They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin

What is the best way to protest?

The so-called silent majority has lambasted ad nauseam the protest rallies, calling them useless and disruptive. Some of them are silently (as that is the only way they react) glad of CPR, for it had rid them of nuisances called rallies. If only those office workers could vote at Makati (where they work), Jejomar Binay should kiss his political career goodbye. There is truth in the assertion that rallies are disruptive; after all, rallies happen in public roads, and they cause traffic. They inconvenience a lot of people and leave loads of garbage.

Afterall, rallies are organized to get the majority’s attention. They do get the needed attention, alright, but the reaction is almost always negative. Hence, those I-am-angry-sorry-I’m-for-Gloria-letters-of-apology. Hence, CPR.

Some consider rallies as ineffective in expressing outrage and protest. New forms of protests are being tried and tested. From blog posts to forum posts to email rants, people are beginning to express what they feel. Yet, these acts are lambasted, ridiculed, attacked with ad hominem statements. These are the same people who are angry of rallyists and protesters. Now that protesters are trying new methods, the silent majority are still angry.

I’ve never read that I-am-angry-from-a-middle-class letter. I hate spam, and I delete them immediately when I see them at my inbox. They have the right to say what they want, but I do have my right to ignore them. I respect their rights; do they respect those of the protesters?

Sure, practicing your rights doesn’t mean you can inconvenience your fellow with impunity. But what is inconvenience as compared to suppression? By keeping quiet, you are condoning what is wrong; by keeping silent, you are as guilty as the oppressor. You are as guilty as that of the offender.

So I rephrase Benjamin Franklin: Those who who do not respect the freedom of expression to satisfy their sense of comfort does not deserve freedom of expression and sense of comfort.

Anyway, the flash mob protest is not new, but it is now being tested as a new form of protest here in this country. The Black and White Movement has succeeded in organizing two of them; both were derided by the silent majority as cheap gimmicks. Again, the silent majority hated rallies; now they hate flash mob protests. They want the others to just shut up.

I tell them: shut up.

(To give you a representative sample of the reactions of the so-called silent majority, try reading the comments from this entry from Paolo Manalo.)

Anyway, the third flash mob protest ended as a failure, a victim of Gloria Arroyo’s CPR policy. Here is Black and White’s statement and retelling of what had happened the night of March 17. Atty. Edwin Lacierda retells the story in the point of view of a lawyer in the scene here and here.

Again, I ask the silent majority: what is the best way to protest? Shutting up is not an option; if someone wanted to exercise his right, you don’t have the power to stop him. You hated rallies, you scorn flash mob protests, you look down forum and blog comments that do not agree with yours. Ano ba talaga, kuya?

Indeed, the government that we have is just a mirror of the society that it serves. EO 464, Proc. 1017, CPR – the silent majority wanted those. Majority rules, but that doesn’t mean I agree with them, much less believe them as right. That doesn’t mean I will just shut up. No way.