Foreigners say that our country is a country of ever smiling people? It’s a good tourism gimmick, but it can indicate a negative image.
To prove my point, let me take the liberty to freely dwell and quote on 2 out of many recent articles on the shallowness among Filipinos - a trait that is negatively affecting the national life of our country.
Rey Gamboa in Bizlinks talks about “an opportunity not to be lost again”, while F. Sionil Jose in Hindsight tells us “why we are so shallow”.
There are true economic roadmaps, but there are economic roadmaps that just stay in cyberspace, if not, on paper. The latter seems to have been the destiny of this country for decades ever since Filipinos took the helm of nation-building in their own hands. For some time going into the ’60s, the Philippines was considered the shining star of the East.
Then, for some reason, our country overnight found itself the region’s laggard. Even shamefully, in recent years, we’d heard of Vietnam and Laos being praised for their vibrant progression towards economic salvation. That was long after the world acknowledged the emergence of Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and China as economic powers.
So what’s the matter? Is it the leadership – in particular, the country’s CEO (better known as the president) that’s the problem? Is it the whole bureaucracy that seems to just be so myopic about doing its job? Is it inherent in the Filipino psyche not to be able to plan long term?
Presidents and politics
We have had our share of colorful presidents, who have tried every kind of recipe in the book to cook up a path of economic emancipation, including holding midnight drinking cabinets and lengthening their stay in government over the regular prescribed period.
They say six years is too short for a good president, and too long for a bad one. I’d like to think that time is not really the big issue here.
A president who thinks of his post as simply a reward for winning the elections is an unacceptable public servant. On the other hand, a person who gets elected because he has a track record for making things work and doing something sustainable for the country should have the upper hand.
There lies the crux, my friends. It’s both the mindset of our elected officials and those that elect them: that a public post, most especially that of the president, is more than a position of trust. We must have people in governance who will truly work for the country’s 93++ million people’s welfare.
Perhaps it is time to rethink how this nation’s politics works so that those who run for elected positions do not think about getting elected simply to get (or stay in) power for whatever ulterior motives they have.
Headless and mindless bureaucrats
It may sound harsh, but we have too many bureaucrats who don’t know what they’re really doing, or who don’t really care what they’re doing as long as they get their SOPs and get paid every 15th and 30th. And we can find these types from the lowest level of our government to the highest echelons.
Not that all are corrupt or nincompoops. Sometimes, we see government programs that don’t really mesh with one another. But more often, we see undertakings that are totally not in synch by even a half note – the right hand does not even know what the left hand is doing.
The National Economic Development Authority is supposed to play a very important long range role! If we were to rate NEDA whose job is to draw up a sure-fire winning economic development plan and orchestrate this to fruition, it would definitely not be for egregia cum laude honors. Proof of this incompetence is how the country has been floundering through the years trying to keep afloat – from one administration to another.
The country’s COO definitely has a big role to play in getting economic plans off the ground and running smoothly, but it is the NEDA’s role to put together the whole blueprint in a way that the COO can be guided to achieve what this country needs to meet long term goals.
“Why are we so shallow – mababaw ang kaligayahan?”
If we can answer this question accurately, then we will move on to a more elevated sensibility. And with this sensibility, we will then be able to deny the highest positions in government to those nincompoops who have nothing going for them except lineage and popularity that an irresponsible and equally shallow media had created.
Again, why are we so “baduy”?
There are so many reasons. One lies in our educational system which has diminished not just scholarship but excellence. There is less emphasis now on the humanities, in the study of the classics which enables us to have a broader grasp of our past and the philosophies of this past. We envy Hindus and Buddhists who have in their religion philosophy and ancestor worship that build in the believer a continuity with the past, and that most important ingredient in the building of a nation — memory.
We even allow disgraced criminals to be recycled in government service.
Our education system does not even allow the identification and full development of great outstanding minds in our overloaded schools. They must be able to rise out of the muck and shine on their own!
Sure, our Christian faith, too, has a philosophical tradition, particularly if we connect it to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Remember, the first Bible was in Greek. But Greek, Latin and the classics in these languages are no longer taught in our schools the way these are still studied in many universities in Europe.
We are shallow because we are mayabang, ego driven, and do not have the humility to understand that we are only human, much too human to mistake knowledge for wisdom. We can see this yabang in some of our public commentators, particularly on TV — the know-it-alls who think that because they have so much knowledge — available now on the Web at the click of a button — they can answer every question posed to them. What they do not realize is that knowledge is not wisdom. Until they recognize that important difference, they will continue to bluster their way to the top at our expense because we, the people, will then have to suffer their arrogance and ignorance.
We are shallow because with this arrogance, we accept positions far beyond our competence. Because there is no critical tradition in this country — a tradition which will easily separate the chaff from the grain, we cannot recognize fakery from the real goods. The nitwits who hold such high positions stubbornly hold on to their posts, bamboozling their subordinates who may be brighter than them for that is the only way those who are inferior feel they can attract respect.
On the other hand, the intelligent person will be aware of his shortcomings. He is humble enough to ask the opinion of those who know more than him on particular subjects. If he is a government hierarch, he will surround himself with advisers who can supply him with guidance and background possessing more knowledge, experience and wisdom than him. Such an official is bound to commit fewer mistakes because he knows himself. But, of course, how can he get there unless ironically he has played along.
We are shallow because we lack this most important knowledge — who we are and the limits to what we can do.
We are shallow because our media are so horribly shallow. Every morning, I peruse the papers and, except for the opinion page, there is so little to read in them. It is the same with radio — all that noise, that artifice.
I turn on the TV on prime time and what do I get? Five juvenile commentators gushing over the amores of movie stars - who is shacking up with whom. And the telenovelas, how utterly asinine, bizarre, foolish, insipid moronic and mephitic they are! They promote their own unique vernacular! But there are so many talented writers in our vernaculars and in English as the Palanca Awards show every year — why aren’t they harnessed for TV? TV moguls have a stock answer — the ratings of these shows are very high. As usual, popularity, not quality, is their final arbiter. They give our people garbage and they are now giving it back to all of us in kind!
We are shallow because we have become enslaved by gross materialism, the glitter of gold and its equivalents, for which reason we think that only the material goods of this earth can satisfy us and we must therefore grab as much as we can while we are able. And that old anodyne: “Man does not live by bread alone”, who are the thinking and stubborn few who believe in it?
False patience and rigid resilience
Our educational system should be able to give our bureaucrats effective training on how to think out of the box and be more creative in finding solutions. This is how we solve our perennial weakness for short-sightedness and apathy. Patience and fortitude have been traits that Filipinos take pride in - even to a fault. We say “bahala na” suffering incompetence and shabby work without a whimper of protest. We smile shruging off misery that normally would have made other peoples scream and pull the trigger.
Again, the world looks at the Philippines as being at the brink of joining other emerging economies. This should be flattering to ALL Filipinos. We are given a head-start that is grounded on something substantial that will really form the basis for future growth.
Needless to say, we have to unify and get our act together this time. The reality is that if we bungle this opportunity, the chance to move forward may not come in a long long time again. Think Filipino!
spot on. and not only that, i believe that we had gone down to this: http://pulisnapogi.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-nation-of-liars-and-cheaters-and.html
ReplyDeleteWell put. Couldn’t agree more Mr De Leon.
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