Monday, October 29, 2007 Millan: The sins of the past By Lawyer Taipan Millan One small voice
IT IS funny how some officials cling to their posts, even if such has no more basis in fact or in law or whatever basis that would make even just a little sense.
Oh well, sometimes they run to the law for help, and try to change it if it proves not to be too helpful.
It will be noticed that the barangay elections has already been postponed before, through a law of course and as usual.
For those who were incumbents then, the natural and logical reaction was to celebrate and to rejoice. For those who planned to run before the postponement, and for the people already fed up with inefficient and ineffective officials, it was like prolonging the agony.
It will be observed that the barangay elections will already proceed as scheduled now. This, despite desperate attempts by some officials to sneak and steal yet another postponement. This, in spite of the last-minute Palace certification as urgent the bill seeking to postpone further the conduct of the barangay elections.
Whatever, said postponement is water under the bridge. It should be forgotten as all bad things should be buried in the dustbin of history. But, like all experiences good and bad, the lessons should be learned.
Finally, we are again given the chance to choose our barangay leaders. This will give those who have been planning to run the occasion to offer themselves and present better plans, programs and platforms. This will give those who have been fed up the ability to replace the old ones and elect new leaders.
Whether reform and change will actually happen remains to be a mystery. It is up to the people to paint their own new picture. It is up to the people to write their own new stories.
Hopefully, the new winners will really be new in every sense of the word. Oh, they may just be the wives and daughters, or the husbands and sons, or the nieces and nephews and everybody else in the family tree of the incumbents. Or, they may be birds of the same feather, so we still end up digging deeper instead of flying higher.
Hopefully, the people will remember how fed up they were, and still are, when they go to the polls. Oh, they may very easily forgive and forget the inefficiency or ineffectiveness, or the offenses and transgressions, of the incumbents. Or, they may just be anywhere else to enjoy the non-working holiday except the polling booths and leave their choice to chance.
We all have to be active participants in selecting the next set of leaders who will define or redefine the landscape and terrain of our communities. We all have to be responsible and accountable for the choices that we make. At the end of it all, we will deserve what we have worked for, or not worked for, and have no right to point accusing fingers at anybody except ourselves.
The trouble is that we are always quick to put the blame instead of fixing the problem. The difficulty is that, instead of looking at ourselves, we either stare at the ceiling, or stare at the floor, or look at others, or look the other way altogether. The predicament is that the solution or the resolution is always way too last, nitpicking and faultfinding being always first and fast.
If we again surrender our opportunity to oppose and yield our privilege to pick, we are doomed to fall, to fail and to falter. If we again waste our chance to choose, we are bound to be haunted by the sins of the past.
Comments are most welcome. Please send them to attytaipanmillan@gmail.com.
