Wednesday, June 04, 2008 Carvajal: Politicking is doing us in By Orlando P. Carvajal Break Point
IF you wonder why Filipinos strive for excellence abroad and are invariably successful, it is because the governments of the host countries have gotten governance down to a science and art of facilitating the citizen’s attainment of a peaceful, harmonious and prosperous life which is everyman’s dream.
Moreover, if you wonder why we have a sticky communist insurgency or why we have to put up with petty extortionists like watch-your-car boys, jeepney dispatchers, etc., it is because government in this country has so far failed to do its job of promoting the welfare of its citizens.
The role of government is to provide the needed economic, social and educational infrastructures that would enable a nation’s people to attain relative peace and prosperity. Therefore, those who aspire for elective government posts, namely politicians, are supposedly committed to the setting up of said infrastructures.
Unfortunately, in the Philippines, instead of being perfected into a science and art of promoting the common good, politicians have turned governance into egregious politicking, this being defined as the art of staying in power or the art of keeping power within striking distance in a politician’s lifetime.
Politicking is using government machinery and money to keep one’s political career alive. First in the politicking agenda is to make money to use as dole-outs to the poor so these would vote for the politician again. Next in the agenda is to make more money to finance the next election which is no longer a battle of political platforms but a vote-buying contest.
Very essential also to the politicking politician’s agenda is to hire, qualified or not, those who contributed to his/her election into office and are expected to still be a factor in the coming elections. Who takes care of the ordinary citizens? Nobody. They have to eke out a living despite inept and self-serving politicians whose agenda do not include the alleviation of poverty on the short term much less its eradication on the long term.
Hence, when the new chief of staff declares that the communist insurgency will be down to near zero by the end of Gloria’s term, he is only politicking because he knows that for as long as the government neglects to tame poverty, some of poverty’s sons and daughters will always be tempted to join the insurgency.
And, when city councilors commit to implement anti-dispatching and anti-watch-your-car laws, they know they will not rid the city of these petty extortionists because these are the people they use and buy during election to ensure their win.
Politicking is what’s doing this country in. And for as long as we allow it, we only have ourselves to blame for all our troubles.
