No authority without responsibility

“They must find it difficult, those who have taken authority as truth, rather than truth as authority”. — Gerald Massey, 1900

In our column last Saturday (“A Time to Reflect”), we discussed the need to reflect on what our country is and what it could be. Whatever course the future of our country takes, it will be the duly elected leadership who charts it. Last week, Pope Benedict XVI, speaking to the Philippine Ambassador to the Vatican (the newly appointed Arrasitia Tuason) said: “The struggle against poverty in the Philippines calls for honesty, integrity and an unwavering fidelity to the principles of justice, especially on the part of those entrusted with positions of governance and public administration”. We thank the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines for reporting the story on their website (www.cbcpnews.com).

In light of recent events, all the more we need to be cognizant of the responsibilities of leadership and authority. On June 19 of 1900, the US Republican Party met in Philadelphia and approved this slogan for their policy in the Philippines: “Our authority cannot be less than our responsibility.” Then they believed their main responsibility was the education of our people. To do so they sent 540 teachers to the Philippines and established the Bureau of Education.

In 1670, Anne Bradstreet in her Meditations Divine and Moral already noted that “Authority without wisdom is like a heavy ax without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.” In any country, the authority to rule runs in inverse proportion to its intellectual development. Our highest civic duty is to respect legitimate and responsible authority. But our future depends on how those that we have vested with authority respond to the corresponding responsibility that comes with their authority. When they fail to uphold their responsibilities, the country and its people suffer.

Some people grow when they are given authority. Some just swell. Many people holding office are dodging their responsibility. It is us who will suffer the consequences of their dodging their responsibilities. Social ills that have plagued our country for decades still remain. Graft and corruption are sadly an ever-present reality; the rule and not the exception to the rule in the Philippines. We have visible proof in the last few weeks of what happens when authority fails to live up to their responsibility. Let us be clear, the situation we find ourselves in is cumulative: It has built up through decades of poor governance. When those in authority fail, the price is measured not only in pesos and centavos, but in lives lost.

“I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but people. And if we think them not enlightened enough, the remedy is not to take power from them, but to inform them by education.” — Thomas Jefferson

We agree wholeheartedly with Pope Benedict XVI. What we and our leadership really have to do is to fight poverty. The true enemy to development is ignorance. The best way to fight poverty is to fight ignorance. Education is the key to our future; an educated nation is a responsible and effective nation. We must give people an opportunity to develop their talents. The focus should be not on what they are but what they could be. This then, is the ultimate responsibility of those in authority: To provide people with the opportunity to pursue what they could be.

The American-Philippine policy of authority living up to responsibility was correct. We should adopt that policy for ourselves. We hope that those in authority live up to their responsibilities. If they do not, we as a people must decide what the future of our country will be.