“Optics and improvisations, second thoughts and reactions, these will mark the kind of governance our people must suffer for the next 932 days”
LEADERSHIP involves the use of power to pursue a vision for the nation and its people.
A true leader must possess vision to begin with. He must define the purpose and significance of that vision — how it will prosper the nation, how it will benefit the led.
The pursuit of vision under an authoritarian leadership may have little if any limits to the exercise of power. But in a democratic polity, leaders must contend with defined limits to authority and power.
Such limits may be Constitutional or bound by lawful tradition, but a good and wise leader is guided as well by a moral compass, even above the legal definitions of authority.
National interest and the prosperity of its citizens ought to be the over-arching goals and, when constantly pursued, leadership becomes great and is loved by its people, his memory revered.
Such was Lee Kuan Yew, who transformed tiny Singapore from economic backwater to one of the world’s most prosperous nations, even if some individual liberties as prescribed by Western democracies were proscribed yet accepted by the led.
Meritocracy, not dynastic entitlement, rules the country. Current PM Lawrence Wong rose through the ranks by merit, just as Go Chok Tong before Lee Hsien Loong, who was eminently qualified not by bloodline.
Marcos the First could have been like LKY. Despite checkered political background, he was the first president of the Republic gifted with re-election. He was able to get the military to support his shift to authoritarianism, purportedly to instill national discipline as a necessary ingredient towards progress and public welfare.
But through the years, what Marcos himself referred to as “back-sliding” became the norm. After a decade of martial law, disenchantment grew.
Two inflection points ended Marcos the First’s ability to define power succession: the debt and economic crisis brought about by over-spending, over-borrowing and over-stealing; and the dastardly assassination of his fraternity brother, opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. after returning from exile.
The first political “Uniteam” in contemporary history ended the first Marcos reign. Ninoy’s widow Cory and his best friend Doy of the Laurel clan that helped nurture Marcos’ ambitions, got together and challenged the ailing dictator in snap elections marred by irregularities that gave soldiers moral impetus to mutiny and the people to power the same.
In ironic twist of fate 36 years later, Marcos Junior, heir to tarnished legacy, was able to resurrect political fortunes by using the daughter of the popular outgoing president, as other half of his “Uniteam.”
No vision other than “unity” was presented to the electorate.
The public, and even this writer who opposed Marcos the First and did not support Marcos the Second’s candidacy, gave the new leadership benefit of the doubt.
Political resurrection, many of us hoped, would bring about historical redemption.
But while Marcos the First unraveled 20 years after electoral victory, Marcos the Second was found wanting from the second year of his reign.
“Uniteam” foundered on the shoals of intrigue and the unbridled ambition of those salivating to perpetuate themselves in power. Such ambition was fueled by immense greed, the plunder of the nation’s coffers by abusing the power of the purse.
Was it a case of the “used” abusing the cluelessness of the “user,” or were the shenanigans tacitly approved by the “user?”
Marcos the First mastered the use of power. It was abundantly clear that he was the user and he knew how to optimize its use. Now that Marcos the Second reigns, was he used by those he thought he was using?
And as we mark more than half of the president’s term, we all realize that vision is still non-existent. Instead, we are regaled by platitudes and ruled by improvisations.
The “used” are discarded at will or whim, from his vice-president to two executive secretaries, to factotums, major and minor, who took advantage of the leader’s lazy and inept management and used their appointed authority as license to feather personal nests.
Now buffeted by the strong winds of public displeasure, the user finds new personalities to use, some showing off their chops, some like Rogelio Singson realizing to his regret that he was just used to deodorize decaying governance.
In characteristic reactionary moves, the president suddenly wants to empower the investigative body he himself nonchalantly disregarded after creation, asking Congress to curtail their dynasties even, all likely to be tossed away after the political storm abates.
Optics and improvisations, second thoughts and reactions, these will mark the kind of governance our people must suffer for the next 932 days.
