PERHAPS the greater challenge I would like to pose for our local leaders especially for our legislators is to break traditional politics. Because from the looks of it, they still fit to the stereotype; spectacular but fleeting.
Some of them have not even worked a day in their multiple terms in office yet they always managed to get re-elected because again, they know how to project such perfect image and people fall for it. They show up alright, they attend sessions, they are even so good at delivering speeches, but have they really cemented game changing policies? Evidence at plain sight would say otherwise. Well, with the exception of one or two.
Against the current
The pattern of local politics can very well be likened to show business; glamorous, glaring, but sadly shallow. Image and likability are the best leverage. They always work in a system that are so dependent on memory recall.
People with more public exposures and have the budget to create huge events are most likely to get elected. Well, second to those with the most number of relatives or those who are good at tracing family trees and can somehow insert themselves as members of all clans. A very simple trick, but are common to all successful politicians.
If we noticed, nothing from winning and staying in office involves brilliance in introducing innovations and sustainable development. This can easily be attested by the fact that the same problems are repeatedly experienced over and over again; garbage, drainage, traffic, and the rising number of urban poor.
If a sitting politician or his political party are really good at what they do, then significant changes should have been felt already on their second term or third term in office. But no, some have even served their second round of three terms yet still, there is not much to observe or feel. And while we may think that these problems cannot really be solved, they actually can. All we have to do is look at how our neighboring countries did it.
For instance, Japan was pulverized after the two atomic bombs exploded in their land, yet in no time they were able to bounce back as a powerful country. They must have experienced worse conditions than what we have now, but they were able to transforms their place to being a very developed country despite their very limited natural resources.
Let me then get back to my point, the only hope for genuine local transformation falls on the hands of our local leaders. But they have to break the old path of traditional politics characterized by dole outs and kickbacks and start forging more sustainable programs that can alter the direction of development.
This challenge falls more on our local legislative; our city councilors and provincial board members. Because they are the ones with the power to control the budget and they are the ones who can cement things into law for all other future executives to implement.
The mayor and the governor are always bombarded with pressing matters on a daily basis while they simultaneously navigate the bureaucracy for their programs to materialize. But the legislative council has all the time to do research. In aid of legislation, they are supposed to seriously conduct consultations with not just community stakeholders but with experts on how they can better set the direction of the city or the province. In exercise of their oversight power, they are supposed to look into how effective the existing laws are and whether they need to change them or not.
But how many of our local board members and city councilors really know how crucial their jobs are? Most importantly, how many of them really work as lawmakers? Nah, they love the spectacular but fleeting things. Issues that are trending in social media consumes their legislative sessions, from scam investigations, to police misconducts, to even as minor as a fraud case of a local employee. Some also seem very confused about their roles as legislators that they function like executive officials managing affairs of the city and are too busy implementing barangay projects. I mean, really?
For crying out loud, drop the show and start looking into the bigger problems. Dig deep. Formulate interventions. Make them into law. Then check again if they work.