Tinker, Tailor, Traitor, Sly
PRESIDENT Aquino 3rd, like most Philippine, does not like listening to other voices. Like most presidents, he considers listening to other voices a waste of time He deeply believes in the supremacy of his destiny and mandate. Of course, he has yet to articulate it the way Erap did: Bakit sino ba ang presidente, ako or ikaw? Still, he hates listening to a voice that is not his own.
If he listens at all, it is to voices that he wants to hear – something that puts music to his pre-set, already- programmed ears. To be fair, he is not alone here. This is a curse that has afflicted Philippine presidents from time immemorial. There is something with the office that vests the occupants with the ridiculous sense that they are omniscient, infallible, Malay versions of Zeus. (Is it the water by the Pasig?) We have yet to have a Bill Clinton – all-night debates with aides on policy which weigh heavily on his decision-making process.
Even with this, President Aquino 3rd has an official family comprising of Cabinet members, sub-cabinet appointees and appointees to choice positions who are personally closer to him than some members of his frontline agencies. He has to hear them at meetings. He has to read their memos, no mater how turgid the prose is.
And there are mandatory Cabinet meetings and consultations, in which, the President cannot – for the record – do a monologue. Lest they would sound like consultations carried out by the late Kim Jong Il and Kim’s father before him.
The members of the official family is what this column headline is all about. The members of the official family, when they consult with the President, have varying agendas. They can be listed down into four disparate groupings: Tinker, Tailor, Traitor, Sly. With apologies, of course, to David Cornwall, aka John Le Carre.
Tailor. The members of this group wants to influence the president to favor a specific course of action over other choices and options.. The course of action that they want emergent and victorious is sold to the president by tailoring the arguments in favor of that specific course of action. All other credible arguments are either excluded or damned just to let the full light shine on their favored course of action.
The members of the official family that falls under Tailor have been successful on economic policy. But with bad results for the country. Note the anemic third quarter growth and the below-par performance of 2011.
The choice between what spending tack to take – inspired state spending versus austerity – was supposed to be an easy one. Basic facts argue that inspired state spending was the right policy. So much of the fraying and aging infrastructure needs to be modernized. Jobs have to be generated. The economy has to sizzle. And there is no risk that the country would run into runaway budgetary deficits and a worthless credit rating.
Yet, yet, the path taken was austerity. And we all know where this has taken us. Sluggish growth. Even if we get a full four percent growth rate for 2011, this is not something impressive, given the small base of the Philippine economy.
Traitor. Under these groups are the dummies of vested interests that no presidency can do without.
They are the members of the official family that ask the president to:
1. Keep on pushing for more mining activities or loose regulatory policies toward large-scale mining and, more exploitation of our diminishing natural resources like unabated logging despite a phony logging ban
2. Sell our crown jewels at fire sale and through rigged public auction to benefit their cronies
3. Grant incentives to industries and economic sectors that do not need any
4. Grant state guarantees to loans that do not meet the tests for state guarantees
5. Appoint this crony to that money-making post
Actually, the agenda of the traitors is a never-ending one.
Sly. These are the members of the official family whose agenda is to be within the circle favored by the President. They are not necessarily bad people or corrupt people. Just the same they want to lead the President into decisions that are still awaiting a verdict on whether they are good or bad decisions.
Examples. Under this group are the people who have been pushing the President to hog the headlines by putting the wringer on Mrs. Arroyo, Chief Justice Corona, Palparan and the likes. They have convinced the President that Filipinos love all this stuff about law and punishment. And, they have a marketing anchor: they are showing the President his approval ratings and they tell the president that the decent ratings are all a fruit of his relentless campaign against the crooks and the corrupt and the evil elements that stand in the way of his quest for a society with integrity.
Actually, what the Sly Group is selling is a rip-off from the Cultural Revolution of Mao. Attaining the purification of society by purging from it all the evil and detestable elements.
Tinker. This is the most positive group. They are working for all sorts of reforms. They see the drift and they want to correct it.
They also want to put a human face to the presidency.
The problem is we don’t know who they are and how much clout they have on the presidency. We don’t know if they have firmed up an agenda and have a way to selling it to the President. For 2012, however, we are praying for their triumph and ascendancy.
mvronq@yahoo.com