State of non-accountability

While most of the focus today is on President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, many of the people who should be accountable for the true State of the Nation will be more concerned about their seating arrangement, how they’ll look and what they will be saying during the ambush interviews post SONA.

While President Arroyo steps up to the plate and proclaim all the good which will ultimately be declared, false, irrelevant or imaginary, the people who failed to deliver in their work will be heaping praises on seven pages of spin by speech writers. In effect, half of the darts and arrows shot at President Arroyo should be fired at them. But today will just be another day when they enjoy their State of non-Accountability.

By focusing on President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, all her critics and enemies have made the serious mistake of trying to displace an immovable force. By employing character assassination they simply made their efforts and attacks as personal and political and hardly about the problems and getting the right solutions.

Trying to get Presidents out of office is unfortunately a national waste of time. But how come we never focused on incompetent cabinet members who are responsible for the true state of the nation?

Solutions are defined by the problem. One problem may have many solutions but all solutions to be correct, must solve the problem. The problem is that this country has so many problems. The biggest mistake is that we try to make Gloria Macapagal Arroyo the problem and attacking her, the solution.

Sooner or later we all learn that just like with shoes, shirts and condoms, the idea of “one-size fits all” does not always work.

The first problem we have is that those who have taken leadership in society, both left and right, no longer address or know the real problems of the people. I know one activist who has now become a national leader among leftists. When he started out, he knew the real problems. He understood real poverty because he never had enough money for school, for food or for his dorm.

He understood abuse of authority since authorities always denied him his civil rights, freedom of expression and assembly. He experienced this from school authorities that discouraged organizing in schools, from Mayors who denied them permits or limited their movement and from the truncheons of police authority.

The strange thing is that when he rose to national prominence his focus went from the real to the political. Now all he ever says is that “this is all Gloria’s fault”.

I also know of Priests and Pastors who were truly Shepherds of their flock. From sunrise to sunset, in famine or in plenty, in work and in prayer they understood the needs and they utilized what they knew best and relied on faithfully. God was their anchor and their provider. Prayer and the Bible was their most powerful weapon.

Unfortunately when you spend too much time in the flesh your spiritual gifts are the first to suffer. Human compassion turns into desperation. Faith turns into impatience and before you know it they look for “answers” instead of real solutions. They replace divine provision with political intervention. And before you know it, they themselves have been sucked in.

From spiritual counselors they have become political commentators. From ministers to the youth, they have become agitators and collaborators in violence. Instead of dealing with issues of couples, the youth or the home, they are now busy with “National” issues while their flock find comfort elsewhere.

Many of our problems are not Presidential.

If you Google “Philippine Executive Departments” on Wikepedia you will realize that almost each and every problem we have in the country or in our community is covered by at least one department under the Executive branch.

There is at least one cabinet Secretary and several under secretaries per department whose job description will somehow have something to do with you or your problem. But we choose to vent against the most unreachable instead of the one responsible. By blaming “the administration” or blaming PGMA on radio, TV or print, we some how find instant relief instead of real solutions.

If all of us spent more time focusing on cabinet members and the working crew in government, we stand a better chance of getting an incompetent cabinet member fired than impeaching the most unpopular President. Even if you bring the problem al the way to the top, the boss still has to go to the people below to solve the problem. Right?

If we spent more time focusing on cabinet members, they in turn would spend more time focusing on their jobs, territories instead of political ambition and graft. This in turn would cascade down to our local officials and our very own barangays. Right now we get media people to make noise and shake things up. Talk shows and commentary programs on Radio and TV outnumber public service programs by about 4 to 1. But the irony is that Public Service programs get more results, solve more problems and come up with real solutions.

That’s because they don’t analyze, interpret or do commentary on the problems. The people know their problem and all they want is a solution. So the Public service programs simply call on the people “responsible” for causing or solving the problem. No politics, no agenda. Just solutions.

So next time you have a real problem, go after the person responsible. That way you probably will get the solution. –Cito Beltran, Philippine Star