As the hollow-headed theory most people subscibe to goes: good times await us come the time that we finally elect a good, honest, and smart president.
Right.
In the less than half a second I took to ponder the above theory, a handful of questions came to my mind:
Does the prosperity of a nation have a strong causal relationship with the quality of its president?
A short while back I came up with a brilliant formula to illustrate the moronism behind our medievally messianic regard for our political leaders. Note that this was written at a time when “expert” discussion on President Arroyo’s rule going beyond 2010 pervaded the blogosphere in value crushing volumes, so just replace any references to the current president with generic terms pertaining to political leadership in the following snippet:
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Is there some kind of evidence or at least some kind of logical construct that convincingly describes some kind of causal relationship between (A) the character or even identity of the President of the Philippines and (B) the prospects of the Philippines achieving some semblance of sustainable prosperity?
Can we, infer from a value of A, what the probability distribution for a set of values of B might be?
For example, what many people claim to be a certainty can be expressed like this (using the conventions I loosely spelled out above):
IF A = GMA and Year > 2010,
THEN B = Disaster for the Philippines
or, for that matter;
IF A is NOT equal to GMA and Year > 2010,
THEN B = Prosperity for the Philippines
My question is this: Is there an A=>B relationship?
Think for a minute of the implications of the answer to this question. Because, if there is none, if there is no convincing answer to this question, or if a debate about whether such a relationship between A and B exists gets drawn out over comments ad infinitum and never gets resolved convincingly, it brings to light this SIMPLE question:
WHO CARES IF GLORIA ARROYO IS STILL LEADER OF THE FILIPINO PEOPLE AFTER 2010?
If we are not able to prove that our prospects for prosperity are a function of who is sitting in Malacanang, then why bother even wasting precious bandwidth on any discussion about whether Gloria is out to extend her term or not?
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Is it really just all about having a really “good” president?
This is kind of related to the whole debate around whether we are a people who truly deserve to be democratic or whether we are better off just subject to some kind of “benevolent” dictator — a fortunate circumstance, it is argued, that led to the spectacular feats of development demonstrated by Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea that are just so in-our-faces as the premier regional basketcase.
Hey wait, I suddeny remembered! I wrote this brilliant piece on the subject back in 2003:
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Benevolent Dictatorship: Is there such a thing?
by benign0
26 Dec 2003
A “benevolent dictator” is a kind of an oxymoron, isn’t it?
First of all, let’s say, Democracy is a system founded on the premise that (1) absolute power corrupts individuals and institutions and that (2) representation dilutes power and therefore mitigates the corruptive tendencies of governing entities. In essence democracy is founded on an innate acknowledgement that individuals can never be truly 100% “benevolent”.
(Note that the term “corruption” is used in the broader sense of a degradation of the effectiveness of a functional entity).
Let’s also say that democratic processes are costly in terms of (1) administrative resources — i.e. conduct elections and maintain legislative bodies, (2) weakening of continuity of strategic vision — i.e. because of interruptions and changes in leadership, and (3) complications to decision-making specially during crisis circumstances.
The viability of a democractic system therefore is characterised by a balance between the Cost of Democracy and the Cost of Potential Corruption of a Governing Entity. This means that the more benevolent a leader, the less democracy we need and the less benevolent a leader, the more democracy we need. In effect, we can, on one end, be comfortable sacrificing individual liberties in exchange for expeditiousness and decisiveness in governance if and only if we can trust leaders to act purely in the interests of the greater community. At the other end of the continuum we can be willing to shoulder the relative costs and complex bureacracy of an ultra-representative “democracy” (such as the Philippines’) when we absolutely cannot expect our leaders to act beyond their selfish interests.
Successful democracies are somewhere in the middle of this equation. They have reasonably trustworthy leaders and reasonably bureacratic governance.
Benevolent Dictatorship, therefore, is not a matter of advocacy as is often brought to question whenever we praise the virtues of, say, Lee(Kuan Yew)ism or Mahathirism. It is merely but one state (for that matter it is an extreme state) in the continuum of the inversely proportional relationship between benevolence and degree of democracy that I described in the preceding paragraph.
Which brings us to a question posed by a rather short-sighted individual:
And what about the democratic institutions that were installed by westerners like the U.S.? How would a dictatorship fit in that mold were there are checks and balances between these institutions?
The answer in the context of what was explained above is this:
If we manage to find among our lot of 80 million souls a truly benevolent dictator, then there is no point in being a democratic country.
Now if we find that the whole point of democracy is not being realised, i.e. it does not mitigate degenerate exercise of power by less-than-benevolent leaders as what is happening, say, in the Philippines, what do you think is the logical next step?
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Some healthy food for thought there for those with the brain capacity to digest.
In light of all this, a real punchline of a question just so naturally jumps out of all this:
Despite being subject to the same bad governance, mediocre politics, and ocho-ocho democracy, why did the Filipino-Chinese community prosper?
I won’t disappoint those who presume to predict my supposedly formulaic style of blogging so I’ll get straight to the point:
I also wrote about this waaaay back when I was a younger man who used less words and a more child-like but no less effective writing style in this article. I highlight the following excerpt:
So how does one explain an ethnic underclass that succeeds in hurdling prejudice, poverty, and cultural isolation to turn their ghettoes into today’s prime real estate while the indigenous people bred chaos, mutual oppression, and decay? In this light, any kind of excuse is invalidated. Bad governance and lack of education are the top scapegoats, for example. They simply beg the question: the Chinese community was with us through countless corrupt and inept administrations, they had to register their businesses in the same public offices, and they paid taxes to the same government. Furthermore, they landed on our shores, speaking not a word of English or Tagalog. Now, their volunteer fire brigade is far more reliable (and honest) than the government-run force.
Coming back to modern times, the venerable Rom did me the honour of gracing that timeless relic of an article from the days of primordial getrealism and weighed in on the subject with the full force of all her mature wisdom.
But then…
All told, I don’t want to trivialize the role of culture in FilChi success. But even benign0 has to admit that it wasn’t just culture. It was also that the FilChi have been doing business longer than Filipinos have had the freedom to even call themselves a nation; it was also that the FilChi have a strong sense of identity – allowing the phenom of self-containment – which FIlipinos have been denied; and it was also that the FilCHi community is not exactly a country – it’s not even a democracy.
Now, the question is, is your typical Filipino standing on equal footing as the FilChi such that a valid comparison can be made between the two?
That should be simple question to answer.
The answer to Rom’s question is quite simply a big fat NO.
And therein lies the real challenge we face as a people.
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Addendum:
Philippine Presidential Elections
Just like mass marketing, propaganda, and the ramblings of evangelists, campaigns are nothing more than quaint mind tricks. However, even Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader themselves admit grudgingly that their Jedi mind tricks work only on weak-minded fools. Let us not be quick to delegate our thinking to the most popular belief systems and their slogans. Let us evaluate our candidates with a critical mind this coming elections.
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Gat Benig No,
Mali po yata ang sinasabi ninyo rito. Okay na kaming mga Pinoy ngaynon, kahit nagdurusa sa mga bugoy, unti-unting umuunlad. At bakit po naman kayo ganyan magsalita? Parang may bulak sa ilong na kayhabahaba?
Obvious ba?!? Kung nasa Melbourne ka, may Australian wool talaga sa ilong mo!
A good President creates the enabling environment.
But to derive the opportunities from an enabling environment – is a personal choice.
No choice. No pain. No gain.
Kung pagpipilian si Manny Pacquiao laban kay Gat “BongV” o kaya laban kay Gat Benig No, sino kaya ang magiging mas magaling na Pangulo?
Kung sabagay, arbularyong doktor nga ako ni Sir Manny, pero sa totoo lang, sino ang iboboto ni BongV at ni Gat No?
Ikaw ba, BongV, kaya mong maging pangulo? Kasi si Sir Manny decidido nang manghimasok sa pulitika upang ipakita ang gilas ng tunay na Pinoy.
Masama ba yun, sa iyong palagay? Mas magaling pangang magspokening d inglis si Sir Manny. Daming natutunan sa US. Pati nga yung “Dude” kapapaliwanag lang sa akin!
kung yun lang ang iyong batayan, dahil kaya nyang tumakbo – susginoo :D
DrPacMan:
Mas gusto kong tumakbo si Dr DJB :D
DrPacMan:
sino ang pipiliiin mong Trainor sa boxing?
A- si Fred Roach na professional boxing coach
B – ang isang blogger na walang kaalam alam sa boksing?
Maraming salamat po DrPacMan
Ka Ben Igno,
Ang galing galing mo talaga. Bilib na ako sa iyong paglulubid ng buhangin. Tatlong beses kang sumuot sa sariling lungga, upang ipaliwanag ang isang napakasimpleng bagay na alam ng kahit na sinong barbero. At sa dulo, tulad ng sa ulo: kabag ng hanging masama. Kung ano-ano pang hekechechecheboreche ang initlog and ginulong mo. Palagay ko kahit Janitor hindi ka ihinalal ng mga kaklase mo. Binugbog ka ba kaya hinahamak mo ang bansa at lahi ng iyong ninuno. Tinukso o kinutya? Ngunit ang iyong pagkatao ay laging nakaukit sa iyong pagkilos at pananalita. Hindi sa pasaporte ang tanda ng mestisong bangus, kundi sa nguso.
DrPacMan:
Ako ay iyong tagahanga.
Sino ang pipiliiin mong Trainor sa boxing?
A – Si Fred Roach na professional boxing coach
B – Ang isang blogger na walang kaalam alam sa boksing?
Maraming salamat po DrPacMan
Taos pusong naghihintay sa inyong ginintuang payo.
Isa pang malaking tarantado yang si DJB. Malapit ko nang hamunin sa boksing yan. O kung gusto nya, labanan kami sa Balagtasan. Bwihihihi!
Isa pang malaking tarantado yang si DJB. Malapit ko nang hamunin sa boksing yan. O kung gusto nya, labanan kami sa Balagtasan. Bwihihihi!
DnPacMan este DrPacMan,
Bigyan nyo po ako ng magandang payo. Ako po ay inyong tagahanga.
Gusto ko pong mag-aral ng boksing. Sino po ba dapat kong pipiliing guro?
A – Boksingero
B – Manunulat na walang kaalam alam sa boksing
Idol sagutin nyo naman po ang aking tanong.
BongV is right. In addition, as the environment under a good president creates more choices, the environment under the bad one leaves the people with no choice or path to success at all, hence, the relationship between leader and prosperity. In short Filipinos rely on leadership, while the Filipino-Chinese, on the other hand have learnt how to confine themselves in their own personal empires, depending not on government policies but pursuing their own capabilities as their own masters. Furthermore, their businesses were established at a time when there was not yet competition, remember?
Oca:
The tree has low hanging fruit.
The Fil-Chi reach out and grabbed the low hanging fruit.
DnPacMan was waiting for the fruit to fall, or for the tree to hand the fruit over to him.
Meanwhile FilChi keeps on harvesting.
When the FilChi is done, DnPacMan looks at FilChi’s basket.
FilChi, the entrepreneur that he is, sells DnPacMan the fruit.
Then he wonders, why does FilChi have so much money, poor me.
Fortunately, The Real Manny Pacquiao didn’t have the pekeng DnPacMan’s attitude, the real Manny Pacquiao joined the FilChi in the harvest and grabbed the fruit for himself.
Leaving DnPacMan to admire his bloated imitation of the real deal :D
B = “iyon ang gusto ko, manigas na kayo lahat”
DnPacMan este DrPacMan:
Sa palagay nyo, sino ang dapat na maging Trainor mo sa boxing?
A- si Fred Roach na professional boxing coach
B – ang isang blogger na walang kaalam alam sa boksing?
Maraming salamat po DnPacMan este DrPacMan.
Naghihintay po ang inyong tagahanga sa iyong gilas.
Yan ang gusto ko sa yo. Magpakatotoo ka. Masyadong ensayado’t palsipikado ang Ingless mo. Mas bagay sa yo ang punto ng Tondo.
DnPacMan este DrPacMan:
Paano ka nagkaroon ng punto ng Tondo, na sa buong buhay mo BISAYA KANG DAKO DONG, ILONGGO PA GYUD.
Asa na imong gilas dong?
Kinsay imong pilion nga trainor?
A – DJB
B – Fred Roach
‘lamat dong
Yan nga ang gusto kong gawin mo. Akuhin mo ang pinanggalingan mo, habang tinatadyakan mo’t niyuyurakan. Ipagmayabang mong Bisayang Pinoy ka habang nagdadadakdak ka ng pangungutya’t pambabastos sa sariling mong uri at kapwa Bisaya.
Yan ang taong may paninindigan. Isalin mo lahat ng mga sinasabi mo at ni Gat Ben Igno sa inyong wika at ito ang isambulat na parang bulak sa buong kapuluan.
DnPacMan este DrPacMan:
Paano ka nagkaroon ng punto ng Tondo, na sa buong buhay mo BISAYA KANG DAKO DONG, ILONGGO PA GYUD.
Asa na imong gilas dong?
Kinsay imong pilion nga trainor?
A – DJB
B – Fred Roach
‘lamat dong
NABUGOK NA KA DONG?
DnPacMan este DrPacMan:
Pag tinanong ka ng OO o HINDI.
Sumagot ka ng OO. or Sumagot ka ng HINDI.
pag pinapili ka kung sino ang magiging trainor mo
A – DJB
B – Fred Roach
Pumili ka. At ng hindi ka nagmukhang GUNGGONG :D
Siguro obra sa mga inaalembungan mong lalake o babae yang estilong pa Socrates at Plato. Pwede sa mga soiree at seminar, ngunit mas nakaaaliw ang barbero at kutsero sa lansangan, dahil hindi darak ang ulo at bulok ang puso.
Maiksi lang ang kwentong lansangan – KAKASA KA BA, OO O HINDI.
ISANG TANONG ISANG SAGOT. YES. NO. OO HINDI.
Lansangan daw o.
Ang mga Pilipino ay hindi naiiba sa sangkatauhan. Maraming mali, maraming tama, maraming mabait, maraming masama. Ako man maraming idinadaing at kinaiinis. Ngunit lahat ay tao bagong naging Pinoy o Americano.
Ngayon, pag binabasa ko ang mga kasulatan mo, para bagang akala mo ikaw si Christopher Columbus at ang tanging nakadiskubre ng Amerika at Demokrasya at Kalayaan at lahat ng kayamanang isip doon!
Hindi mo pwedeng matanto kung gaano katindi ang paghahalakhak muna, at kalungkutan ko dahil ito.
Marami nang humantong sa tinatahakan mong daan, hijo. Manumbalik ka sa mga talampakan. Baka madapa, baka masubsob. Kakailanganin mo rin ang iyong itinatakwil at kinukutya na halos walang basehan kundi ang panananalsal.
Damo gid ya. tigulang na tonto gihapon.
DJB:
Ang topic dito, ang Pilipino, hindi ang sangkatauhan.
I don’t care what what the rest of the planet does.
They can pretend to be a boxer when they are not.
The can pretend to be a whole sh*t load of sh*t.
But that’s not my concern.
As to how you feel after reading stuff – that’s your feeling it’s not my business. It’s a free world. Write and let write. Take a sip of your mutual contagion soup.
Stick to the topic, instead of parading in front of a mirror like a bloated transvestite in drag pretending to be a boxer.
Yo Harden ya’ll …. What good an honest president if the 99.99% are corrupt …
‘Does the prosperity of a nation have a strong causal relationship with the quality of its president?’
Yes. Let’s take The USA and President Theodore Roosevelt as an example.
Theodore Roosevelt introduced the phrase ‘Square Deal’. He said ‘Practical equality of opportunity for all citizens’
He was also a conservationist. He said ‘Conservation means development as much as it does protection’
He distrusted wealthy businessmen and dissolved forty monopolistic corporations as a “trust buster”.
He firmly believed in the separation of church and state and thought it unwise to have In God We Trust on currency.
I’ll give another example using his cousin later.
ulit.
“WHO CARES IF GLORIA ARROYO IS STILL LEADER OF THE FILIPINO PEOPLE AFTER 2010?
If we are not able to prove that our prospects for prosperity are a function of who is sitting in Malacanang, then why bother even wasting precious bandwidth on any discussion about whether Gloria is out to extend her term or not.”-benignO
_________________________________________
Let me just say that, when there’s too much dirt around and I feel too dirty, I take a bath. I can not stand all those filth sticking around for too long, it’s so annoying. But I’m a hollow-head, so I guess knowing when it’s time to take a bath is the exclusive attribute of hollow-heads, so there.
The brilliant mind, on the other hand, will think of brilliant formulas and equations first.
We dont want Politics as usual. We dont want any Gloria Arroryo
anymore. We dont want to see the faces of TRAPOS. They are all
the same.
We want new blood, new faces in the Philippine political landscape.
At least, new blood is where we can start to renew, redefine and
rebuild our nation.Usual Politics have given us bad results in previous years.
Perfect empty verbosity repeated to the nth times.
A kind of writing that can have vomitting effect.
Down with TRAPOS !!!
Here are some long lasting legacy of Theodore’s cousin Franklin aside from leading the US during WWII.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),
Social Security system
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
So what about GMA’s legacy? Enough said.
Fertilizer Scam, Stolen election, World Bank Bribery Deal, etc…
see what is coming soon…
A perpekt president do nat speakengese englischtzes. Has no relatibs. No siblings dat neym draps. Is nat beholden to “blad is tiker dan woter” “he ho has not sind kast da pirst ston”.
A perpekt president has no konsyens! Do nat subskrayb to gipt of gratityud
Dat is a perpekt president
Why, what’s the matter, Mr. Primer? Lacking the brain capacity to digest for the nth time?
That’s the difference with news reporting which is what you do (well, at least the style of reporting consumers of Pinoy news have become accustomed to), and drawing brilliant insight out of what’s going on. The earlier appeals to a vacuous audience starved for trivia while the latter finds a home in truly insightful minds.
Maybe that explains why you feel like vomitting. :D
benign0: Pinas has to have a president in order to preside over the discussions of the Cabinet over swine-flu contagiousness and when Pacquiao can fly back home, who he can kiss and shake hands with.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090508-203757/Pacquiao-defies-WHO
And then, there is this about the super-important election automation:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090508-203767/Comelec-disqualifies-all-bidders
The bidders ain’t qualifying and the huffin’-and-puffin’ kibitzers are still on requirements analysis.
And to those who think thievery by government officials is the single reason to explain why Pinas is an at-risk country and at-risk people, read this one.
————–
Meanwhile, public health authorities repeat very basic warnings about personal hygiene as the best protection from many new diseases. There will be times though when prevention and disease control may be more difficult because of deeply entrenched cultural practices. To prevent future Ebola outbreaks and transmission from pigs to humans, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests gloves, goggles and protective clothing when slaughtering pigs—and this applies as well to those who do this at home. Now can you imagine Filipinos dressing up to prepare lechon? Even slaughterhouse workers roam around half-naked as they perform their grisly tasks.
{from VIRUS HUNTERS
Michael Tan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:38:00 05/07/2009
No to Fascism! No to Racism! Never again!
Benigno,
I care!
What scenarios can you think of wherein she will continue as such beyond 2010?
Do you see in her this “benevolent leader” thing?
You ought not to be too surprised Justice League, after all B-zero on his website wags his finger at Ninoy and Cory and celebrates the fascist dictator Ferdinand Marcos, deriding the restoration of democracy as futile.
I used to think he was just being nostalgic or politically incorrect, but recent writing suggests that he has fallen into the mental trap that all totalitarians are heir to: that if the people are so stupid and dumb that they cannot fix their own country, then it must be done for them by someone as brilliant and determined to rule as Marcos or Gloria, or –shudder–someone like B-zero.
I don’t believe I can afford to be complacent when these viral ideas, which have proven so lethal to Philippine democracy in the past, are once more being launched, inches from my own name!
Some things really do matter, even in a blog comment thread. As much as I can stop it, this kind of mental illness shall not pass into pandemic stages.
The Benevolent Dictator For Life only applies to the open source software development community.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_Dictator_For_Life
to be a benevolent dictator, one must be a founder or creator of a very useful open-source technology. But this has proven to have failed in the case of Hans Reiser.
DJB,
More interested in Benigno’s answer than being surprised or anything.
But I too will try to do as you do should I see things as such.
Cheers.
Agrees with Mike that Benevolent Dictators do exist and if i may add to that stellar list: Linus Torvalds, first linux kernel hacker.
Benigno,
Just in case the linked post survives moderation.- http://filipinovoices.com/the-hat-of-common-sense/comment-page-1#comment-79502