Meritocracy is the key to success

I have recently joined Facebook to the chagrin of my children who told me, “Ma, it is for the young.” Well, how about for the young at heart? I am glad I did or I would never have found out what the young thought of the last elections. Admittedly FB users are more educated and are generally employed. There is a smattering of senior citizens like me but by and large this cyber community is for the 30s-50s. Most of them campaigned hard for Gilberto Teodoro.

 For a long time there was no political figure that the Filipino youth could rally behind as a symbol of their future. Their apolitical attitude was often derided as youth being wasted in the young. Until Gibo came along. They liked what he said and how he conducted himself during the campaign. He was bright, articulate and compassionate staying away from negative campaigning. This young Filipino citizenry have written messages and news feeds in FB asking “Where did our votes go?”

We should celebrate this development even if Gibo Teodoro lost not so much because he lost but because May 10 awakened our young people — probably not as fully as we would have wanted them to be but it is a kick start.

It is my point of view that in selecting Gibo against other candidates, the dominating idea for the young, although largely unstated, was the idea of  meritocracy. They approached the elections mindful that “those who are more capable and promising” should be their choice. No wonder they feel betrayed. After the endless prattle of oligarchic-owned media that the youth are “ang simula”. They were told often enough that if we want the country to move forward we must vote intelligently. They openly say in FB that the results brought us nowhere near meritocracy.

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It has often been said that meritocracy is one of the keys to the success of Singapore. Roger Harrison, of Arab News wrote what he thought were the five vital factors in the successful development of Singapore. Of these five the principle of meritocracy was the most critical.

 “Meritocracy helps build the ethic of hard work. A person’s advancement depends on his ability, performance and contributions.” Whilst all might not end up at the same level, all are given the chance to compete.”

The other four were “tolerance, honest and effective government, openness to new ideas and change and “pragmatic, not dogmatic” approach to advance the country. Although the government was generous in allocating money for education, he quotes former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong who said “it was not simply the amount spent that counts but what is being taught and whether it is being used productively.” In other words Singapore followed the British system of streaming according to ability with only those capable of further academic studies going to university and others with practical talents go to polytechnic schools and learning  ‘real world’ skills.

PM Goh opined that if a child were not educated to take care of himself in society, it would lead to political and social problems. The present prime minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong said pretty much the same thing when interviewed by Bloomberg. Asked why Singapore was successful, he said without any hesitation: because it is a meritocracy.

But to go back to the community of young Filipinos in FB I do not blame them for feeling betrayed in the last elections. It certainly was not about meritocracy and therefore does not augur well for the future of good governance in this country.

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It is good that Senator Aquilino Pimentel added his voice to criticize “scores” of foreign envoys calling on Aquino. The American ambassador took the lead followed by Spain, China and Japan. European ambassadors followed suit despite Filipinos objecting to the premature visit to Times Street especially when information came out that there might have been wholesale cheating in the first automated elections. 

No such revelations bothered the envoys. Pimentel’s statements are significant to demonstrate that Filipinos are not carried away by the rush to preemption even if done through ill-advised envoys. It reminds me of pre-election surveys that were used for trending to make vulnerable Filipinos behave like sheep. Siyempre we are for the winner.

Senator Benigno Aquino III may be the “sure winner” based on tabulations on the board, the data being used is precisely what is in question. The debate in Congress was continuing. Should the joint committee continue the canvass or resolve the issue first if the figures were real or merely configured by flash cards. If it was the latter, then the question being asked is whether there was an election at all.

One wonders what was the basis for the envoys’ visit to Times St. As Pimentel rightly argues, as long as Congress, acting as the national board of canvassers, has not completed the tabulation of votes for president and vice president there is no President-elect. As foreign guests in our country, it is an insult to our sovereignty Pimentel rightly said.

“Is it because we’re a Third world country that . . . they are taking us for granted?’’ he asks.

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I was surprised that the usually more sober and correct Economist came out with a report on the May 10 elections that ridiculed revelations of probable wholesale cheating made possible by an imported voting system from Smartmatic. The Venezuelan group has a history of allegedly manipulating election results in almost every country it had been hired. The article was entitled: “You couldn’t make it up.” But the latest vote-fraud scare may be too weird to be true.

Its reporter would have been more credible if he also included the question why Smartmatic, with a dubious reputation, should have been hired by the Comelec. I wonder which is funnier the masked Koala Boy or Smartmatic’s voting systems that have fooled even huge states in America?

In a mocking tone Economist said that “the Philippines basked in the glow of international commendation of its use of computer technology to produce, for the first time, seemingly indisputable results. But then a mysterious masked figure dubbed Koala Boy dropped out of the foliage to shatter the national daydream about stable governments untroubled by accusations of electoral fraud.” Well, some Filipinos do not care as much for “international commendation” as portrayed by Economist than they are about finding out just what foreign Smartmatic was about in the Philippines in the last elections.