Friday, December 14, 2007 Seares: Perceived, not really, corrupt? By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
PRESIDENT Arroyo is stumped. A Pulse Asia survey says she is the most corrupt president yet.
She can't assail the survey (margin of error, method, or motive), not when publicists wave the result to the public when it favors her.
She can't go around protesting that it's only perception of people and it's not reality, no hard facts.
But here's the reality: People trust perception when they act or judge. Scottish philosopher David Hume says that if we believe that fire warms or water refreshes, "'tis only because it costs us too much pains to think otherwise."
Perception substitutes digging for truth, unreliable yet convenient as we judge or act.
Unfair, unkind, un-Christian, says Presidential Management Staff chief Cerge Remonde. But an adverse result of a survey is always harsh to the person wounded by it.
Forgotten sins
Odds were stacked against Mrs. Arroyo. The incumbent ruler cannot be better than any past president. Her sins, perceived or real, are fresh in respondents' minds. Sins of other presidents, maybe worse, are forgotten or vaguely remembered.
Former president Erap Estrada is rejoicing. Just convicted of plunder and people's memory of the looting has already fled.
Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it, says Kung Fu-tzu. Mrs. Arroyo may just be honest and true. Forty two per cent of Asia Pulse's respondents just didn't see it.
PMS chief Cerge talks about the challenge of cruel perception.
Nothing beats perception more than reality itself. Less tough for her p.r. boys and girls if people actually see what the President says she's doing against corruption.
