EDITORIAL: Where have all the leaders gone?

After observing the value of our present pollical leaders this is the question that needs critical answers. If we add the quest for honest and sincere public administrators and managers, then we are headed to great frustration.

Gone are the days when it is proud to see and watch debates in Congress especially in the Senate. The chambers were populated by real honorable people’s representatives, where you will be mesmerized not only by their eloquence but by the dept of their ideas and pitches: Marcos, Manglapus, Roxas, Tañada, Manahan, Sumulong, Salonga, and their contemporaries. They talked straight from their minds and hearts not from their prepared speeches, nor side advisers, nor from teleprompters or idiot boxes.

There was no brothers and sisters, brothers and brothers, nor a mother and son in the senate. There was no committee on silence. There was only one movie star, not four, in the August chamber!

Do we have a leadership crisis? Or a leadership vacuum? If we have both, where did we go wrong? Where are we headed to? What can we do to correct the situation? Which, or what sector of government or society, is in charge of solving this crisis and filling the vacuum? How can we change our dysfunctional electoral system? How can we re-educate our electorate?

Can our education sector solve this problem? Which part of our education system can do it? Primary? Secondary? College or university level? Post-graduate level? TVET? How? What specific program, curriculum, methods, hardware, or software needs overhauling? Do we need to review teacher training, what additional skills and knowledge are needed?

Is the formal system enough to implement an innovative and truly meaningful leadership and public management development programs? Do we need to refocus our continuing education program on the enhancement of the capacity of our leaders to lead especially during this digital age? Or do we need to tap informal training centers or organizations to help? Is the government prepared with financial support? Do we need legislation from our present people’s representatives, how do we influence them to do the job?

Where have all the development ideas gone? Where have all the progressive people gone? Where have all the powers of the citizens to influence public policies and programs gone? Where have all the roles of traditional media gone, and play their role as the fourth estate? Volumes of questions that remain to be answered!

HAS DEMOCRACY FAILED US? OR ARE WE THE ONES WHO FAILED DEMOCRACY?

We are virtually at war with changes in leadership. But as the famous Vietnam War song goes on: Where have all the flowers gone? Long time passing!?