Think how this extends to every aspect of life. Like in politics…we have no strong parties because the politicians cannot stick to parties they themselves started. There’s no faith, no trust, no loyalty to the country anymore.

My 75-year old mother told me long ago how “urbanidad” has been disintegrating in society since WW2. She attributed it to the difficulties people experienced during those times. But Martial Law, she said, was the worst for Philipiine society because most individuals leaned towards the “dog eat dog” mentality.

Our state of affairs is sad but I am still hopeful it’s not all lost. First of all, we have to build the ranks of the middle class and that’s why it’s so important to value and educate the masa and not marginalize them. The masa today is tomorrow’s middle class.

Dr. Stephen R. Covey said ‘Seek first to understand then to be understood’.

Just asking.

because I think that’s the case.

Re business intervention in politics, it is often a defensive move on the part of established businesses. In a country where the sanctity of contracts is not honored, businesses can be subjected to harassment from politicians. Even regulatory agencies can be used to harass business by subjecting all requirements to harsh scrutiny. To avoid this, businesses often have to take a proactive stance, which is to finance certain candidates. who will in turn protect them. Of course, there are “crony” businesses that totally depend on political patronage. These include those involving government franchises or services. Garbage hauling, security services and public works contracting are the most common examples.

Political interests are what provide the fuel, the motive, so to speak, to espouse principles. Nothing, for example, makes a person love liberty than being subjected to tyrrany. Only then do you realize that principles count, and then you harness everything within your means to defend that principle. The unprincipled politician needs principles, if only tactically, and the statesman is the politician who realizes that defending a principle is satisfying in and of itself.

A good example is how people distrust ambition, when I would fundamentally distrust a politician without ambition: if you don’t want to be great, then you have no business trying to convince people to waste their votes on you.

The view that we are better at using the Americans than the Americans have been at using us is not new, there is even a book about, “Illusions of Influence,” which makes for a great read. Filipinos just like to think they’re victims because it’s reassuring and gives a way out from the responsibility the public likes to place on its leaders. As the Spanish saying goes, as the people, so is the government. Our Leftist friends, for one, want to keep the people pure and clean and blame everything on the leaders -but the leaders were placed there by the people, and reflect the values of the people at any given time.

The impression I got was pretty depressing -so much potential, so little of it being realized, they basically say, and add to that their almost inflexible conviction that we’re stuck in a rut. Some pretty basic tweaks to the system would get it out of the rut: but they don’t see anyone in a position to take this more strategic view.

Their views reflect some of what I hear people here at home saying: fix the justice system, it’s the root of all our evils. And have a credible election: if Indonesia could learn from our mistakes, so can we.