While it
seems everyone is still euphoric over the success of EDSA-2, it
will serve us well to consider why it ever happened at all in the
first place. Why did we seem to lose all the lessons People Power
taught us just a short 15 years ago? In the TIME magazine article,
former President Estrada warns President Arroyo that she could
just be easily changed by the very means used to unseat him. There
is a grain of truth in this.
Our
history of removing leaders and installing new ones in their stead
through less than constitutional means indicates one thing –
that until now, we as people, do not know how to choose our
leaders. Where the honor, pride and patrimony of the nation is at
stake, we will still choose movie stars and glamorized policemen
over those who quietly labor out of genuine concern for the
nation. We have not been sufficiently educated in this important
aspect.
An educated
citizenry is the best guarantee for democracy to succeed. This is
why during the American Colonial Period, the government gave as
much emphasis to education as it did to the development of
democratic institutions. Democracy is simply the rule of the
majority shown through the selection of leaders by a popular vote.
For this to work, people should know better than to vote for
leaders simply on the basis of popularity or name-recall. In
short, people should also learn how to critically discern
substance from image.
The many
efforts to improve our human resources in the Colegio is our small
way of contributing to an educated and empowered citizenry. After
all, all those who would be affected by these systems were
themselves involved in its development. Faculty members made the
PMAS of the Faculty. Administrators did their own criteria too.
The
implementation of the PMAS and Criteria for Promotions this year
will slowly develop a realization that everything that we do in
the Colegio counts for something. We are rated by how efficiently
we do our jobs, how prudently we use the Colegio’s resources and
how consciously we adhere to rules and regulations. We look at the
things that matter and are measurable – educational attainment,
professional achievements and the willingness to do community
service. We are looking for substance instead of mere image. How
we wish we could subject public servants to the same standards of
performance. It may take a while but awareness is always a start.
This is our way of starting.
Our national
problems stem from the problem that we do not know how to choose
our leaders. Democracy will work only if the citizenry is
sufficiently educated. Education directly develops the human
resource. Our efforts to continuously develop our human resources
are done not only for the good of the Colegio but for Deus and
Patria as well.
