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Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Carvajal: But what is the problem?
By Orlando P. Carvajal
Any book on scientific management will tell you that the first step to finding a fitting solution to a problem is to define the problem accurately. Which means define it at its core and at its very root.
Recently, I attended a people’s forum on Charter change where the different proposals were explained so people could decide which changes they would vote for. I can only live with federalism because it solves a very well defined problem for the rest of the country, namely, the problem of imperial Manila.
Manila gets the lion’s share of the infrastructures of power and wealth while the provinces get the leftovers and wallow in underdevelopment. The provinces produce food and other supplies abundantly for the Manila market creating scarcity and high prices in the provinces. At least federalism stands a chance (since we still have to make it work) of correcting this imbalance and spreading the country’s wealth and power equitably among the different regions.
I cannot, however, relate to the proposal of a parliamentary form of government for it does not define the problem that it hopes to solve. It only implies the problem and even that looks very flawed to me.
My contention is we can make the presidential system work if we overhaul our electoral system. By the same token, a parliamentary form of government will not work if the electoral system continues to abet cheating and allows only the rich, the ruling elite, to get elected in very expensive elections.
If we define democracy as a system of equal opportunity for all, then we are very far from being democratic because the goods and services in this country are only available to the relative minority who can well afford it. If additionally we defined democracy as the rule of the majority, again we are far from being democratic because only those who can afford it can get elected in very expensive elections.
Our problem, therefore, is how to be truly democratic. Our problem is how, under either the presidential or parliamentary form, to make goods and services, good education and other opportunities for advancement affordable to the majority. Our problem is how to ensure that we have a truly representative form of government.
Now we only have rich businessmen and rich landlords getting elected to Congress because elections are much too expensive even for the upper middle class to run in. And if by chance or somehow somebody poor gets elected under the system, he proceeds to abandon his class and work with the system to keep his new position of wealth and power. The poor remain unrepresented.
We are indeed looking for answers. But what is the problem? I just shared my view of it.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 2, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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