New Year’s wishes

With so many unpredictable happenings during the year about to end, making accurate predictions of events for the coming year has become tougher and more strenuous. Perhaps it is better to just prepare a wish list as we blast away the old and ring in the New Year. After all, making wishes is in itself some sort of indulging in predictions.

I wish first of all that the President finally succeeds in putting to rest the vital issues bugging the last election, particularly the alleged electoral fraud and other anomalous electoral practices. This could stop the power-hungry politicians dead in their tracks by simply facing these issues head on and coming up with a credible account and explanation.

Seriously, the Comelec must have realized that it has the capability and the resources to solve the ongoing political turmoil. The country cannot afford to have a government running on survival mode. Unless it is authoritatively declared that the last election was clean and honest, political sniping and trial by publicity will continue.

Sweeping the perceived dirt under the rug or allowing it to be squelched cannot provide for a credible closure to the issues. They are not conducive to an atmosphere of unity that is so necessary for this country to move forward.

Second on my wish list is for our elected or appointed public officials to always have that intimation of mortality, especially when they are at the pinnacle of power. They should realize deep in their hearts that life is short and their hold on power is transitory and may be taken away at any time by death or otherwise, and that they could not permanently conceal or forever escape responsibility for their acts or conduct in betrayal of public trust.

They should learn a lesson from the sad and cruel fate that befell abusive and corrupt leaders of the past so as to avoid committing the same reproachful and corrupt practices. They must “at all times be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty and efficiency, act with patriotism and justice and lead modest lives” as required by the Constitution.

My third wish is for our senators and congressmen to perform their legislative tasks as members of a separate and independent branch of government rather than as members of a political party who are more loyal to the party leaders than to their constituents. I long to go back to the golden days of yore when the men and women gracing the august chambers of the Upper and Lower Houses observed in their every thought, word or deed the time-tested and salutary maxim that “my loyalty to my party ends when my loyalty to my country begins,” first articulated by the great patriot and statesman, Manuel Luis Quezon.

Number four on my wish list is for a meaningful and far-reaching judicial reform aimed at speeding up the wheels of justice, eliminating its double standards for the rich and the poor, ensuring the judiciary’s fiscal autonomy to preserve its independence from political pressures, weeding out the undesirables and corrupt from its ranks and filling it up with men and women of proven competence, integrity and probity. All that is needed is a strong “political will” to carry out these reforms.

Lastly, I fervently wish that our Charter will not undergo amendments; if so or to save on public expenditure, expedite government action and put an end to destructive feud of politicians in the Executive and Legislative branches, particularly the extension of the term of office of the elective officials.

But as the year ends, my fervent wish also is that proposals in our government should not be for a “no election” proposal, which is tainted with politics and with self-serving motive.

These are my wishes for the New Year. I wish that all or any of them come true during the coming year.

Happy New Year to one and all!

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