Reinventing Estrada - Why And Why Not By Nelson A. Navarro

Can Joseph Estrada be reinvented?

This question has a special air of urgency even for presidential handlers who remain in denial about the President’s nosedive in the popular esteem. In their view, present adversity can only be a passing phenomenon and will soon give way to a resurgence of the President’s once-phenomenal poll ratings.

Perish any and all thoughts of such miracle happening anytime soon. Granted that the unrelenting accounts of corruption and crony capitalism have become banal, they remain the focus of most foreign critics and institutions. This does not only pertain to media but to the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund as well.

One crucial test the administration cannot postpone for long involves the setting up of a credible anti-corruption body deemed essential for the continued flow of international financial assistance to the Philippines. After the respected former chairwoman of the Commission on Elections Haydee Yorac turned down the job, largely because she says it has no teeth, Malacañang appears to have run into yet another political dead end.

With the economy in downward spiral and the bloody conflict against the Muslims in the South raging like crazy, not even a mildly favorable image seems to be in the cards for the beleaguered regime. That is, both at home and abroad and barring some sudden leap of faith in Estrada by the people.

More likely than not, Estrada faces a longer winter of discontent than the two previous ones he has somehow survived. Venturing out as a roaring lion at the start of his presidency in 1998, he has since been reduced to a wounded king of the jungle and one more ridiculed than feared.

Whoever happens to be in charge of the propaganda machinery obviously has learned few or no lessons whatsoever from past mistakes.

Perhaps it’s too late, but Estrada’s beloved buffoon number has had its day. Reli German’s once-cutesy jokes have metamorphosed from gentle ribbing to vicious humor, more and more dripping with hate.

The willful disregard of public morals must go. Nobody considers the president’s extended family situation something pleasant to talk about or even tolerate. Fair or unfair, accounts of certain family members’ corrupt practices and lavish extravagance have swollen the ranks of enraged critics.

What’s so badly needed – and so blatantly missing – from Estrada’s public persona is something called the humility factor. Yes, an Estrada who has not only seen the error of his ways, but one sincerely bent on making amends for them. Indeed, a more confident Estrada who would rather focus on spiritual renewal rather than picking more fights with the media.

For any president, however, such a display of humility tends to be regarded as weakness rather than strength. Or an invitation for more abuse.

Yet it isn’t the media but Estrada who needs to come across in another and, hopefully, different light. It follows that such changes, assuming they are being entertained at all, should only be done after thorough calculation of costs and benefits. Above all, these should be changes that the president himself can be comfortable with and, therefore, resolute about. These should be able to stand up in the face of intense pessimism and concentrated fire that will surely come with any attempt to get Estrada out of the doldrums.

Most people, of course, would rather that disgraced leaders never change stripes or tactics – all the better to set them up for the kill. That Estrada faces a crucial mid-term elections in seven months and thereafter has three more long and agonizing years to go before signing off from Malacañang cannot but dictate the urgency of change.

What changes should Estrada consider?

To start with basics, he will have to reconfigure both his personal and political families and redirect energies towards genuine reform and discipline. He has to crack the whip – and soon. Some heads will have to roll. Deadwood must be hacked out of the way.

At no time has any presidency needed to be reminded that "Politics is addition." But any addition must be of the positive kind. There must emerge shortly a new Estrada Cabinet drawn from beyond the current discredited and uninspiring circles. The President must act fast. Time is running out.

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Nelson A. Navarro's e-mail address: [email protected]