Public service in a time of mendacity and gaslighting
The FilAm Editorial
For public life, we probably live in a dream world where the politicians are honorable, truthful and act out of conscientious principles.
They do not lie, cheat or are corrupt. They are not found liable for sexual abuse (a polite term for rape), keep gold bars, or cook the books on their taxes, insurance and bank loans.
“What are we in power for?” a former Philippine senator quipped all those years ago after World War II when that country was still grappling with the scars of the Japanese occupation. It was a rhetorical question hinting of corruption that shocked Philippine politics back in the day. Today, the question is no longer asked; it is normalized.
In many, many, many ways, Donald J. Trump is recognizable in his venality and public ugliness. Filipinos see in him the same level of shamelessness in politicians from the old country. The only difference, of course, is that Trump would top the Filipino politicians by a country mile by the sheer effrontery and volume of his lying and gaslighting, not to mention his racism.
Put another way, we seem to have accepted the absence of any sense of outrage over the coarseness of public corruption as the cost of doing business.
Politicians from both countries will push the envelope on how far they can get away on stealing and lying, abusing the public trust and claiming privileges that stretch the definition of honesty past its breaking point. Remember the Maguindanao massacre of 2009 where a political clan and their supporters were ambushed and massacred on their way to filing a certificate of candidacy for the 2010 national elections? Reports state that 58 people were killed including 32 journalists. In the U.S., there is the January 6 insurrection allegedly egged on by the former President.
Not all politicians are so mendaciously bad. But there are enough to give public service a reputation so odorous that an honest man or woman would have much hesitation in thinking of the sector as a decent career.
Our country honors the great, sublime presidents of our nation in February with the celebration of Presidents’ Day giving homage to leaders such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. These are men who conducted the affairs of state with sagacity and statesmanship.
They are men who have their own foibles, Jefferson and Washington from the state of Virginia having owned slaves. But they and their cohorts served with such distinction that a grateful nation remembers and honors the memory of their service and rectitude during their time in office.
Maybe we should accept the reality that public service attracts all kinds of people: saints and swindlers, the corrupt and the virtuous, the honest and the criminally inclined, the altruistic and the sociopath.
The times of evil in our public life will pass though and we should hang on to the belief in public service that we hold dear.
(C) The FilAm 2024
