Honesty is such a lonely word today, and there are so many dishonest people in our society.
Several decades ago, American pop song Billy Joel wrote a great song that has significance for all that is happening – and not happening – in this country today. The song was “Honesty”, and its great two lines were “Honesty is such a lonely word. Everyone is so untrue”.
Billy Joel’s lyrics are not one bit less true today than when he wrote them. Honesty is such a lonely word today, and there are so many dishonest people in our society. Where I would differ from Billy Joel is that in Philippine society today, dishonesty very often takes the form not of non-honesty, but of non-transparency.
There is so much non-transparency in this country today. Filipinos in policymaking positions in both the private and the public sector, lawyers and non-lawyers alike, go to great lengths to cloak and dissimulate their real intentions with the use of seemingly noble language and altruistic sounding expression of intent. It all sounds good, but in the end, it is one blow after another for non-transparency.
The bad part about this state of affairs is that lawyers inevitably become involved whether as legislators, law enforcers or bureaucrats, which is why all too often lawyers are asked the question: if they are trained to promote societal good and protection of the rights of the citizenry, they are usually at the forefront of efforts to defeat these goals?
Their designation by panel laws as crimes makes illegal acts identifiable and therefore less risky for society, but policy actions that are passed off as more acts of non-transparency arguably pose greater dangers for society. Examples of this usually present themselves in existence s that involve individual rights vs. societal rights.
An excellent example of this is the continuing unwillingness of the legislature to revoke or at least liberalize the nearly-century-old Bank Secrecy Act. Economists continue to argue that the original intent of the law – to encourage people to save in banks – has long been served, but legislators, for reasons that can only be described as dubious, continue to resist the opening up to lack deposits to legitimate scrutiny.
Another example of public officials’ opting to exercise their discretion in favor of private individuals and against society in general is the decision made several years ago by the former Ombudsman to restrict the rights of journalist to obtain access to the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Income (SALNs)of public officials.
Society clearly stands to gain more – a whole lot more – from the honest performance of their duties by the civil service than the protection of the individual rights of a few probably dishonest government officials.
Going back to one of my favorite songwriters, yes, Billy Joel, honesty was a lonely word in the New York City of your day and transparency is such a lonely word in the Philippines of today.
(llagasjessa@yahoo.com)
