A case for motive
CRITICISMS from all quarters against the ruling party are necessary and welcome in a democracy. Regardless of motive and no matter how acrid and bitter their sting might be, criticisms help clarify and distill issues and put in finer focus government’s strategic goals moving forward.
But only if the concerned administration does not shrug off or downplay the criticisms as malicious or politically motivated but use them anyway to reexamine and refine its policies and programs so these could target more effectively the greater good of the bigger number.
If the rebuttals are as acrid and single-mindedly defensive and political there can be very little national good accomplished. Like the nation’s welfare is dead in its tracks, caught in the crossfire of varied forces whose motives are less patriotic but more partisan and opportunistic as to do the nation any good.
Ideally all parties should have a unity of purpose which is the nation’s welfare, generally defined as the greater good for the bigger number of the nation’s people and specifically as a genuinely participative democracy and a fully inclusive economy. But at least a truly patriotic motive in one group is needed to move the nation forward.
Obviously we cannot take at face value what parties to the discourse say is their motive. We can only arrive at an indication of it by making educated guesses as to where the content and form of criticisms are taking us. Is it towards political and economic daylight or darkness?
Among many such questions are: Where is Bayan’s Renato Reyes going with his perpetual street-protest against any administration? Is Sen. Antonio Trillanes’s (and Senator Leila De Lima’s) obsession with Digong’s downfall taking us to a politically stable place? Could the Liberal Party have motives other than political positioning? Where is mainstream media going with its egregious anti-Duterte bias?
Where is President Duterte taking us with his war on drugs and corruption and his move to federalize the government? Where is House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez going with his “despotic” moves to ensure passage of two controversial laws: restoration of the death penalty and lowering of the age of criminal liability for minors? What motivates Solicitor General Jose Calida to move for the acquittal of Janet Lim Napoles of the crime of illegal detention?
The motives indicated by the suspected answers to many of these questions are far from heartening. Hence, I write to urge the administration to heed and use all criticisms to fine tune strategic goals and implementing programs and all critics to unite under the one single motive that makes a difference, the common good or the greater good for the bigger number of Filipinos.