Competence without character

Questions are being asked nowadays, why in today's world, people have become too bad. Humanity has achieved quantum leaps in technology, science and in the economy. But man has retrogressed into a savage beast. My own analysis of this phenomenon is that we are a nation who has strayed from the path of rectitude. The root of much evil in today's workplace is the fundamental lack of character among employees and even supervisors, managers, executives and employers. That absence of strong moral and ethical values among businessmen, industry leaders and those in government.

The pork barrel scam is just a manifestation of the social cancer which is the language of Dr. Jose Rizal. It is of so malignant character that the least of touch irritates it. There is too much stress on technical competence for global competitiveness, neglecting the need for ethical behavior in the workplace. The work place is a microcosm of the entire nation.

There is too much emphasis on educational qualifications and core competencies, and less if not total neglect of positive human behavior. Hiring of human capital is largely based on superior knowledge and skills, without due regard to attitudes and habits. The goal is only productivity optimistic results, forgetting the need for values and principles. Thus we have multi-billion conglomerates generating leaps and bonds in profits and market shares while cheating workers and ravaging the natural environment. People are talking about money, power, prestige, enjoyment of the flesh, and totally neglecting spiritual development and moral recovery. Institutions have yielded to the pressures of money and power. Even the Church at times has danced with the devil. There is no one else to turn to but the Supreme Being.

Seldom do we see business and industry leaders who focus on balancing between profit and ownership, nor between material gain and corporate social responsibility. Even charitable programs are being used merely as a means to gain more patronage and thus promote the profit orientation. With the top management excessively profit-driven, the managers, supervisors and rank-and-file become too selfish and self-centered too. This corporate culture of greed and too much materialism permeate across ranks in the entire economy and thus build a society of greedy and money driven citizenry. It is this kind of body politic the produces corrupt political leaders and a graft-infected government bureaucracy. The homes, the schools, the Church, the media and all institutions have been corrupted. Everything is tainted. Almost everybody has become a slave of sin. We have become a modern Sodom and Gomorrah.

A corrupt mass of people cannot elect honest, principle-centered and purpose-driven leadership. A country that tolerates corruption is also corrupt. A nation that allows itself to be bastardized by a handful of greedy politicians, and even encourages the latter by electing them the positions of powers, cannot complain later that they are subjected to graft. The people deserve the kind of leaders that they put in power. Poverty is not an excuse. It is only an alibi of the morally-deprived and ethically-deranged "hoi polloi". It is a shame that we pride ourselves as the only Christian country in Asia, the biggest Catholic nation in the East. And yet, our people have become too worldly, too materialistic and too hedonistic. We are, as Rizal predicted, suffering from a pervasive social cancer.

If we trace the root of this social cancer, we will see dysfunctional homes and families, fathers who abandon their families, mothers who evade from their parental duties to mold the character of the young. Labor migration, among others, has destroyed the basic foundation of our nation, the family. We see schools whose curriculum, faculty and administration are focused on making money not building good citizenry. We see a church that has become captives of the social decay, rather than catalyst of positive change. The root of evil in work and in society is a conspiracy of abdication among everybody's duty to put God in the center of our lives. Alas, we are a nation that lost our soul. The pork barrel is just a tiny tip of a huge iceberg. Man is becoming the worst enemy of man. The country is seriously sick. It shall take another deluge to cleanse the earth.