For A Better Tomorrow

For The Bohol Tribune

In This Our Journey

NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS

It’s election time in our country, a time for politicians to promise a better tomorrow for us and the generations to come.  During the past few weeks, we have been bombarded with slogans, media ads, public speeches on familiar topics such as peace and order, corruption-free governance, employment, poverty reduction, climate change mitigation and other key concerns.

As in previous elections, however, we hear promises from individual politicians, not from their respective parties. It’s the same old batman-versus-superman story all over again. Nothing has changed much from those days of our youth when even school kids were taught to sing “Our democracy will die, kung wala si Magsaysay (if Magsaysay is not here).” Well, so many Magsaysays have come and gone but problems such as poverty, unemployment, corruption, crimes  still persist  and will do so probably well into the next millennium.

What is true at the national level is also true at sub-national or local level. The focus is on the almost superhuman qualities of the political leader not on a well-thought of strategy and program of a political party distinct from the others by its analysis of the current situation (economic, social, cultural, institutional, etc.) and a comprehensive program of action, consisting of plans and projects, to address specific problems identified by the situation analysis.

The net objective effect is that we seem forever to be looking for heroes who will bring us to the promised land. The reality is that no single political leader can be successful to do major reforms without the support of a political party or a network of individuals deeply committed to a worthy cause. Charisma is not enough to bring about massive social reforms but our political behavior is based largely on this illusion.

Our politics is personality-centered rather than based on a party’s principled stand on how to bring about national progress and unity. Each political party seems beholden to a candidate who is perceived to be a sure winner, not on his or her commitment to the party platform. The role of the political party seems to be the conveyor of largesse and patronage to interest groups which have been able to bring the number of votes to ensure a candidate’s victory.

The Philippines is probably the only democracy in the world where a party can have several candidates for Vice President, each one joining on their own free will another party or declaring themselves independent. It is probably the only country where a candidate can announce policies while still running for office sans consultation with his or her own political party; where members of a political party can support and campaign for a Presidential candidate from another party; where political parties at local level can decide to form collaborative arrangements at the expense of the process for democratic choices.

Meanwhile, we go around in circles, going along with this charade from election to election. The unorganized millions of Filipinos remain a willing participant to this expensive and entertaining charade. Worst, we ourselves validate the absurdity of the political exercise by participating mindlessly in the entire process, unaware it bears the potential for breeding demagogues or, at its worst, would-be dictators.

In this corruption of the electoral process, we all end up victims of marketing, the winners being those who can buy more media time and so-called local coordinators who organize would-be supporters and recruit agents to distribute pamphlets and provide tarps and posters to ensure that the remotest village is penetrated by the candidate’s propaganda materials – and, most likely, cold cash for votes!  

But let me not give you toxic thoughts. I still believe meaningful changes are still possible if we produce the critical mass who will be united around the idea that real democratic elections are still possible in a country where oligarchs and economic elites rule. In this monumental task, we need heroes not to challenge the windmills that only produce frustrations, but painstaking efforts to address the root causes of poverty and inequality.

Because these elections are basically more for and by the elites and their minions, hardly anyone talks about agrarian reform and the need to support the agriculture sector to which most of the poor belong. Most of the candidates are talking about supporting OFWs, who are relatively better off than the majority of us, and giving benefits to government employees.

Nobody has found the courage and the wisdom to bring in millions of farmers and fisher folk from the edge to integrate them more fully in the formal economy before the products from well-funded farm groups from other countries, as well as natural disasters from climate change, drive them to extinction.

It is time that the youth be liberated from counterproductive use of their gadgets so that these can be better put to better use in the service of pro-poor development. Who will do that and how will it be done remains a big question.

Perhaps someone or a group from the youth themselves will emerge who will see clearly the need to turn the status quo into something better, into something substantial, a sound basis to dream and act for a better tomorrow.

All I can give is some advice rather than a plan of action. Hopefully, like the proverbial seeds in the Bible, these will fall on fertile soil. Here, then, are some lessons I always impart to youth groups when they invite me to speak. The focus is on self-transformation while engaged in a program of planned change.

These are excerpts from talks I have made in a commencement exercise in a college in Bohol and in the more recent national conference of youth leaders held here a week ago -

First, learn to reflect each day on your experiences and see what can be done better in the way you have carried out the day’s activities and improve similar activities in the future.

Philosophers call this introspection, while religious people call it meditation.

It’s actually the act of going deeper into ourselves despite the possible noise around us to rediscover our inner self and find the humility to accept mistakes and, more importantly, the resolve to do better next time.

It’s also a moment to appreciate the things we have done right, to be grateful to gestures of thoughtfulness done to us by family members and others.

Introspection or meditation is in a way like a self-cleansing process so that we can start fresh with each new day given to us.

Second, learn early in life to plan the details of each activity that you want to do. Always pay attention to details. Never leave anything to chance. Aside from planning for each activity, plan in the long term so that you and your family are in control of what will happen to you.

I have learned that a person with a plan and a strategy will succeed in life. Otherwise, other people will plan for you and you will not be able to achieve what you want to do.

It pays to know the simple steps in strategic or long-term planning by asking ourselves these key questions:

• Where am I now?
• Where do I want to go?
• How do I get there?
• How do I know I have arrived? 

Third, implement your plan, taking into account the need to be flexible, if there are too many problems that are met in carrying out plans. Be resolute in putting your plan into action.

Calmly analyze each problem and tackle those easiest to solve first to gain confidence and to proceed solving the other problems in a systematic manner.

As we have learned from our teachers – Do not put off for tomorrow what we can do today. Act, act, act. Otherwise your dreams will remain plans, good on paper but not of value to ourselves, our families, and our work places, and the communities where we live.

Fourth, uphold the values imparted to you in school, at home and the places of worship in whatever faith you believe in as long as these values are in accord with enduring human values to preserve life and ensure prosperity for all.

Find fulfillment not only in the pursuit of personal goals but also in causes that benefit society as a whole, such as those related to poverty reduction, protection and preservation of the environment, gender equality and social justice.

Here is the key lesson I have learned from working in twenty five projects over the last 40 years in a total of 17 countries, with local governments, NGOs, civil society organizations, religious groups, the United Nations and its agencies, and all sorts of advocacies and movements:

All the people of the world, whether they are Christians or non-Christians, pagans or otherwise, believe in a better life. Those who believe in extremism to pursue their aims are in the minority in any country, race or religion. Hence, unity in common goals is possible as shown by all nations signing a global development agenda such as the Millennium Development Goals 2000 to 2015 which seeks to cut by half the number of people who are considered poor.

Now all the nations of the world have signed  a new Global Development Agenda for the next 15 years, composed of 17 Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs. Hence whether we are in Cooperatives or not, we are bound by the same Agreement to hopefully create a better world.

Fifth, read, read, read. And think, think, think. But it’s worth remembering what the Irish poet William Butler Yeat says: “Education is not the filling of a pail. but the lighting of a fire.”

Knowledge for the sake of knowledge is not enough. We must use it to light a fire within us, to discover our passion for without it we cannot aspire to transform ourselves, our families, our neighborhood and our society as a whole.

Knowledge is however not enough. We need it to change things for the better.  In College, I used to keep in my wallet a quotation from a thinker who says: “Philosophers have interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.” This is to remind me that inert knowledge is useless.

Sixth, follow your heart, as the great digital age guru, Steve Jobs, put it a commencement address at Stanford University several years before he died. This is also the final lesson that I am going to tell you.

Let me repeat it here so you may find it in your heart to reflect on it when you reach home: 

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

That is assuming you have a heart and that you know where it is leading you and that, more importantly, that it beats in accord with the overall goal to achieve prosperity and peace for all peoples of the world. ###

NMP/22 April 2016/11.45 a.m.