UNCHANGING POLITICS

Chaff from the Grain

UNCHANGING POLITICS

By Former Press Secretary HECTOR R.R. VILLANUEVA

"Men are all alike on their promises. It is only in their deeds that they differ." — Moliere

CONTRARY to the popular image of an avenging crusader against graft and corruption, President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, by upbringing and training, is as traditional a politician as the rest of his former colleagues in Congress whose character and disposition will not dramatically change in the next four years in the same manner that a zebra cannot change its stripes.

That is, President Benigno Aquino is neither a reformer in the revolutionary context nor an iconoclast in the radical definition of the term.

His reform agenda is limited to and confined to the combative prose of his teleprompter speeches which he cannot do without.

Hence, his corruption mantra is trapped in the rhetorics, and are not being translated or followed up, or implemented into deeds by his officials.

Thus, a clear distinction has to be made between fundamental and revolutionary reforms that will transform the psyche and culture of the people and society, and willfully going after one’s political enemies, critics, and detractors and labeling them as reforms.

A case in point is the massive use and mobilization of resources of the National Government to go after the enemies of the administration from releases of development funds, to coercive leaks of confidential information and documents, to appointments to government positions, subterranean allowances, and public works to allies and supporters.

These are accepted armory and ammunitions in traditional political warfare which President Benigno Aquino is familiar with, and obviously supports the use of largesse like a typical politician.

This makes President Aquino a traditional politician of the purest breed, judging from the slow trickle-down effects of his reforms.

For example, the "kotong" cops and corrupt clerks have not taken to heart President Aquino’s "daang matuwid" exhortation. Corruption has remained systemic.

When all is said and done, while President Benigno Aquino has obviously the noble intentions of overhauling society, eradicating the culture of corruption, and ingraining the virtue of honesty, the President will not succeed in these noble reforms if his actions are motivated by vengeance, personal hostility, and political vendetta.

That is why the reform agenda is not taking off.

You be the judge

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(For comments and views please e-mailchaff_fromthegrain@yahoo.com.ph)

BY THE WAY

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