Tuesday, November 27, 2007 Aguilar: Opposition to be blamed for government failures? By George Aguilar Rational Animal
GMA's army of public relations firms has done its job well. Many of the elite and the trying hard have begun to embrace the propaganda emanating from the same.
They claim that the government is trying hard to right what's wrong in the system called the Philippine society. But the opposition, they claim, has made this job more difficult by engaging in dirty politics. They claim that the people have to do their part and help the government to rid our nation of graft and corruption and to develop the economy.
Now what's so wrong about the above string of thoughts? A proper analysis of the same would show its inherent weaknesses. Their first premise goes like this: G is P (predicate), that G (as in government) is P= "trying its best to rid the country of graft, corruption, poverty, and hunger, etc."
Their second premise is O is ~ (not) G; that the opposition (O) is anti G. Their conclusion, O is ~ P, that the opposition is not trying its best to rid the country of graft corruption, poverty, hunger, etc. Ergo, the opposition should be blamed for the government's failure to address the problems mentioned.
Regarding G is P, the Arroyo government is not doing its best to solve the problem of graft and corruption. If it is, then what about the allegations of bribery that took place on the grounds of Malacanang? What about the claim of the allies of Malacanang that receiving money despite an election ban and the exorbitant sums and the lack of receipts is moral and above board? Their claim that the sums of money given were not bribes is simply unbelievable. It shows a lack of delicadeza on the part of our local and national officials at best and the compounded immorality by lying at its worse.
Regarding poverty and hunger, the government has been trying to sidestep this issue by claiming that the economy is on the up and up and that reports stating that the people are poor and hungry are simply false. Never you mind that these reports come from the people themselves.
The government even blamed the poor for their poverty and hunger by claiming that the latter have brought the problems of poverty and hunger upon themselves by spending their money on useless things like cell phones, e-loads and other trivial things. This clearly shows that the government doesn't really understand the plight of the poor.
Regarding the second premise, that O is ~ G, this is an invalid argument as it falls under the fallacy of ad hominem or personal attack. The second premise posits the notion that the opposition is simply anti-GMA. To my mind most of the people and organizations within the opposition is anti- corruption, poverty, oppression, and injustices. It is not critical of GMA for purely personal reasons.
We have to mention at this point that being critical of government, especially when things go wrong, is the job of the opposition. This is, after all, how a democracy is supposed to be. Without a system of check and balances any government will do just anything including the systematic salvaging of militants, bombing malls, etc. By pointing out their defects the opposition is actually trying to help the government to reform.
If the first premise is false then the conclusion must also be false. If the second premise is invalid then the conclusion is not only false, it is also invalid. The people are doing their part to help solve the country's woes by paying taxes, remitting dollars earned from without, and by working hard to buy produce to make the economy work.
According to the group Transparency and Accountability Network as much as 20 to 40% of public funds are lost to corruption. Even the World Bank knows that corruption in government projects have taken place. So is it the opposition's fault that hard-earned tax money is lost to corruption in this land?
