Let us now praise their follies

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Let us now praise their follies
Sunday, 05 28, 2006

The lessons we learn are invariably drawn from our mistakes. Thus the child who plays with matches and gets burned will learn to shy away from the experience, if he does not wish to get singed again. In the present times, however, people in government seem not to learn at all from their mistakes, and instead continue to merrily repeat the many errors of the past, as a convenient stratagem of protecting their own personal interests and projecting their own vainglories.

A classic example of this is Malacañang’s stand in the mining operations on Rapu-Rapu. Following two incidents of tailings spills that residents had blamed for fish kills, the Palace formed a commission headed by Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes to look into the mining operations in that Albay island. The Bastes Commission subsequently called on the government to cancel the environmental compliance certificate issued to Lafayette, stop mining operations, and review the Mining Act, especially the provisions on ownership and management of mining companies and their operations.

The report notwithstanding, the government is not disposed at the moment to stopping the mining operations on Rapu-Rapu. It is waiting for another tragic incident similar to the one that happened in Marinduque a few years back, before it can really decide with finality that mining in Rapu-Rapu is injurious to the health of the people and the ecology in that area. Then and only then will it take action in order to correct a grievous mistake.

Secretary Ignacio Bunye has said banning mining was not the answer to the problem, and that it would be a disservice to our people if our full mineral potential is not realized, as this is clearly a source of employment and development, yadda, yada, la di dah. One could see through the fallacy behind this kind of convoluted newspeak. Yes, of course, the government should always consider the welfare of the people, and must protect them from all harm, especially if it exists only in the minds of some people and has not actually transpired yet. It is the duty of the government to look into the danger that may burden its people. What a pile of ordure and unadulterated crap!

We have been witnesses to the many tragic incidents that befell our people as a result of the many mistakes and neglect of our government. We have seen countless commissions created to look into the aftermath of tragic situations, and we have watched how their findings were trashed, disregarded or suppressed by the very same government that created them. Until the next disaster comes along. The current SOP seems to be: Create a commission to placate a furor, throw out the commission’s findings, and assure the victims that everything is all right and, besides, they really don’t know what’s good for them.

The working of this government is mainly the product of an immense amount of routine, spiteful malice toward its detractors and critics, self-interest, carelessness and monumental mistakes. Only a tiny fraction is thought.

Thus, no thought has been given to the many gripes and calls of our people for better governance. This government exists on a policy of selective governance, protecting only those whom it wants to protect to the detriment of, or causing injustice to, the vast majority. But then again, why should one wonder about this utter disregard? After all, a government which does not have a clear mandate from the people it is supposed to govern is bound to be uninterested in protecting them.

A better government must not only have insights, but must have a heart to feel the inner cravings of its people. There is thus a big difference between governing through righteousness and governing through wisdom. A better government applies both. Running the affairs of government is not simply dictating and imposing. Governing must not only be doing what is considered right, but learning from mistakes that have been committed and rectifying them. No amount of political grandstanding to banner false accomplishments can be better than rendering a few truthful — and thoughtful — service to the people. After all, government is not created for the people who govern but for the people governed.

This government consistently maintains a policy of blaming the Opposition at every turn, its critics and the media on the many problems and ills that this nation is facing. It brands its critics and the Opposition as enemies of the state. It bastardizes the Constitution and uses the strong arm of the law indifferently in order to curtail freedoms and persecute people. Instead of learning from and listening to legitimate criticisms, it continues to aggrandize and motivate political arrogance. Let the Batasan 5 go back to the mountains. Let the journalists arm themselves. Let the UMDJ 5 torture themselves. Let the fish and the people die in Albay. Why should the government care?

There is no wonder why this government exists in this way. Its leader is an individual whose vainglory continues to play lurid tricks on her memory that she really believes she is leading the country to the Enchanted Kingdom. May she be chastened by the words of a US senator who said: “And now let us discard…all hankerings after the gilded crumbs which fall from the table of power…. What is an individual man? An atom, almost invisible without a magnifying glass — a mere speck upon the surface of the immense universe…. Shall a being so small, so petty, so fleeting, so evanescent, oppose itself to the onward march of a great nation which is to subsist for ages to come — oppose itself to that long line of posterity which, issuing from our loins, will endure during the existence of the world?”

Meanwhile, the bombast and the folly goes on.

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