P-Noy’s battle

Despite the continuing negative attacks and the burden of enduring several natural disasters, President Noynoy Aquino, during the past three and a half years, earned high trust ratings from the Filipino people. After many years of despair, the Aquino presidency gave the Filipino people the gift of Hope for their future.

At the beginning of his term in 2010, his message was clear – to transform Philippine society and reintroduce morality to public service. His two major weapons were to institutionalize the rule of law and to set a personal example of personal integrity. This model of personal behavior would extend to that of his immediate family, especially his sisters and their families.

He has remained true to this promise. For so many, many years the realization of a government that would actively fight graft and corruption and where corrupt judges and politicians, tax evaders and money launderers would actively be prosecuted and punished, was just wishful thinking on the part of the Filipino people.

Today, after the filing of graft and plunder cases against Enrile, Estrada, Revilla and other politicians, there is a real sense of Hope that this quest for a just society is actually taking place and may even be realized in our lifetime.

But there will be many detractors especially those who will suffer if the struggle against corruption succeeds.

There are those who benefited, in many forms, from the largesse of the past two administrations. They are either facing charges in several scams or have lost influence in society due to loss of positions or access to powers in Malacanang.

There are politicians preparing for 2016 hoping the environment will remain as before where patronage, money and cheating win elections.

And there are the media personalities who somehow believe they have been anointed to set national agendas. But generally, media is simply focused on ratings and since the biggest competitors are entertainment shows, then these radio and television commentators must find ways to be entertaining. Listen to their programs and you will find a mix of gossip, wild commentaries and games where the public can participate with the lure of a prize.

Our news media is intellectually and mentally light years away from serious news media like BBC and Bloomberg.  But these detractors must not be a deterrence or distraction from the real struggle against corruption no matter how difficult the challenges.  Perhaps it would be good for the president and his people to remember the words of Thomas Paine during the struggle for freedom:

“These are times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything value.”

In order to attain his goal of changing the behavior of Philippine society, especially the elite, P-Noy must generate short term wins. But the central component of all great leadership is to ensure that all their actions remain consistent with their vision.

Visionary leadership requires a director of change. In this role, the president is out in front, establishing goals and encouraging others inside and outside government to follow. The president is the moving force of the system and the initiator of change.

But presidents do need public support or at the very least presidents want to avoid needlessly antagonizing the public. Therefore, presidents want to lead public opinion in support of themselves and their policies. They also want to avoid expending their limited resources on hopeless ventures.

When P-Noy took office, he had extremely high approval ratings and very high expectations. But this can have negative consequences. These unusually high expectations could not be met in a single term.  And there is always the possibility that these expectations become the ultimate source of public frustration.

Another obstacle in the efforts to gain public support is that, oftentimes, there will be contradictory public expectations. For example, it is a wonder that media commentators and even ordinary residents of Metro Manila can shift their discussion from the devastation of Typhoon Yolanda to traffic problems in a single discussion as if the two were national priorities. For some, easing the traffic congestion is more important than the Mindanao peace process.

Then there are the businessmen who want a clean and honest government but will now complain that the BIR Commissioner is intent on implementing the tax laws on their business firms.  Then many businessmen are opposed to crony capitalism only because they are not the cronies.

But there are times when the president must lead public opinion instead of following it. The President cannot run a country on the basis of public polls or approval ratings alone. The President must listen to the people but he cannot make hard decisions based solely on their effects on his approval ratings or what media will say.

The ideal thing is for the President to make hard decisions and then go and educate the people on why a decision that was necessarily unpopular was made. In the end, history will make the final decision on P-Noy’s legacy. In the meantime, Churchill had this reminder:

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life....What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes, and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone.”

P-Noy! Ituloy ang Laban!

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