WITH the exciting political phenomenon happening in the world today, the fundamental power to elect leaders remains the bedrock of our democracy. Political power, the most dominant resource in the government, is given by the citizens to the officials during elections. And history will provide anyone a well-established fact that elected incompetent officials will most likely abuse power.
One of the obligations of the civil society in playing its disciplinary role of setting the rules of the political game is to raise the standards of public morality by educating the voters on how to choose the right people to become powerholders. They must advocate that political powers must be in the hands of competent who knows how to run the government.
What we have today unfortunately is a contagious promotion of people with utter lack of knowledge, skills and experience in governance who are offering immature solutions to none at all to our serious and complex problems. If nothing is done to correct this very wrong notion on elections would endanger not only the quality of our public governance but will also threaten our individual freedoms and liberties. Incompetent leaders are close-minded people – they will refuse to learn and they will not listen, and civil society should know that incompetence is an anathema to our open society.
John Locke, an English political philosopher, in his book ‘The Second Treatise of Government’ said that legislative power is the most important power the citizen would give to its leaders via the social contract. Lawmaking power is “sacred and unalterable in the hands where the community has once placed it” where the executive will rely its powers to enforce, and the judiciary will base its powers to interpret the laws.
A competent legislator will ensure the maintenance of harmony of our departments and promote the common good. As a member in a collegial body, he should have the sufficient abilities to articulate and defend well to the rest of the other legislators the demands of his constituents he is representing especially in the allocation of government resources, projects and programs.
He is not the Congress. He is just one of the 250 representatives in the lower house or one of the 24 Senators in the upper house. His idea can only become a law by convincing first the other legislators to agree with him through meaningful debates and deliberations. With this, the competent legislator can bring home to his constituents through lawmaking government programs and projects that will improve the quality of life of his people.
On the other hand, an incompetent legislator because of lack of necessary abilities in governance will just be impotent during deliberations failing to defend the common good, hence a danger to our republic. His incompetence in lawmaking will end up his constituents receiving nothing from the government. He will just be silent to the morsel his constituents will receive for he has no abilities to speak up and defend the pressing needs of his constituents. Most likely because of incompetence, he will end up beholden to and manipulated by corrupt patrons from the Imperial Manila. The last is the most dangerous outcome of electing an incompetent legislator coming from our region.
Cagayan de Oro, the gateway to Northern Mindanao, should continue its tradition of sending its best legislators who are shakers and movers of Philippine politics which legacies are the laws they authored that changed the nation’s political landscapes and brought progress not only to this golden city but also to the entire region of Northern Mindanao.
As Mindanawnons who are always on the last line on government programs, we should look seriously into the credentials of these candidates whether or not they have sufficient abilities to represent us and be our voices in Congress.
Mr. Dumaug was a fellow of the Konrad Adenauer Summer School for International Cooperation in 2001 and 2013 in Germany, and of the Study of US Institute – American Political Thought of the US State Department at the University of Massachusetts in 2017.
junpolsci@gmail.com