Hope and prepare for a better tomorrow

By nature, this writer is both an optimist and a pragmatist. We look at situations, dismal sometimes though they are, and analyze the anatomy of the problems, their causes and effects and, after thorough evaluation, offer practical and doable solutions. This pragmatic approach to problem solving that we have adhered to both in the field of law and business has reaped for us handsome rewards in the pursuit of our profession.

A country’s outlook should be no different from the manner of conduct of a business or profession of a successful individual. It must have a positive perspective of the tasks ahead, a healthy view of problems as challenges and opportunities for improvement, an indomitable spirit to push ahead regardless of the odds, and a constant determination to do what is right. In the beginning and all throughout, it must have hope.

It pains us, therefore, to read of brothers in the profession – columnists, commentators, and opinion-makers – sounding doomsday bells and alarms, painting a picture of the country that is on the verge of economic collapse.

To be fair, though, many of the warning calls are apparent, if not accurate. It is true that our foreign debt continues to rise at a pace and level that compromises our ability to pay. It is so that our current debt servicing takes away a big chunk of the national budget that could have otherwise been urgently used for the construction and establishment of infrastructure and utilities and the delivery of goods and services to our people. It is true that the peace and order situation in the country is bad. It is a fact that graft and corruption is so widespread that it festers from the lowliest government position to the highest offices of the land. There is no denying that criminal syndicates are plying their nefarious trade with brazenness, if not impunity. The widespread public cynicism over government’s ability to uplift the life of the Filipino cannot be gainsaid. It is true that many of our countrymen cross the threshold into poverty, increasing even more the ranks of our brothers and sisters living in despondency.

For all these, however, it could not be true and it should not be true that we have lost hope as a people. Despite all the negative forecasts and prognoses, including a prediction of the country as the next Argentina, we must never lose the one attitude and perspective that inspires us to go on dreaming of making it through against all odds. And that factor is hope.

It was Franklin Delano Roosevelt who said that the last thing a country and people should give up is hope. It is the only thing that the people have to rise up and face the future with confidence. With a hopeful President as FDR and a hopeful people as the Americans are, the Great Depression that was America in the 1930’s metamorphosed itself into the greatest nation on earth that it is today.

While hope, indeed, should spring eternal, it is the preparation more than anything that leads to the desired economic objective of a country. While ever hopeful we must, nevertheless, plant the seeds of preparation now so we can claim the fruits later on of a better tomorrow.

As elections are just around the corner, it is compelling that our preparation should start with reforms in the manner of choosing of our leaders. We have detailed in our earlier columns how the tremendous expenses entailed in the campaign of a candidate already erodes his ability and determination to truly serve the interest of the country and the people. This dedication to the common weal, as we have discussed earlier, is effectively emasculated by a winning candidate’s imprisoned obligation to pay his political debts to those who financed his campaign.

To correct this, the people must be prepared not to be idle watchers of the electoral process with only the act of casting their ballots as their direct participation thereon. Instead, the electorate themselves must be active participants by keeping their candidates from spending during the campaign. This can be done by the supporters themselves modestly donating to the campaign coffers of their chosen candidates. The ideal is for every supporter to give a voluntary amount of from a minimum of P100 to a maximum of P1,000, which individual small amount cannot instill a sense of indebtedness from the candidate that he must repay upon winning. Yet, the sum total of the individual modest contributions of the supporters will be substantial enough to fund the legitimate expenses of a candidate for posters, leaflets, gasoline and snacks and food for his campaigners.

This active participation of each and every voter will obviate the need for big donors to contribute so that the candidate, when he wins, will not be beholden to any vested interest, legitimate or illegitimate, and thus be able to devote the full powers and resources of his public office as well as his talents and capabilities to the genuine service of his entire constituency. This way, the loyalty of our elected leaders will not be to their party or to their big donors, but to the country and to each and every Filipino, though financially small he may be.

Another pernicious evil of elections in the Philippines, aside from this proclivity for over-spending, is the manner the candidates themselves conduct their campaign.

By historical experience and record, the politicians themselves, the candidates, do not maintain a high level of campaign. The focus is not on issues and platforms but on personalities. Candidate A will attack the personality of candidate B, mudsling him and ridicule, belittle and spite his opponent in the hustings even as candidate B will do exactly the same towards candidate A. This utterly divisive way of conducting the campaign breeds bitterness, resentment and ill-will among the contenders and their supporters. Quite expectedly, this hatred, if you will, for each other is carried over and remains even after the elections.

In the aftermath of such a bitterly fought election, it becomes next to impossible for the winning candidates to unite their constituencies, supporters and non-supporters alike, to achieve the programs of government that the election was designed to promote in the first place. The rancor between and among the candidates and their supporters remains a fresh and festering wound that deprives the election wounds from healing. Because of this, a divided country and people suffer.

It is high time that our candidates pursue their candidacies on a high and statesmanlike level. Candidates must avoid saying or doing things that will create bitterness amongst themselves and their followers. They must not resort to personal attacks but instead present their own credentials and platforms for governance before the electorate. They must stick to issues and positive campaigning ever mindful that the success of their election is not in their winning per se but in the achievement of unity amongst the people after the political exercise so that, as one, the entire nation can rally behind the leaders in the pursuit of the essential programs and projects of government.

Electoral reforms is one vital step in our preparedness for a better future. Fiscal and monetary reforms is yet another. Our next article will emphasize again, as we have done so many times before, how preparation in this most important aspect of our present policies could brighten the hope for a welcome tomorrow.a

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(Editors Note: We beg the indulgence of our readers who are at times tasked to read a lengthy piece. The purpose of our writings, however, being advocacy and not merely commentary in nature, compels us to dissect a given problem, analyze its causes and effects, and offer studied solutions. The length of the article should be irrelevant to such an approach.)