Blasphemy?

There has been a lot of controversy about the art exhibit called Poleteismo by artist Mideo Cruz at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Cruz says that the exhibit is about “how religion has been commodified and how capitalist commerce has become the new religion”.  But many Catholics did not pay too much attention to the overall message of the exhibit, but to the penis on the cross.  The exhibit also showed Jesus with a clown’s nose and Mickey Mouse ears. They said that this was blasphemous – I wonder which shocked them more, the penis on the cross, or Jesus with a clown’s nose? . After all the furor, the board of the CCP decided to ‘temporarily’ close the exhibit.

I fully understand that some people found Poleteismo distasteful or ugly. After all, if I was an art collector, I probably wouldn’t want to buy such works of art – they are not to my taste, to say the least. But to ban it, or to persecute the CCP for exhibiting it, is way too much, an arrogant abuse of power.

But it seems that undue political pressure had been put on the CCP board to discontinue the exhibit. President PNoy Aquino for one, called the board to tell them that he disapproved of the exhibit. Then there were senators calling for cutting the budget for the CCP over this incident. I think the politicians have gone too far. They go even further than the official censors (i.e. those who censor motion pictures). At least the motion picture censors have the excuse that some movie scenes are a bad influence on children, thus explicit sex or graphic violence is not allowed by them. But in the CCP case, the censorship was not really a question of public morals, but rather ‘blasphemy’.

Blasphemy
Blasphemy is defined as “irreverence toward holy personages, religious artifacts, customs, and beliefs”. It is an ancient offense, which brings to our mind an ancient scene of a man stoned because he said that the Bible was not literally true, or the miracles are fake. Blasphemy is always the charge against people with a different view of religion.

In modern times, blasphemy is illustrated more by the uproar  against the Danish newspaper which published cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in 2005. Danish embassies were burned, Danish products were boycotted, and there were terrorist plans to kill people connected to the newspaper (luckily, the police were able to stop these).

There is also the anti-blasphemy law in Pakistan, which is a law that persecutes Christians there. If a Christian has a conflict with a Muslim, the Muslim could simply claim that the Christian said something bad against Muslims, and then the Christian gets sentenced to death. Politicians in Pakistan who spoke out against this law have been assassinated.

I think the basis of blasphemy as a reason to ban, to suppress, or to kill somebody should be left in the Dark Ages. Citing blasphemy in the present-day Philippines only underscores our being a feudal and backward country.

Freedom of Expression
The suppression of ‘blasphemous’ art such as Poleteismo is a dark day for freedom in the Philippines. Freedom of expression boils down to the freedom to express contrary views. If people only had the ‘freedom to express’ things that are approved by the authorities, then it is not freedom at all. Even in a dictatorship, there is always the freedom to express pro-government opinions or views.

The question of whether the CCP, being government supported, should promote such ‘blasphemous’ art should be answered in the affirmative. The government should be the guarantor of the freedom of expression, instead of acting as a censor.

The country has everything to gain by protecting the freedom of expression – it would unleash the creativity of our artists, writers, movie makers, etc. The creative spirit could help Philippine economic development. The creative spirit is not nurtured by succumbing to the disapproval by church elders or the wife of our former dictator.

If you go around European art musea, you will notice that there was a long period where the only art was religious art or portraits – things that are absolutely non-controversial and non-blasphemous. Art then was extremely boring, and not beautiful. Then, there came the time when art took on other topics, many of which were scandalous. Some of these ‘scandalous’ art (e.g. nudes) was even beautiful, but the important thing was that a lot of other art got made, which would not have been the case if the tight censorship by the church had continued to prevail.

So, the question is: Do we want the Philippines to progress and be open to new ideas, or do we want it to remain a backward, feudal country?

Alternative Media and Democracy

Alternative media is going to change Philippine democracy. By alternative media, I would include social networking sites like Facebook, as well as blogging, websites, Twitter, and YouTube.  And it would even include, by extension: mobile telephones with voice and SMS, Flickr, e-mail etc.

We are now seeing lots of alternative media active in the 2010 election campaign – from candidates websites and Facebook pages, to independent initiatives like BlogWatch, to lots of independent bloggers, and of course ordinary people’s Tweets and Social Networking sites.  At this moment, alternative media is all over the place, but is not yet strong enough to enable a candidate to win. But this will change with time: who knows, maybe next elections in 2013 will witness the first time when some local candidates will win as a result of an internet campaign.

As we said, the alternative media is growing in strength and in its impact on democracy.  After the elections, the question may be asked: what does alternative media do? Well, let us lay out some aspects of what it could do.

Corruption Watch
Alternative media could help in catching and preventing corruption from elected officials and bureaucrats. For one, a lot of the dealings of government officials could be posted on the internet. The budget and actual expense items of the various national government offices and LGUs could be posted. Lifestyle survey findings could also be posted. Anti-corruption action sites could be made, to which people could tweet, SMS or e-mail tips and leads. These could then be taken up by blogs (data-mined, analysed, and commented on), and if need be posted on Facebook and other social  media.

The bureaucracy is a source of what is called “petty corruption”, with fixers asking for money to help people get a drivers license, accomplish and submit income tax returns, get GSIS or SSS benefits etc.  What if people would set up “honest citizens’ desks” in the LTO, BIR, GSIS, etc. where volunteers would help out ordinary citizens with their applications. These desks would double as assistance centers and complaints desks for ordinary citizens, and they would be online through blogs. Many problems with these offices would be blogged about, and get the necessary mileage in social networking sites; and citizens can always contact these by SMS, Tweet or blogs. I’m sure petty corruption will be lessened, and efficiency increased as a result of this.

Facilitating Government Services
Alternative media is not limited to criticizing officials – it could also facilitate the delivery of government services. Various government office websites could offer online services.  This would either eliminate or shorten the need to go to the various offices. And then there is the case of a government information channel. Other countries have this – a general information channel, both online and by telephone, so that citizens could find out where they need to go, and what they need to present. And, an online citizen report channel – telling where there are potholes or problems with the bureaucracy; thus, this would be sort of a “complaints box”, but online.

When government programs would be launched, they should be matched by a website, and a blog, for monitoring of its implementation. For example, if there is a new sex education program to be launched in public schools;  a website/blog arrangement would be useful for parents who have questions, for children who missed out on a module, or any citizen for that matter who would like to contribute to the program.

Monitoring the Formation of Policy
Then there could be those who monitor the legislative and executive decision making. Just imagine that there would be blogs covering legislative working committees and the plenaries which would report and when necessary mobilize public opinion to move legislation.  Public discussions of the various bills would help to push them forward.

Congressmen and senators today can hide behind the fact that their work is not covered that much by the media. But what would happen when there would be TV coverage of Congress plenaries, websites monitoring the progress of proposed bills, blogs covering committee meetings, and websites monitoring the distribution of “pork barrel”? I think this would make them behave much better than they do today.

Interaction, Combination
In all this, there would be combination of various forms of alternative media: from SMS to website, to blogs and social networking sites. But there also need to be work in the old low-tech way, with people actually lobbying in Congress, or operating various “honest citizens desks”, or even demonstrating in the streets. Alternative  media is just an aid to action, it doesn’t replace action.

There would also be interaction between alternative media and more traditional media: newspapers, radio and TV. More and more, blogs and websites would be featured in traditional media, and these same blogs and websites extend the reach of traditional media in their turn.  A simple petition or statement of local import could become known nationwide when it gets posted in a blog or facebook page, and then gets picked up by the media.

Democracy needs people’s participation, and alternative media gives an added dimension to this participation.  With this development, perhaps the Philippines can overcome things like corruption, political dynasties, nonperforming officials, etc.