Friday, September 05, 2008 Roperos: President’s move By Godofredo M. Roperos Politics Also
THERE is an interesting bit of fact that went with the President’s recent decision to reject entirely the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on ancestral domain. In deciding not to sign the MOA, even at the point of a gun, and dissolving the panel negotiating the document, GMA said she will consult the people about peace issue.
It is a situation that is both tragic and condemnatory to the Arroyo administration and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), both parties to the failed agreement. There was an element of secrecy in the way the agreement was hammered out, which is betrayed by the fact that its appeared aim is to pacify MILF leaders.
But this is not the idea I wish to point out here but the thought that the President had espoused on consulting the people about the peace problem in Mindanao. I call it participatory governance. And it is a communication issue, something that has to do with feedback mechanism, a jargon made popular during the heyday of Marcos’ martial rule.
Management theorists harnessed by the martial law government thought that information makes for intelligent decision-making whether on general policy issues or an agency’s line management problems. In a government setting, information coming from the people becomes a critical material to the decision-maker.
In those days, military intelligence workers and government executive agencies harnessed line workers down to the grassroots to get as much feedback from the people for the decision-makers. The by-word then is that a good manager is not afraid to make a decision, whether the decision is right or wrong.
And it is presumed, so management theorists say, that the decision is based on basic information provided to the decision-maker. Thus, GMA’s plan to consult the people is basically a democratic act, getting them to participate in her governance.
But it is something that she should have done before her peace panelists undertook the negotiation in utmost secrecy on the controversial MOA. Then she would not have looked like someone who has unwittingly fallen into a quicksand, as the President is likely to be looking like it now in the face of the MILF recalcitrance, even if her spokespersons are carefully distinguishing the group from Commanders Umbra Kato and Commander Bravo, who initiated the bloody raids on Christian towns in North Cotabato.
The aftermath of GMA’s decision, though, is something no one can predict at this point. Results of crucial decisions cannot easily be predicted.
