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Thursday, April 21, 2005
Oledan: Mediocre acts
By Radzini Oledan
Spice of Life
"These betrayal of trust and confidence is due to our own tolerance and apathy."
OKAY lang, puwede na man na! These are expressions of passivity, indicating one's helplessness on situations, even acceptance of mediocre and low quality work output, resistance to change, deep and wallowing inefficiency in the delivery of products, outputs and services.
This also reflects a deeply ingrained tolerance on inefficiency and defective systems and processes, a situation that fully breeds corruption, which we witness in various forms in our community.
The face of corruption is reflected on the thousands of children whose families are unable to access the most basic social services; of multi-million textbooks undelivered to public schools or an otherwise grammatically wrong, gender and culture insensitive materials for children to "learn" from.
Corruption happens each time a community accepts shabby and oftentimes defective facilities from their representatives in government, It is also shown in various half finished, low quality roads in the respective barangays and mostly in rural areas where access to road networks would ensure farmer's competitiveness in marketing their products; in the substandard materials used for often over-priced private and public buildings (such as the Sangguniang Panlungsod?) or in various health centers where the allocation for medicines are circuited for other purposes.
Corruption breeds powerlessness and unpeace, as resources that could otherwise be allocated for basic social services and infrastructures are lost.
Puwede na ba ang puwede na?, The thought provoking cases of corruption cited by Fr. Albert E. Alejo SJ., team leader of Ehem Anti-Corruption Movement of the Society of Jesus, during City Hall's regular flag raising ceremony Monday may have elicited embarrassed laughter from the crowd or even provoked the sensitivities of other people but it should be seen as a challenge for everyone.
In the background of City Hall are multi sectoral groups-students, women, laborers among others who joined the rest of the nation and the transport sector to push for the repeal of the oil deregulation law.
Indeed, do the public have to bear with the recurrent and spiraling increase in the prices of basic commodities? With the unabated increase of oil prices by the profit hungry multinational oil companies and the lack of responsiveness of national officials, what option does the public have but go to the streets to seek redress of their grievance?
Why should the public endure gross inefficiency or even believe that a shabby delivery of social services is better than nothing at all? Why does the public continue to exhibit high tolerance over officials who lack the delicadeza to overspend on luxurious items and even accommodations here and abroad in the face of hunger and poverty of the many?
Probably the public has gone totally helpless over the inefficiency in the system. "Kulang ang resibo--Puwede na man na!; Kulang ang timpla sa semento--maagian ra man na!, Naay gipatay sa dalan-mayukmoka ra bitaw na sila!; Sayop sa textbook-maayo na lang kaysa sa wala, Alejo cited.
If anything this attitude is also reflected on the macro level with the seeming helplessness over the direction taken by officials in the government who are all out in selling national patrimony and sovereignty in exchange for few dollars and maybe, equipment, which are considered as trash in other countries thus, making the Philippines among other Third World countries as a proverbial dumping ground.
Where government officials who are supposed to stand on the side of the people, as representative considering the fact that they are being paid from the taxes of the people, are all too willing to sacrifice national welfare and interest to ensure their personal gain and that of the foreign powers.
However, corruption cannot be seen in the public sector alone. Over the years, various cases of corruption in the private sector have emerged. It takes many forms even in our own homes where children are bribed to excel in school or undertake an activity; in the various institutions of society, even the church.
With the various funding for rehabilitation and development projects in Mindanao, the tracking of funds and transparency in its utilization is also an area, which should be looked into. Its all a question of efficiency and sound utilization of resources. Shortchanging of the expected output, project and resources whether in monetary or other forms constitute corruption.
Inefficiency is highly internalized that one may refuse the distinction between quality and shabby work output, insisting on passé systems and processes which assures processing of documents to take eternity while letting the clientele wait for days, months or even years.
Where the sheer arrogance to even accept mistake, ask for guidance or assistance in implementing activities and worse, on the insistence for laxity, shown on the resistance to pour extra time and effort to ensure quality output-these too are corruption in our values.
By insisting on a skewed project procedure that effectively diminishes accountability for the quality of work rendered, the whole project is sacrificed which could prove to be costly in the long run-that too is corruption.
Corruption takes several forms. We can detect it from someone who passes off inefficiency as a mechanism not to over-burden oneself, such as the expression "Bakit ko pahihirapan ang sarili ko?" or in the over-bearing attitude of undermining the efforts of other people by non consultation and of passing the blame on them when things go wrong.
This betrayal of trust and confidence is due to our own tolerance and apathy. These patterns have to end. Collectively, we can transform this attitude towards one of high intolerance on inefficiency and corruption. The price is just too high for us to give up.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (April 2, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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