#CRITICAL | Conservatism isn’t right
by La Liga Manoban*
*The author as well as the featured artist have opted to use pseudonyms.
The past seven months of quarantine has forced Philippine society to take a more active part into sociopolitical issues. What used to be Congress hearings about the operation of ABS-CBN or presidential speeches on the role of science during the COVID-19 pandemic now became issues that every household and classroom needed to discuss. This is rightly so, as issues of national importance ought to be addressed both at the household and the national levels.
As these issues started to gain relevance, so did advocacies. Numerous organizations have formed or gained popularity during the quarantine, backing different advocacies. As some older organizations further expanded their reach, such as Anakbayan and WiTech, others have formed during this period—interestingly, on different sides of the political spectrum.
On one end, groups such as Pioneers were founded, and on the other end, groups such as the Conservatives in the Philippines (Kanan) and La Liga Monarquica de Filipinas (LLMF) and its subgroups.
Those on the other end particularly gained traction and even criticism from the online community upon their founding. These organizations and their posts were criticized for their exclusionary beliefs and ideals, as well as for contradictions and falsehoods in their posts.
A quick look into these groups’ pages show that these groups are in fact conservative groups, and align on these core principles: absolutism of truth, promulgation of a Christian-based society, existence of private ownership and the free market, limited government, and absolute righteousness of conservatism.
One may immediately question the credibility of these principles, especially the last one. Why would conservatism, along with its other core ideals, be the sole belief to push forward freedom, justice, progress, and common good? In fact, in a diverse society like the Philippines that continues to struggle with progress, conserving outdated and exclusionary ideals has no purpose and only hinders the progress the country needs especially in its marginalized sectors.
Misdefined politics
Conservatism is usually, and erroneously, attributed to the right-leaning side of the political compass which is popular in evaluating political and economic opinions. In reality, conservatives exist in both edges of the political spectrum, with both liberal conservatism and conservative liberalism being widespread.
Conservatism is defined as an “approach to human affairs which mistrusts both a priori reasoning and revolution, preferring to put its trust in experience and in the gradual improvement of tried and tested arrangements.” Simply put, conservatism is both a political and social belief in which one relies on experience and the present state of society in order to retain or improve it, rather than espousing novel or radical ideas and actions.
On the other hand, liberalism is grounded on the belief that the rights of an individual to life, liberty, and property must be protected and prioritized by governments. According to followers of this belief, these basic human rights can only be achieved by limiting and checking the powers of the government, ensuring that these powers are applied properly and humanely.
Just as an ideal liberal is one who espouses these ideal liberal beliefs, an ideal conservative is one who has an ideal society to conserve. If Philippine society truly promulgates freedom, justice, progress, and common good, through equal treatment of people from different sectors and acceptance of different religions and beliefs, then conservatism could in fact be practical.
Sadly, Philippine society is everything but those at present. Women and the LGBTQ+ community still experience harassment and violence, minimum wage workers still lack access to basic needs such as food and electricity, and Muslims are still being killed and their communities destroyed.
Notably, these conservative groups have subgroups specifically for youth (like Kanan’s Kanan Kabataan and LLMF’s Anakreyno) and women (like LLMF’s Amarela, not to be confused with the reproductive healthcare organization). They too are quick to respond to current events like the killings of Muslims and the implementation of Martial Law. However, do their core principles of a Christian society and a free market support their fellow countrymen and even themselves?
Prison market
Under a free market, voluntary exchange and the laws of supply and demand provide the sole basis for the economic system, with little to no government intervention. This means that individuals and groups (i.e. companies or corporations) can determine their own economic decisions. In theory, this appears ideal, as government intervention in the economy could lead to government control over it and its resources. But in practice, this non-interventionism, also known as laissez-faire, has led to excess control by a different group of people—the capitalists.
This free market economy that conservatives promote is one of widespread abuse, dating even to the feudal times. Under the current free market, the economy is not a true laissez-faire economy, as not everyone has the full capability to make their own economic decisions. Only the capitalist powers, especially their leaders, can dictate the true laws of supply and demand. Only these powers that have the means and the ways of production; they can practically dictate the kinds, amounts, and even prices of products that come out of this so-called “free” market.
As capital is an important aspect of the “free” market, this market is being used as a playing ground by capitalists to exploit their workers. Capitalists force them to work in substandard conditions almost daily and pay less-than-minimum wages for overtime work days. By simply mismanaging and maltreating thousands of workers, capitalists get to steal essential wages from workers into their own personal funds.
Even though conservatives highly advocate a free market, they too are victims of it. In fact, workers, regardless of political stance, are more powerless than they think they are: out of the top 100 revenue generators, 71 of those are corporations. Chances are that the majority of workers work for large corporations such as these 71; these workers are being robbed of the daily wages and benefits they truly deserve, even if they are aware of it.
If progress is what they and we need in the Philippine society, then the free market is something that we must not advocate for, but instead reform or even revamp overall. If the free market truly worked for the common good, then it should give more power to the working class and not to the capitalists. The working class should always be able to receive what is due their hard work, regardless of their political standings. If the free market truly worked for justice, then it must treat all its workers equally, giving equal opportunities to jobs and equal health and financial benefits.
Dependent country
On a much bigger scale, the market would not be truly free if we only addressed the abuses of the 71 corporations, as the other 29 are just as powerful: countries. In fact, the top six revenue generators were imperialist countries: the United States, China, Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. Out of these, two have invaded us (three if the United Kingdom counts), and all the others have considerable influence at present, through both trade and corporations.
We may have been free since 1898 (or 1946), but the influence of former colonizers like the United States and Japan is such that they even have control over the trade in our own country—a classic case of neocolonialism. Filipino small business owners may make up 99.6 percent of registered businesses and employ 70% of the working people, but they only contribute 35% of our national GDP. The other 65% can be accounted for by large corporations, both local, international, and multinational.
Therefore, for conservative organizations to push for the free market is to push for so-called “partnerships,” or the ever-increasing control of imperialist countries like the United States and Japan onto our local economy. As shown by our colonial past, these “partnerships” already damage the prospects of minimum-wage workers and small to medium business owners from gaining success in our own country. The policies of colonialism and its successor neocolonialism have largely hindered our economic progress as a nation, and to conserve the free market is to allow imperialist nations to further take control of our economy.
It is even worse for conservative organizations such as the LLMF to push for a monarchy, which is practically the total control, politically and economically, of one person over an entire country of different cultures. This is shown by the fact that the LLMF pushes for Princess Cristina from Spain, our longest and arguably most brutal colonizer, to be our monarch. As both liberal and conservative groups push for freedom, it is ironic that there are groups who push for full foreign control; in fact, it is one that the whole political spectrum must be united in fighting against.
Discrimination policy
In a nation composed of various religions and otherwise, the Philippines should not impose a state religion; in fact, it is in our Bill of Rights. To have conservative groups impose a society based on one religious system (in this case, Judeo-Christian) is unconstitutional and immoral, as it directly violates the people’s right to free religion. One cannot use the notion that their religion is superior to others in order to implement laws, as, by definition, religion is subjective.
As though religion may provide a basis for morality and legality, imposing a singular religion on a country enables discrimination and oppression not only based on religion, but also on several other factors such as SOGIE, race, and even financial standing. For example, LGBTQ+ themes are prevalent in Hinduism, but are taboo in Catholicism. Imposing Judeo-Christian virtues will therefore allow those in power to legally discriminate and penalize other religions’ beliefs, support, or membership in the LGBTQ+ community.
Interestingly, the Philippines in the pre-colonial period was much more progressive than it is today. We held women in high regard and the LGBTQ+ such as the babaylan were prominent members in our societies. Only during the colonial period did the Spanish and Americans remove these progressive ideals in favor of Judeo-Catholic beliefs and practices—like the strict belief in binary sex and gender, and heterosexual unions. This basically stigmatized same-sex preferences and unions, as well as non-cisgender standards of gender identity and expression.
The arrival of the Spanish also promoted a macho-feudal culture, which places high regard to men, powerful men of European descent especially, treating women and even native Filipinos as second-class citizens. Even today, the majority of Filipinos unfortunately still abide by strict Catholic and Eurocentric teachings in regard to these matters, without taking into account our native pre-colonial practices.
Harassment and objectification of women and the LGBTQ+ community are still prevalent, with the men behind them almost never being held accountable. Some of these men, like the American Joseph Scott Pemberton who killed the Filipina transgender woman Jennifer Laude, walk free despite the clear prejudice in their actions.
Political irony
But if conservative groups push for progress, why are they even called conservative groups? By their very name, they either conserve the ideals and practices of the present (the status quo) or base the future on it. Even then, why conserve a present that is inherently oppressive and elitist in nature? Why conserve a status quo that does not serve the interests of all stakeholders?
In addition, these conservatives claim that they do not support fascist dictators such as Duterte and Marcos, supposedly a break of the status quo in regard to conservative support. But despite these claims, they support some of these tyrants’ infamous programs and personalities, such as the notorious PCOO Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, who, in her capacity as undersecretary, has been voracious in red-tagging progressive organizations such as Anakbayan.
Some may in fact argue that conservatism is a front for fascism, and conservatives are merely pseudo-conservatives, or worse, proto-fascists, as they enable the fascistic programs and plans of those in the national government.
Continued struggle
It is already clear that from our history and our present situation that the Philippines as a country is struggling more than ever to achieve justice, peace, and common good. This is even more highlighted in the marginalized sectors, such as women, the LGBTQ+ community, the urban poor, and the indigenous peoples.
While we have made significant progress in these movements, we must continue to fight for true justice and true equality. We must not allow those in the government and those in our communities to propagate a conservative approach to society, as conservatism only conserves the oppression and injustice of the present.
Society is ever-changing. As a progressing nation, we have more issues and more groups at stake in our short-term and long-term plans. It is indeed important for us to call out those in power for the injustices they continue to do to different groups, especially the marginalized sectors. But when the time and the need comes for us to take action, will we fight for what is right or for what is Right?
Edit: A correction has been made in regard to the examples of organizations.
