WITH the way politics is perceived and actually practiced in this country, the conclusion is rather evident that through it, government officials become not only very authoritative and influential but become richer and richer the longer they stay in office. Just as no poor individual would dare run for an elective office, so it is also a rarity to know a politician who is really poor, destitute, and miserable. In the same way, after their perforce eventual term of office, politicians are much wealthier than before.
There is so very much money in politics—from the campaign period to the exercise of the public office won until the latter’s ending. Otherwise, why would political candidates spend so much money primarily from their political parties, their supporters, and friends plus those who foresee and salivate over business advantages when their funded candidates win? Why would they even lie and deceive, pretend and act as if they were all capable, honest, and sincere personalities? And why is it that as a rule, political campaigns are usually accompanied by the infamous trio of “Guns, Goons and Gold”? And, finally, why is it that cheating in one way or another is a standard accompaniment of elections—with or without the knowledge of the voting public, with or without the collaboration of the COMELEC from the precinct to the national level?
It would be an exercise in futility if a really poor individual would run for public office especially at the national level— although to seek a city of municipal office is not exactly for poor individuals either. So it is that it is practically impossible if not an exercise in futility to look for and find really poor individuals holding elective political offices from the president down to the city/municipal Councilors. The reality is that the higher the said
offices are, the more actual and probable are the financial gains for their occupants. Again, like finding a needle in a haystack, so is finding a politician who is poor.
No wonder then that any and all legislative provisions against political dynasties are but words and more words up to this writing. And so it is that in but one and the same family, there and another daughter and the son who are all occupying elective public positions. That there is a good number of dynasties comfortably seated in a likewise good number of elective public Offices aptly provide the proof that makes one concrete reason and basic proposition that “Politics is Good Business”.
Meantime, the electorate and the Filipinos in general have been poor long time since and still remain poor to this date. Meantime, it is the same poor people who pay taxes to the government from birth (milk) to death (coffin). And meantime too, all the political candidates even from post-EDSA time up to the present are practically wallowing in wealth—in cash and in kind, in reserve and in Certificates of Stocks.
Toward our integral development
WE need to expand our understanding of our human development. Our problem now is that that term is often restricted to mean economic development only, or at best, some social, political or cultural development. Sorry, but it does not go far and deep enough.
Obviously, the elements and factors that go into these aspects of development are already bewildering and exacting. But common sense alone would tell us we should not get stuck there. These aspects, while indispensable, do not capture our over-all dignity and stature. They do not give the whole picture. Such
understanding of development would lack its radical foundation and ultimate purpose. It can have colorful and stimulating moments, but in the end it would just be going in circles, with all the probability of going bad and dangerous.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI told us how development should be understood in his encyclical “Caritas in veritate”. In the first place, he reminded us that development is not just a purely human affair. Development is a God-given vocation, both a divine gift and our responsibility, the arena where the interacting love between God and man and the love among us in God are played out. It’s not just a product of the brilliance of some people, no matter how extraordinary that brilliance may be. It cannot be pursued by simply using human means, no matter how practical and convenient they are.
The fullness of both faith and our sciences has to go into it. The requirements of both piety and pragmatism, sanctity and competence have to be met. Not one or the other, but both. It should be a holistic development, not a reductive one. We have to avoid the extremes of the pietistic and spiritualist approach on the one hand, and the purely secularized and pragmatic approach on the other hand. The former led us to the anomalies of unhealthy clericalism in the past, with some vestiges of it still remaining in the present. The latter has grounded us on a certain law-of-the-jungle, dog-eat-dog world of Godless pragmatism now raging in today’s society.
This is easier said than done. Still, with our wealth of experience and knowledge gathered through the years, we have better insights and tools to effect the ideal way to achieve genuine and integral development. We just have to be hopeful and optimistic, slowly but steadily putting into action those things we think can help achieve this kind of development. We may have to go through the mess of the trial-and-error approach, we may be heckled and taunted, but we just have to move in the most prudent way we can.
It may be good to note that more clerics are now more sensitive to the distinctions between the ideal and the actual, and more respectful of the legitimate autonomy and differences in temporal matters while pursuing the ultimate eternal goal of man. The same is true with laypeople immersed in business and politics. Admittedly, there’s still a lot of secularized attitude, where God and religion hardly enter into their calculations. Still, we see a growing number of them learning how to integrate faith into their earthly affairs. There may be awkwardness and incompetence, but it is good to think that a trend in this direction can be seen in many places. We just have to sustain it and make it gain momentum.
References: www.cbcpnews.com
