marcos was, so far, our only dictator but he could not ever have been “benevolent”. regardless of his natural character, he had to manipulate our legal and political systems to hold his enemies at bay. he had to amass great fortunes, from government funds of which he had absolute control, to keep his boot-licking sycophants and the military satisfied, always ready to do his bidding. he had to be ruthless against those who opposed him or who try to take the power away from him.

i think one reason why there is virulent hatred of gma is the fear that she might perpetuate herself in power through charter change to a parliamentary system. many of her rivals hated her for running in 2004 evidently because that would give her 3 additional years on top of the 6-year constitutional tenure. what more if she continues in power as prime minister? another reason is that every time, she tries to exercise political will and pursue an unpopular but necessary course of action, she creates more enemies. every action generates a reaction – if she appears to favor one group, another one or more groups go on a warpath and so on and so forth. no one seems to be willing to make a personal sacrifice for the greater good.

the problem of leadership will always be with us no matter who is the president. no one, but no one can please every one else. there will always be a loser, even as the majority of the people is the winner. and the loser will always undermine the victor, and will not stop until he becomes the winner himself.

BEIJING, July 12 — Zheng Xiaoyu once ranked as one of the most powerful regulators in China. He rose from modest beginnings to help create and lead Beijing’s version of the Food and Drug Administration in the United States.

But last March, locked up in the Qincheng Prison here, he wrote a short confession. “Why are the friends who gave me money all the bosses of pharmaceutical companies?” he wrote in his letter, entitled How I Look on My Mistakes. “Obviously because I was in charge of drug administration.”

In his confession, Mr. Zheng acknowledged that during his eight-year tenure, he had accepted gifts and bribes from eight drug companies that sought special favors: a car, a villa, furniture, cash. And corporate stock. All told, he and his family accepted gifts valued at more than $850,000 — in a country where the average worker earns less than $2,000 a year.

For his crimes, the 62-year-old was executed on Tuesday, making him one of the highest-ranking Chinese officials ever to be put to death

wow. its rare you say something i agree with. but this is one of it.

One cannot become a dictator without the means and the meaness to employ those means. On the other hand, one can become an effective leader without having to sacrifice any of the rights and freedoms valued by free, democratic and civilized societies – manuelbencam

yes, a very charismatic and intelligent leader would be able to command w/o resorting to force, but when confronted with a nation such as ours, where the citizens are as much a problem as the problems itself, how can you govern effectively, without losing yourself to urges and temptations of being a dictator yourself?

Then, fight! But when you fight, make sure you win – you don’t win by allowing your enemy to kill your soldiers!

Read my comment again. I was not talking about law in general. I was specific about this idiotic, insane law that gives you a hard on