As Filipino Voices resident reporter Ding put it in his recent blog entry, the latest underdog candidates are seen as the latest “giant killers” who — guess what — will be “battling the moneyed wannabees of Malacanang and the main-line political opposition perceived to be led by traditional politicians”. Ding was of course referring to the latest performers to be billed in the coming Philippine Presidential Election circus — the candidacy of Eduardo Panlilio (priest and erstwhile governor of the fair province of Pampanga) and Grace Padaca (governor of Isabela province) who are running under specially-created-for-the-candidate political banner “Panlilio-Padaca para sa Pagbabago Movement” (the “PPP Movement”, what else?).
For good measure, Ding makes sure that he highlights a couple of “useful” factoids as well presumably to “help” us in our on-going “evaluation” of the myriad of political options that face us:
:D “Panlilio suffers from the rare disorder leukoderma which causes the skin to lose pigmentation”; and of course,
:D “Padaca walks with crutches because of childhood polio”
Okay I’ll rend my heart to get that part over with and cut to the more relevant question here:
And the reason this makes these people better politicians or (God forbid) better leaders issss….??
History will show that this tired old David-versus-Goliath script (a Filipino favourite!) used to invoke the fantasies of the untenably impoverished delivers ZERO results to a society that simply does not get democracy.
According to today’s Inq7.net Op-Ed:
That is why concerned groups are now looking for new faces, people who fit their idea of what a real leader should be.
What are our ideas of “what a a leader should be”?
Any schoolboy can list qualities that make a “good” leader:
;) Honesty
;) Integrity
;) Ability
;) Vision
;) Compassion
;) Charisma
Guess what: every leader we elected over the last half-century (and please note the precision by which I choose my words here) exhibited those qualities at one time or another. And, more importantly, if any schoolboy can recite Lola Basyang’s List of Qualities that Make a Good Leader, it easily follows that any skilled politician can perform-to-script.
As I mentioned way back in my piece Who cares if Gloria is President after 2010:
For argument’s sake, let’s cite a handful of factors that I (in my simplistic world) think is indicative of how well positioned our society is in terms of its prospects of someday becoming a truly free, open, and prosperous society:
- Population
- Secularism
- Critical thought
- ForesightThe above four I believe are the key indicators of our prospects for prosperity. Have these changed over the last thirty years? For a bit of perspective, count also how many presidents (and presumably how many different characters and their approaches to governance) have sat in Malacanang?
Juxtapose that variety of politicians against the ominous constantness and unmoving consistency of those four key indicators I listed above. And be afraid. For the case for a safe bet that the Philippines will be the same Philippines in 30 years, regardless of WHO is president lies in a lucid regard for this reality.
Don’t get me wrong. We need to elect a good leader. But we need to get away from this primitivist habit of seeing every single “good candidate” as some kind of Messiah. Presidents can only do so much, and much less even within the six years that we limit their tenure to. The problems that grip Philippine society are so systemic that they transcend every single one of the people who’ve sat in Malacanang.
When we pin all our hopes for “reform” on a Messianic Leader, we absolve ourselves of any accountability for our own success. In our regard for such “heroes” we merely highlight our renowned moronic approach of looking for both a Messiah and a scapegoat.
Heads I win, tails you lose.
Allow me to draw upon the wealth of insight on the underbelly of the Filipino psyche that I’ve accumulated over the last nine years of “getrealism” and highlight this snippet from a really old article on the non-Filipino trait of self-reliance:
Let’s change our self-righteous penchant for calling one another to heroic and extraordinary deeds and instead find value in the collective effect of each individual doing their ordinary jobs properly and quietly.
Recognising achievement is different from lionising personalities. It takes well-thought out efforts (that requires serious evaluation of fundamental truths about ourselves) to realise sustainable development. When one recognises achievement, one expresses admiration and seeks to emulate said achievement. When one lionises personalities, one places said personality on a pedestal to worship and pin their hopes on. The earlier focuses on acquiring traits that support excellence. The latter focuses on expectations to live by and has come to acquire the stink of Erap-ism.
We’ve already had our fair share of heroes. It is clear today that, for many of them, the size of their sacrifice has not been commensurate with the willingness of the people they sacrificed for to help themselves.
The point I make above (as with most points I make) is quite simple: We are so good at articulating qualities that “make a good leader”. But we are yet to begin the journey of accepting the qualities that make a good people.
Though we have so many heroes and exceptional compatriots among us, the sad reality is that the majority lives off them and their exceptional achievements subsidise the mediocre product of the collective.
As the eminent John Ralston Saul wrote in his book On Equilibrium:
The whole idea of a society of winners — a place known above all for its best — leads with surprising speed to a narrow pyramidal social structure. And then to division and widespread passivity. That in turn leads to false populism and mediocrity; to a world obssessed by bread and circuses, Heroes, and the need for leadership.
Indeed, the wherewithal to “reform” does not reside in a politician’s name. It resides in our collective attitude as a people.
So yes, indeedy:
There is nothing to be “won” — only something to be implemented.
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A properly thoughtful piece with minimal reference to yourself. Kudos,Benny.
I dont favor any candidate. But, I recommend
everybody to Vote for his or her candidate.
The late President Franklin Delano Roosevelt of
the U.S. was on wheel chair when he became
President.
He tackled economic depression; World War II,
with enemies like Japan, Germany and others.
His disabilities did not prevent him from being
one of the Best Presidents of America.
Just some thoughts on FV:
After all the discussions, after all the in-depth analysis, Come 2010, may I ask, will FV make a choice?
I believe everyone can contribute constructively in coming up with FV’s most desired candidates for 2010 backed with a great deal of analysis about each candidate.
I believe a number of candidates wil be grilled here and the results will vary +/- for each candidate. And a virtual score will come to our minds of who is the most ideal, least dangerous candidates.
I understand that FV by rule cannot endorse a candidate but everyone here will be forced to choose in 2010.
Why not put them all in the table and choose to the best of our collective reason.
Is this possible? Will FV come up with a conclusion on the right people for 2010?
Or are we just a forum with all talk and no walk?
Any reference to PWD and their disabilities is like Obama having a bowling score of 129 good only for the Special Olympics.
Even liberal and minority sensitive Obama can fall for the gaffe!
blackshama,
I wonder if you’ve read my pose itself.
Given that Benign0′s gratuitous and incorrect contextualization of the point I ‘backgroundered’ re Among Ed and Gov. Padaca, you seem to have gotten a wrong impression of my own post’s premise… that the emergent tandem could actually capture the imagination of Filipinos tired of trapos and the 3 G’s of Philippine elections.
“… read my post itself.”
I don’t know but benigno’s long, discursive mental constructs have already reached the point of redundancy.
Isn’t there anything new to add?
How indeed are we able to introduce a Panlilio paired with a Pandaca as though automatically they are the creme a la creme of some 75 more governors?
They are presented here as though, on memory recall, some 92 million people know them, how is that?
What accomplishments in history, if any, have they accomplished on some national scale?
What sterling qualities, if any, known to all of us, have they shown at some turning points in history?
This is crazy – somehow endorsing new names who are unknown, untested, maybe even ineligible to run for president.
benigz is just being candid about it because it’s true; and it’s very easy to say that because we haven’t had any leader yet that came close to having those six qualities that make a “good leader”, therefore benigz, rightfully, blamed the ‘collective attitude’ of the people.
If we ought to discard our propensity for judging and prophecieng the future attitude of our potential leaders and just go on with the process basing our decision just from gutfeel, and then, maybe, one day we found and elect the ideal leader we are looking for, well, by then, I’m sure benigz will eat his words.
Very good post. But what can we do in the near future to change the “collective attitude as a people”?
Bert, KP,
You will see through to the void in Benigz’s ideas by realizing that his concept of social and political evolution is the equivalent of a Typhoon blowing through a junkyard, rearranging everything in it and miraculously producing a Boeing 747.
Every post is the same: the Philippines is the junkyard, the Boeing 747 some First World country, and the typhoon he gives various vacuous and meaningless name to, like “substantial thought” or “real creativity”.
It’s always the same ludicrous naivete being dished out by a guy who rubber stamps the word “genius” in block letters on his own forehead, sticking his tongue out at the hapless captive audience.
I usually head for the exit after a few good chuckles and the enduring hope that even Benigz will be subject to Darwinian natural selection–one way or another!
“if any schoolboy can recite Lola Basyang’s List of Qualities that Make a Good Leader, it easily follows that any skilled politician can perform-to-script.”
This is so clueless and in denial.
How can the collective change its attitude without a reform-minded leader?
Gotcha! benign0′s world view has been framed by Pinoy folk tales!
to Willy J and your question : But what can we do in the near future to change the “collective attitude as a people”?
An answer lies in media (TV and newspapers) and schools being more deliberate in which “stuff” to not bother the population with. The concept is synaptic pruning, where
Many Filipinos will argue:
DJB,
That’s a well-groomed description of benigno – how could you have done that.
The good thing about that guy, however, is the fact that he never responds to such a criticism and that is bad enough for others.
Well, then, at least, there is a convergence of ideas as to what ails that viciously self-respecting folk that travels through cyberspace like a sacred ghost.
“The good thing about that guy [Benign0], however, is the fact that he never responds to such a criticism and that is bad enough for others.” – karlpopper
karlpoppe, have you red Benign0′s past post entries? You will be amazed how he “outwitted” DJB and many other participants of FV in sound ideas as well as in criticism and sarcasm.
While constructive criticism and comments may not be bad, it is a cheap thing to entertain fake intellectual arrogance.
Non-malignant is right. I and many others have often been “outwitted” by Benign0. It is a game he is good at, indeed better than most, even me.
If to outwit others is why you come to fora like FV, you will almost always be successful, because most people do not come to places like this for that. Most are not aware that they have become the necessary ingredient in the dreary architecture of minds who NEED to outwit others to relieve something in their psyche, to assure some part of themselves that outwitting others is a reflection of their own superior wit.
For those who are keeping score, I admit inferiority and defeat in that subterranean arena.
“fake intellectual arrogance”? Hmmm…sounds like a multi-bladed weapon! Beware!
Wisdom. And on an article that doesn’t have “it’s simple really” on it.
Kudos Benny.
There is nothing moronic in aspiring to have a good pilot to fly the plane. Otherwise the plane may just go on flying in circle without reaching the destination, or might just crush.
More moronic to expect the passenger to fly the plane and expect farther a speedy travel, heheh.
Better to have guide posts in electing candidates
than : empty slogans, scripted photos showing
concern for us, false promises, etc…that is
the reason why a Plunderer like Erap Estrada
can be elected as President. We made our politics
theatrical and an entertainment. See how many
boneheaded movie people are now elected.
I like ERAP. ERAP is so transparent that it was easy to prosecute him.
Ramos, Cory, GMA, Marcos is so thick with law books that it was not easy to prosecute. The last we knew is our foreign debt has balooned and our stomach has deflated.
I’d chose ERAP over anyone else. ERAP FOR PRESIDENT PARA LAHAT-PANTAY-hERAP!!!!
ERAP FOR PRESIDENT! Para lahat pantay-hERAP!!!
This pilot-and-plane analogy is spot on. Pinoys sit back passively and simply rely on the “pilot” to plot their destinies. That way when the plane goes “crush” everyone simply blames the pilot. :D
my usual error, benigz, heheh. i’m really not good at such thing like you guys.
still, blaming the passenger for fastening their seat belts during torbulence and absolving the pilot from his responsibilities of taking care that the plane reached destination safely is worse, heheh.