I LIKE the fuss created by Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo accepting a militant group’s commute dare. He did ride a jeepney in going to Malacañang one day and reported for work late. Panelo would later say there is no transport crisis in the metro, only a traffic crisis - or words to that effect. A one day or one one-way commute though is but too fleeting to change a viewpoint. Panelo accepted a challenge and the caper was not meant for him to pluck lessons from it. He was merely showing his critics that he can do it.
I am not an expert on China but I did read somewhere that years after the communist takeover of that country’s government, or was it during the so-called “cultural revolution,” government officials and the elite were ordered to learn from the masses, with many of them forced to go to the countryside to live with the peasants. I say learning about the real situation of the masses may sometimes require that drastic action. Merely accepting a commute challenge won’t do.
The local left actually has a policy similar to that, which is called “immersion.”
Young activists voluntarily go to the countryside and immerse in the day-to-day lives of the peasants and even of the rebels. That immersion program already led to casualties because government forces do not treat those who are on immersion differently from the actual rebels.
I think government does have its own version of an immersion program. Consider the doctors to the rural areas program made popular by former Health secretary Juan Flavier. I am not that familiar with the program but I understand that it requires new doctors that were products of state-funded education to serve a few years in the rural areas. The hope is that these new doctors would learn from that experience as medical professionals.
One benefit that one gets from immersion programs is a change of perspective. Like, how much would our view of sidewalk vendors change if we ourselves immerse with them?
I am saying this because much of the comments I hear from those who are passionately supporting the policy of driving these vendors away from the place where they are earning their keep is hatred and contempt. How much of their perception of sidewalk vendors would change if they are immersed in the daily struggle to survive of these vendors? That, though, could be the subject of another column.
Of course, not many government officials are born to millionaire families so they are already familiar with the day-to-day struggle of the masses to survive. But serving a high government position with fat salaries can be alienating. Panelo, I am sure, is no stranger to riding a jeepney but his view on the struggles of daily commute has surely changed considerably in the years of driving or being driven in an airconditioned vehicle. What government officials like him need is to reconnect with the common tao.
That reconnection has to be genuine, and one that breeds a real understanding and sympathy for the marginalized majority.