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BY OSCAR CRUZ
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Monday, March 6, 2017
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THE FOLLOWING are some of the more noticeable and disturbing features of our present political culture which took us long to imbibe and will probably also take us long to dislodge, resulting to the lamentation of the Filipinos today in general – and if not neutralized by proper ethical standards and right morals in due time – pitiful would likewise be the forthcoming generations of the Filipino People:
a. A public office obtained is a public trust supposedly intended for public service. Yet it has pitifully degenerated into a self- service modem for merely personal/family gains/interests. This is not only lamentable but also detestable.
b. Dynastic politics is gradually changing democracy into some kind of a newly-bred royalty, shamefully dislodging political equality into personal/family sovereignty as experienced in the middle ages.
c. Greed for power and wealth through political affiliations has caused the transformation of public good into personal/family advantage. So it is that instead of different political philosophy, we now have but different political ID colors.
d. Political butterflies reveal the phenomenon of opportunism that erodes the integrity, honor and value system of political figures. To serve others has degenerated into self-service. Common good is equated with individual advantage.
e. Elections make popularity not competence counts, make opportunism not nationalism matters, make promises not realism relevant. Competence is irrelevant. Integrity is but an option. Diligence is a superfluity.
f. Philippine elections still remain by and large identified with the infamous trio of “guns, goons and gold” that kill lives, that sows fear, that buys patronage. So it is that poverty and democracy are mutually exclusive.
g. Most elected public officials in the Country thus believe and behave as individuals over and above ethical standards, beyond the reach of moral norms. Needless to say, such is not the way to truth, justice and peace.
So it is that while much rejoicing was much felt and well-expressed with the toppling of the Martial Law regime, the now supposedly existing Philippine democracy is neither that delightful nor promising to think about.
Notwithstanding all repeated acclamations and orations to the contrary by those holding and exercising key political offices in the past years, most Filipinos remain poor, many children do not go to school, criminality is a matter of fact – graft and corruption in government are the long existing normal in the Philippines.
All the above negative observations and pronouncements about our political culture are definitely not meant to offend but to call attention to existing realities begging for proper attention and pursuant action.
Whose attention and action? The people of the Philippines minus the professional politicians. How? If they were able to get rid of nothing less than Martial Law, they can surely do away with a sick and sickening Political Culture. Can’t they?/PN
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