Education

A league of extraordinarily upright gentlemen?
By JAMES SORIANO

The state of literal and moral corruption in Philippine politics has worsened so much that it has become necessary for civil society to point out the obvious.

It is a lot like having a friend who has the habit of picking his nose in public: while both of you (supposedly) understand that it’s unpleasant, you would never tell him that he is wrong to his face, but at some point it will gross you out enough to make you snap and point out that it is unsightly.

Thus, in the spirit of pointing out bad habits, Chief Justice Reynato Puno has assembled various credible members of different social sectors to form a Moral Force Movement — a League of Extraordinarily Upright Gentlemen, if you will. Their mission is to “focus on defining and electing transformational leaders in the coming 2010 elections,” and “to stop moral decadence.” And in the interests of keeping his Justice League credible and apolitical, he has told politicians to “lay off” his movement.

Sadly, I find this interesting for all the wrong reasons.

To begin with, this is not the first time we have called for a ‘moral revolution.’
In fact, they have happened before: we’ve had two People Powers, maybe three, depending on how you feel about the Erap administration. The first one was initiated primarily by the call of the Church, and the second was inspired by political gestures. The common element is that people already
knew what was wrong, and were sick of it; they just needed someone to point out that the government was proverbially picking its nose.

Since then, we have put in place two female Presidents, the first of whom was an icon of virtue, but eventually lost her persuasive moral power after being involved in too much politics. She would also prove, retrospectively, that the most upright people don’t necessarily make for the best presidents.

The second one is an icon of... never mind.

We have since also had a priest who ran successfully for governor —and has now declared his intentions to run for the presidency. Recently, we have had numerous bishops and civil society groups call for moral change, the latest manifestation of which is the literal Justice League led by the Chief Justice. Some movements
succeed, and some don’t.

Another thing that rubs me is this whole notion of defining ‘transformational
leaders.’ On the more obvious level, I believe it is unrealistic, since good leaders are more effectively identified than they are defined. Any list of important ideal characteristics inevitably fall short when measuring true-to-life leaders. Besides, it is largely a matter of image.

Which leads me to the less obvious point: definitions can be politicized.

Considering how predatory our media and political culture can get, associations to particular public figures will inevitably appear. When this happens, it will either be that this movement loses its credibility, or that we elect the candidates who emerge victorious in the ensuing publicity contest.

This is why it was important for Chief Justice Puno to swear off his ambitions for the presidency in 2010. If he didn’t, I would have been suspicious of this movement. And even then, our current President has taught us that you can never trust someone who declares that he or she is not running in an election.

Finally, I question: assuming that people jump on the bandwagon, how much of an impact can it make on our choices in the next election? I am inclined to believe that genuine changes will be superficial. Change will happen in the way candidates market themselves: they will try to show that they live up to the standards.
But this is what candidates do in each election, so it is only the variables of their campaign strategy that will be different.

Even that is an optimistic projection: guns and money talk louder than a list of standards do.

In light of these doubts, I find their choice of name ironic. The term ‘moral force’ has always been used to describe an efficient incentive, or a positive motivational influence. But the biggest moral force in our country has been calling for moral revolutions for as long as I can remember, and they seem to have lost enough touch for a new movement to step in. And even then, I’m not sure that the movement
is an efficient incentive or a positive influence. At worst, I can see them being efficient incentives for negative influences.

Belief in superheroes is absurd because superheroes don’t exist. But I guess someone has to play the superhero, if no one else will.