Trouble with politics

WHAT truly bothers me is that anywhere one goes in a democracy like ours, he bumps into the phantom or the reality of politics. Wherever he goes or whatever he does, the people he meets or the barangay leader he encounters are political denizens who owe loyalty to a political leader. And before the day wears out, you are reminded of the politics he stands for in the community.

Truly, politics is the pure and simple determinant of the way of life in most areas of our country. And when anything goes wrong with the political situation in the community, we almost always become part of it, without seeming to, or acting so.

That, in essence, is the trouble we have with politics. Much as we would like to be detached from it, we really cannot do so. Take the case of the Cebu City Government budget. Do you know that the budget is supposed to be the city government’s proposal on what to do the following year? It includes the projects and programs the government has set itself to do, and how much taxes these would cost.

But the proponent Cebu City mayor is one who cannot see eye to eye with the council.

And so the proposed budget was not totally approved because the council thought it was too much, and the mayor would have more money to spend than the council would like him to have.

And so now, the people of the city are being shortchanged by both the city council and the mayor with the public service they expected to have from both. You see, the city council approved a budget of P5.2 billion instead of the P11.8 billion proposed by the mayor.

We feel that things are just doing fine with all the things around us, or that life is moving just the way we want it to move even if the people and politics aren’t so well-coordinated the way we naturally expect them to. Having adjusted to the political relationship of the city council and the Office of the Mayor, we wake up one morning to read that checks of the city are not honored.

The trouble with politics is that it is selfish. Politicians are supposed to serve the people of the country, or the city. But they think politics should serve them instead.

While politics is the tool of politicians for their public service, in a democracy, the politicians think politics should be a tool for them in delivering public service to the people for their (the politician’s) advantage and selfish ends.

That’s the trouble with politics it becomes a tool for politicians selfish ends. Where can we find politics that is truly pure and simple, used with the purest intent for the good only of the people? Yes, but where do we find the idealist constituents such as whom we truly need?