Editorial: Thoughts for next year

THE parody that is Senator Tito Sotto gets more outrageous by the day. These types of politicians that make you wish for election year to come fast so that we can be given the chance to ease out those who ill-deserve to be where they are.

But then we stop and realize, we have had long generations of their type, and the state of awareness of the general public seems inclined toward electing more of them.

This is where civil society groups need to fully engage on, voter education up to the farthest and broadest grassroots because it is the general state of awareness of the people that will decide what kind of leaders we will end up with.

Another election year is upon us. We can hear the muffled starting guns with television advertisements that repeatedly remind us about this foundation and “hanap-buhay” in the same way that we were deafened by songs about “dagat ng basura” one election season ago. Reporters feel it too as every press conference these days are being peopled by more than willing politician guests. We’re getting more of the same, and yet we all know that it is up to us to make that change we have long been craving. Except that, when we are handed our ballots and list down our candidates come election time, we do so with not much interest but to write down those whose names are familiar to us, those who we constantly see in movies and television shows even if such shows do nothing but dish out nonsense.

We have a country that is right in the playground of natural hazards – earthquakes, typhoon, incessant rain, landslides, tsunamis, floods, name it, we have it. We need leaders who have vision and know how to react at all times. Not the types who will try to batter their way to come out right, even if the premise they are fighting for is already wrong. Plagiarism, like piracy, is plain stealing. The senator, being in the showbusiness, should be well acquainted with piracy.

The way he reacted these past weeks show a refusal to understand, and so what we can do best is reach out to our people to get to know each and every politician who tries to win all our votes and choose only those who are worthy. Our country stands in a very vulnerable situation, geographically and politically. We need real leaders who can offer and create real solutions and not politicians whose only gift is gab. The year 2013 is just a few months from now, let us, as a community of concerned citizens, rise up to the challenge of education our voters into the kind of leaders our country needs. To be able to discern who these leaders are, but most of all, to make the effort to line up and vote for them.