To Take A Stand — Rafael M. Alunan III
Often, we’re called a soft society that gives in easily to weakness of mind and virtue, one that places personal/selfish/vested interests ahead of the national interest and common good.
Unlike the countries who were once like us but have picked themselves up from the floor and moved ahead in life — like India, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam — to name a distinct few, we seem stuck on carefree mode, short on patriotism, self-sacrifice, and united purpose.
Consequently, our evolution is taking much longer than usual until we get serious and get our act together. This is reflecting in the quality of our governance and our citizenship. Good government remains elusive because the state of our citizenship remains much to be desired. A poor education at home and in school translates to poor societal behavior and choices.
Bad choices are reflected in the local and national elections where many of those who win are unfit to serve the country and the people. They subsequently appoint the unworthy whose are principally tasked to serve only their vested interests which is to enrich themselves, create dynasties and to stay in power indefinitely.
This feudal condition has entrenched oligarchies characterized by entitlement, exclusion, oppression, impunity, injustice, violence, and extremism. It has become a generational problem so deep that it will take extraordinary measures like Japan’s Meiji era of transformation to pull us out of our sinkhole and catch up with the rest of the world.
Security ranks high on our national agenda today. The threat of terrorism, transnational organized crime led by drugs, cultural dysfunctions and psychosocial resentments have turned to harsh realities. Marawi is a case in point. How did that come to pass?
Because of our interwoven world today in which incidents, images and messages travel within seconds from one part of the world to another, we must pay attention to those security and crisis challenges and how they intersect with local issues and concerns.
We must become familiar with the root causes of the conflict and the complex web of factors that keep the flames of extremism burning. We must examine the sociopolitical dimensions of governance in general and its contribution to our security or otherwise, in particular.
As the experts keep saying, security and crisis management require a whole-of-nation approach — both government and society working in common purpose to prevent, defeat, and recover from crises. It calls for the combined outcome of security actors, civil society and individual citizens.
Most important to good governance are: good moral grounding; patriotism; willingness to serve the nation; teamwork and perseverance by our public officials, elected and appointed. We need to leap forward; we need to take a giant leap to that desired state of professionalism we sorely lack today.
The state of our knowledge, attitudes, and behavior are the bases of our backwardness. That’s reflected by our socioeconomic-cultural gaps; deeply rooted corruption in and out of government; and widespread ignorance about our history, geography, and how things work. We are generally unethical, negligent, apathetic, happy-go-lucky, and resist change.
We must transform. We’ve already had many wake up calls that we’ve ignored. EDSA 1 and 2; the lingering insurgencies and rebellions. Marawi is another wake up call.
Since we’re now into the second year of President Duterte’s presidency, here’s my assessment of his first year in office. Let me lay the premises. Any president:
a) inherits accumulated baggage from the past that were not attended to as well as unfinished business;
b) his/her own administration adds to that unwanted baggage and unfinished business;
c) has to find ways and means within the limits of his/her support from within the government and society to reduce accumulated baggage and unfinished business;
d) at the same time, push his/her own agenda to build the nation that aims to raise quality of life for all Filipinos.
That’s what a responsible president would do, so that by the time he hands over the reins of succession, the country would by then be in better shape than when he received it.
That is how I view this president, our President, who came to power already hobbled from Day 1 by:
a) crime, corruption, bad governance and anarchic citizenship that accumulated through the years,
b) and a creaking bureaucracy where only a minority are true to their oath of public service and up to the challenge despite the risks.
Yet, through sheer will and focus, shaking off his aches and pains as best he can at his age, he is gouging out the cancer driven by real anger at the situation the country’s in, cursing anyone and everyone that has contributed to it, and beating new paths to a better Philippines.
There will always be a long list of to-do such as undo, trash, delete, reboot, create, back-up, develop, correct, merge and continue. That’s the dashboard and the challenge to President Duterte is to keep the ship of state, with less baggage, moving forward faster than before.
Any president is only as good as the people he has. He needs a good bureaucracy and a behaved citizenry to support his nation-building agenda. But he also needs to build a complete team, a deep bench, and a core group of alter egos to carry out the “commander’s intent” and instructions smartly, wisely and professionally.
There are best practices that he can draw from here and abroad, and use to build on. Process and consultations are important to generate widespread “buy-in” for “whole-of-nation” solutions. At times, he must govern by instinct, and be decisive based on the information he/she has on hand, when time is of the essence. That’s where the value of his long years as hands-on mayor is most appreciated.
Perfect president? Forget it. No such thing on this planet. An evolving president from good to better to best that’s trying to fill up the glass at a higher level than his predecessors reached? Yes, that’s fine by me. That’s the best that we can have and hope for.
Rafael M. Alunan served in the Cabinet of President Corazon C. Aquino as Secretary of Tourism, and in the Cabinet of President Fidel V. Ramos as Secretary of Interior and Local Government.
