Sunday, February 18, 2007 Lim: Banditry By Melanie T. Lim Wide Awake
A MAYOR has recently hogged the headlines for having been accused of extorting money from a local contractor. To add fuel to the fire, the owners of the construction project have produced a digital video disc with the contractor saying the mayor has allegedly asked for 3 percent of a P500 million batch of property projects.
If the allegations are true then hail to these businessmen for having the courage to come forward and exacting retribution for so many others who may have suffered the same fate, giving millions of pesos of bribe money away because they could not operate their businesses without doing so and simply suffering in silence.
If there is no truth to the allegations, however, then, may the accused be cleared in due time so that he and his family may not have to unduly suffer from these false accusations.
With elections coming up, it is important for the public to understand that in making our choices of government officials tasked with line functions, we should elect leaders who are, foremost, good administrators. And good administration is not just about getting things done. It is about getting basic government services to ordinary citizens without need for fixers or bribe money.
In the US, for example, you can get your driver’s license renewed in 15 minutes. You can form a corporation in an hour. You walk into a government office. You hand in your requirements. And despite the fact that you are “nobody,” in a matter of minutes, you can get your business done. A simple, straight-forward no-nonsense policy. That’s how it should be in our country.
Every citizen should be able to walk into a government office and get his business done in a matter of minutes and without need for connections or bribe money.
People should not have to line up as early as six in the morning to get an authenticated copy of their birth certificate. People should not have to take a day off work just to get their driver’s license renewed only to find that they have to take another day off because the computer has hung. Business operations should not have to be delayed because permits cannot be processed due to red tape and constantly-changing requirements.
Efficient administration means efficient delivery of services to the people. It means efficient use of funds to update equipment so delivery of services to the people is not unduly delayed. Those who SERVE in government should understand that they are SERVANTS of the people, not the other way around.
So the people should not be treated like second-class citizens in their own country simply because they do not know anyone important in government to get their business done expeditiously.
The worst case scenario, of course, is when the business community is unjustifiably harassed by government so that they are compelled to fork over bribe money. This is the worst climate for business. Government officials who are guilty of these crimes are guilty of treason because they betray their country when they use their positions of power to extort hard-earned money from the business community. This is pure and simple banditry.
In the coming elections, I urge the public to purge our government of bandits.
