing against Senator Bong Revilla, Lito Lapid, the other Estrada etc. but seriously. I can't remember them doing much. Let's see. I remember Bong Revilla in the Katrina Halili-Hayden Kho scandal for doing... what did he do again? Same goes with Lito Lapid. I remember a few of the candidates Miriam Santiago doing a lot of stuff, even those who rally like i think Satur Ocampo was the name have been more present in doing stuff that people care about. Oh I remember Bong Revilla being in panday, is that good?
3. It's All in the Name
For better or worse, we are familiar with names and we prefer it. The twelve senators are mostly all oldies in the senate. You people complain that we have the same government over and over then you vote for the same kind of people. It's just mind boggling stuff. Really I mean, even the drunkard from across the street complains the the government is this and that but wouldn't go out and vote for "new" roster for the government. Can't we give other people a try?
Just an interesting note on that. Senator Enrile (his ad Manong Johhny To sounds like Manong Janitor lol) has more years in the senate than me living in this world. Seriously can you please retire already? That goes to the guy in the supreme court Gonzales ba un. Whatever I forgot.
4. Dynasties Don't Die
Estrada, Binay, hell even Marcos are names we associate with politics because their names has been with politics since forever. Interestingly enough, it seems that if your born into a family of politicians, your already guaranteed to run after finishing your degree in acting.
Again, we don't like it but it seems we keep voting for it.
5. We Fixed the Technology But not the System
A little background: As a computer science student, we study system analysis. What's that you say? In a brief answer we study how a company works then we improve their system. Which leads me to number 5.
Improving a system is not just about having better technology, better fancy-pants equipment, etc. it's about fixing what's wrong. We got PCOS machines, fast data transfer and all those cool sounding stuff but there was still a long inconvenient sweat filled lines in every presinct. What went wrong you say? Well they probably didn't create a good system. I imagined the meeting wen something like "OK here's a machine for this people, show them pretty pictures, show them a manual, line them up, the end meeting over lets get some food".
How do we fix this? I don't know but there are a few creative and weird ideas that seems to pop out of my head. Why can't we vote online? Seriously. You input voter id, then put bunch of sss or tin ID for confirmation or something. Why don't we have a batch for voting? Batch 1 (for example) with names A-B would be at 7-8, etc. See these may not be the best solutions (far from it) but I'm sure there is one or more better ideas.
Wouldn't it be cool if we exercised our right to vote CONVENIENTLY?
6. There is No WikiCandidates
Since there seems to be a wiki for anything. Why didn't we have one? Oh a wiki is a form of place where we can put information about something and someone else can edit it. I'm not exactly saying that its the best thing to have since we'll probably see a posts of a bunch of "I hate this candidate, ROFL" or worse a jEjE post.
Still it would be nice if in a nice and orderly manner, we can see what all these candidate did and will do without having to watch a freakin show about it.
Note: Yes there's wikipedia but it would be nice if there was one specifically for elections. FYI there's a wiki for a lot of stuff like game strategies, music lyrics, hell there's even one of star wars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wikis
7. Comelec Fails if It Was a Student
Maybe a tad bit more relevant to IT students, before you go out and defend your thesis program (for example) you just HAD to test it complety a zillion times. If you didn't you will most probably see an error out of no where that you have no clue what was it about.
UST has taught me to test my programs a bajillion times days before even thinking about showing it. It taught me to get things straight before even making the program itself. Oh and it wouldn't hurt if you already decided what to use and what you need to do. In my observation, it was kind of strange that just months before the election we just got the bidding over. After a month or so, we got the machines, found the problems and just DAYS before the election we installed the modified programs.
It would have been nice if: They actually had the machines at least a year before the election. They choose a bidder with a program already certified. They trained the people a bunch of times months before. If they had a sample machine for them to use months before (and not just pictures and videos). It would have been cool if they had a demonstration in malls, city halls, etc.
(Note: Did you know that there were 9,888 problems with the initial program from SmartMatic, I guess we should rename it to just Matic. Kidding. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/190114/comelec-was-warned-about-ballot-production-software)
Anyway, I don't really know. I'm not a comelec commissioner.
8. A PCOS Machine is funny
(image http://twitpic.com/1obxg4)
See for yourself :)
9. People Will Cheat Because They Can
Fortunately, not everyone is a programmer. If they were then they would have found a way to hack into the comelec or something. Still, people did cheat. Most of the cheats was vote buying, fear and clientrace 99999 (Haha if you understood the last one then you are a certified tambay sa computer shop.)
Getting back to the topic, people will find a way to cheat. We may have cut off one cheat but there's still a lot more to eliminate.
10. Political Posters Still Looks Like Crap
They still look like the generic ugly-ms-paint piece of mess. If I was making an election poster, I'd make it different. I'd make it look like a Kobe/Lebron Nike ad. That would be just win :)
11. It's Still Easier to Apply for Presidency than to Apply for a Job Being a Janitor
Seriously what's up with the constitution? They say to apply for a job being a janitor (I have nothing against them , I thank them for keeping our bldgs clean and neat) you have a have a college degree and a lot of other stuff. To be a president, you need to be at least 40 and a citizen of the Philippines. Not much eh? How about we actually fix them? I mean. Right now.
Note: Ok so in this elections, all of the presidential candidates (except one. You don't even need a clue to get an idea of who he is) did have a degree in economics or law so I guess that's good.
12. What About Doing Your Job
Ok so this isn't as related to the actual elections but rather after it. We have a boxing champion as a congressman (Tama ba?) and an immeasurably amount of actors and actresses as political figures. I have nothing against them but if your running for a position it would be nice if you focused on your job. What am I talking about? HINT! There's a senator who still stars in movies.
Oh and I heard an interview this morning about a newly elected actor saying that he still loves acting and will do a few projects soon. See my point?
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I'm seriously considering getting into starstruck first before running for a position in the election.
Just because I don't like top 10 lists, I made this 12 :D
cool observation! yep, i'd say you were right on the money about them not giving the pcos machine a lot of testing before putting it out there. a lot could go wrong and it takes a while to eliminate all the bugs. we, pnoys, have a long way to go. hopefully one day we'd actually make it (cross our fingers!)
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