Politics has never engaged my imagination. Philippine politics, more so. It is base and blusterous – so much compensation, it seems, for lost virility. Yet, with the nation electing a new president on Monday, the 10th of May, I find myself wondering what’s on the horizon. Will a new government usher in great, wonderful changes? The answer lies buried in the past… many years ago, in my salad days, when I was green and expectant… at the residence of the Indonesian ambassador to the Philippines in ritzy Forbes Park, Makati.
The ambassador was having an early evening chat over tea with his guest, a Filipino army colonel. The latter had told me to come along, which I didn’t mind as it’s not everyday that you get to enter an ambassador’s home. The two gentlemen were friends and played golf on weekends inside an army camp nearby. I cannot remember what words were said between them except the part where our host shifted his story-telling to Singapore, which at that time had just become a sovereign state. The ambassador was all praises for Lee Kuan Yew. He told of how the Prime Minister would pick up a cigarette butt from a pavement and place it in a wastebin. There were also days on which Mr Lee and his senior ministers would roll up their sleeves and sweep the city streets and sidewalks. This was leadership by example, which would someday, our host predicted, transform Singapore into a modern, progressive society.
It all came to pass. In just one generation, under Mr Lee’s strong-willed stewardship, Singapore would become an Asian economic powerhouse and a world financial centre. Long after he had retired as prime minister in November 1990, Mr Lee was interviewed on CNN television and asked how he would describe Singapore’s early generation of politicians and his colleagues in the People’s Action Party. His reply was terse: they had integrity and were stout of heart.
Simple words but they could well serve as the sole measure for those running in Monday’s election in the Philippines. It’s not enough for Filipinos to think that anyone after the incumbent leader is fine, or even to select the least disagreeable amongst the candidates. That wouldn’t be an intelligent choice. Time to raise the benchmark and turn to past or present world leaders such as Lee Kuan Yew as the basis for choosing. Anything less and the nation faces the prospect of having more and more of the same. ~Barista Uno
