Directions for leadership

We don’t need to look far for lessons in leadership. We can find good examples from our own history and the lives of our heroes. Yesterday, to commemorate the 149th birth anniversary of our national hero, Professor Gabriel Lopez who teaches at the Ateneo and works in the National Historical Commission sent an email to this column to share a short speech he gave on heroic leadership. It is timely topic.

 He cites Chris Lowney, a former Jesuit novice turned highly-paid Wall Street investment banker and now independent lecturer and author, who wrote the very popular book “Heroic Leadership.” He then asks whether Rizal fitted that kind of leadership. I have excerpted parts of the speech to serve as a good compass for our leaders.

 “Jose Rizal certainly established direction for the Philippines or envisioned her development into a modern and humane nation, liberated from the Spanish colonialists’ abuses and prejudices, where poverty and ignorance would have been eliminated.

 “He aligned the Propagandists to his vision through his various writings, including his two famous novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo and his equally famous annotations of Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. He was active in La Liga Filipina, the reformist progressive group which he co-founded with Andres Bonifacio, Apolinario Mabini, and Deodato Arellano, among others.

 “Finally, and most importantly, he lived heroism — being, what the Jesuits always like to believe, a man who searched and attempted to achieve excellence in all that he did.”

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Journalists in whatever media they work in have to be aware that it will not be long when communications as we know it today will change radically. Michael Dertouzos writes in his book “What will be” that internet-driven changes “will transform our society over the next century as significantly as the two industrial revolutions” — one of railways and factories, the second of the internal combustion engine, electricity, synthetic chemicals and the automobile.”

He adds that the information marketplace, as he termed it, will establish itself “solidly and rightfully as the Third Revolution in modern human history. It is big, exciting and awesome.”

Being an oldie, I have tried to know how to use it adeptly to keep in step with the next generation. “In the Internet: everybody is connected but nobody is in charge,” Dertouzos adds.

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Raymond Bonner, the well-known author of Waltzing with a Dictator: The Marcoses and the Making of American Policy has reviewed “Ilustrado”, the ground breaking work of a young Filipino, Miguel Syjuco in the New York Times. He writes in the opening paragraph of the review the context in which the book was written.

“The Philippines, it might be said, is a country in search of an identity. Its colonial Spanish rulers brought with them the Roman Catholic Church (<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/roman_catholic_church/index.html? inline=nyt-org>), making the archipelago the largest Christian state in Asia. Adherence to church doctrine has given the country one of the world’s higher birth rates, but the church’s moral teachings haven’t made much of an impact. Having a mistress is de rigueur for political figures. Young prostitutes ply their trade in Manila’s strip clubs, then go to Mass on Sunday. After the Spanish departed, the Americans left their mark. “We will become American,” says Cristo, one of the characters in Miguel Syjuco’s ambitious new novel about the Philippines. “Our children will learn to speak American. When they are ready, we will send them to America to be educated.”

This is a country in which the rich live in mansions behind high walls in gated communities, their manicured lawns tended by impoverished laborers. The poor are reduced to stealing manhole covers to sell for scrap, and in the torrential rains that routinely flood Manila’s pathetically maintained streets, a man can easily be sucked into a drain and drowned. In the novel and in reality, the police routinely steal from street urchins.

“Ilustrado” is being presented as a tracing of 150 years of Philippine history, but it’s considerably more than that. Just as this country is searching for its identity, its author seems to be searching for his own. What does it mean to live in exile? What does it mean to be a writer? The fictional Syjuco tells Salvador that he wants to change the world through his writing. “Changing the world is good work if you can get it,” his master replies. “But isn’t having a child a gesture of optimism in the world?”

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It is good to hear that one of the results of recent dialogues on the ongoing peace process between the government and the MILF is to recommend a massive information drive. Past attempts at forging peace have been unsuccessful because the people on the ground were excluded from the process. They may not be active players in the conflict but they are the most important component in the struggle.

Francis Wakefield writes on Musa Sanguila, regional management coordinator of Dialogue Mindanao for the Lanao region. She said that there was a lack of awareness and understanding of the issues involved among ordinary people. For example surveys conducted to find out their choices about the ongoing peace talks could not be relied because of general ignorance on the issues.

The Reflective Dialogues were held in Jolo, Tawi-Tawi, San Mateo, Rizal; and in the cities of Puerto Princesa, Bacolod, Iligan, Zamboanga, Davao, Cotabato, Koronadal, Cagayan de Oro, Baguio and Butuan.

“If there is one clear imperative arising from the findings, it is the need for a comprehensive communication program to help people understand the issues as well as the implications of the different options so they can make responsible, intelligent decisions,” Sanguila explained in her presentation of the poll results at the recent Davao City leg of the “Peace Forum for Sustained Partnership”.