Governance

THE word is out and we have to actively spread it around. Now that the elections are over and the public officials have been sworn in, we have to focus on the delicate and demanding task of governance.

This is a serious matter that needs to be studied thoroughly and pursued relentlessly by all of us.

We cannot allow the running of towns, cities and provinces, let alone, the whole country to go to the dogs of mere popularity, alleged charisma, strong connections, clever publicists, pressure groups, lobbyists, and the like.

We cannot allow the governance of our government units to be spoiled by useless politicking, shameless maneuvers to wrest power for oneself, etc. I hope we can outgrow this, or at least, that we have enough people who have the weight to correct things when they tend to go the politicians’ crazy ways.

Thanks to our progress in communications technology, more and more people can now have their voices heard, and a greater and quicker consensus on issues, can be achieved.

We have to go beyond feudalism, improvisations, amateurism and knee-jerk reactions to problems and challenges. In this, we have to understand that everyone is involved: the officials and the citizens in general, as well.

We have to retrieve the idea of governance from being an exclusive concern of some people alone. At this time, governance has to be a concern of everyone. Not, of course, in the sense of an anarchic free-for-all.

While it’s true that the public officials are given the mandate to lead, the beauty of a democratic state is that everyone is encouraged to participate in any way one can in the governance of state affairs in the different levels.

In short, while leaders and officials have to improve on their governing skills, there should also be effort to involve more and more people in the task of governance.

Everyone should support this. Surely, a lot of due education and formation is needed here. And it’s truly welcome to have a mushrooming of institutions developing in a scientific way this craft of governance.

Even the remotest “barangay” cannot afford to be marginalized in the global march for development in all its aspects. We have to get our act together. Failure in this, given the present context, can constitute a grave criminal act.

The institutions promoting this art have devised ways of how leaders can develop a vision for their respective unit, translating it into workable plans, with clearly specified means, resources and timeline.

Standards are made, developments and improvements are monitored, accomplishments are certified. This may look like an elementary exercise in the beginning, but then once the take-off point is reached, things can really become different and exciting.

It obviously will be a growing art, subject to the vagaries of trials and errors, and so we also have to learn to be patient and to coordinate. But the objective need is there. We cannot wait until things get irremediably bad.

In this regard, it should be noted that on the leaders and officials is invested a sacred trust they should try their best to carry. Their personal qualities and dispositions play a crucial part in determining the kind of leadership they are going to make.

They should try their best to sharpen their talents, develop those where they find themselves lagging in, always conscious that a continuing improvement of their own selves is at the beginning of any good transformation in society.

The virtue of prudence is especially crucial. Leaders and officials should sharpen their prudential skills—consulting, dialoguing with different parties, studying, making decisions, reviewing, adapting, etc.

Besides, the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church reminds us that the first thing everyone should do to effect a change in society is “to renew oneself interiorly.” (552)

We are persons, not machines, and therefore not ruled by impersonal determinism but by the right use of freedom.

This, to me, is indispensable. Regardless of how savvy one may be in the technical part of governing, if he fails in this first requirement, things won’t go very far. Power and its cohorts can easily spoil persons.