Candidates to elect and reject

By Alex P. Vidal

“The saddest thing in life is wasted talent and the choices you make will shape your life forever.” – Chazz Palminteri

WE can’t elect all the candidates running for public office in the May 9, 2022 Philippine election, but we can scrutinize the “lesser evil” if not the “best.”

This is the beauty of democracy. The fate of all applicants for elective positions is on the people’s hands.

We can reject the rotten and the villains and choose the right persons for the right job.

The public officials we regularly elected during the elections in the past were almost actually in the category of “lesser evil.”

If they were “the best” like Ramon Magsaysay and Miriam Defensor-Santiago, it’s a gift. If they were pristine, outstanding and dedicated, it’s a bonus.

If they were incompetent, corrupt, morally bankrupt, spiritually inutile, they were a curse and a bad luck.

But, as the world becomes materialistic and evolving in a dizzying pace in the age of technology and space travel, “the best” or quality public servants are becoming rare and are getting scarce nowadays.

Thus a “lesser evil” is better than the morally bankrupt and spiritually inutile.

There is no perfect public servant. All elected officials, including the appointed ones, are humans that can be tempted and tainted, unless they are robots.

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Here’s our simple list of candidates we must elect and reject in any election:

-WE must elect those whose moral values are intact and solid-rock;

-we must elect those who are spiritually whole and family oriented, or those who have basically total commitment and devotion to their families;

-we must elect those who are truly living—and have lived in the past–a simple life as their primordial principle with no iota or inclination to amass wealth or prioritize their whims and caprices;

-we must elect those who don’t have any agenda to transform the political power (once elected) into business and religious powers;

-we must elect those who will not perpetuate their family members into any office and won’t resort to political dynasty (almost everyone must be guilty and may not like the way this article is written);

-we must elect those who are mentally and physical fit;

-we must elect those who have fundamental knowledge about governance, human rights and dignity, gender equality, logic, reason, human relations, science, good manners and right conduct.

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-WE must reject those who are showing signs of megalomania and any other forms of mental deformity (during the campaign we can easily recognize them by their words and mannerisms);

-we must reject those who have low regards on human and animal rights;

-we must reject the gamblers, womanizers, drunkards, illegal substance addicts, wife or husband beaters (this is very basic and a common sense);

-we must reject those who are onion-skinned and are easily infuriated by a slight criticism or healthy opposition;

-we must reject those who are avarice and have the tendency to enrich themselves in whatever unconventional means at the expense of normal or ordinary people;

-we must reject those who deny or reject reason and logic as the basic means of settling a conflict or solving both simple and complex problems;

-we must reject those who are buried in deep financial and personal debts;

-we must reject those who will act, decide and govern according to the wishes and dictates of powerful persons or organizations, those beholden to the interests of foreigners, destabilizers and merchants of disunity and mayhem;

-we must reject those who are associated or have tight links with shady organizations and fraternities that promote ethos contrary to human advancement, decency and dignity;

-we must reject those who are culturally illiterate;

-we must reject those who are racists, homophobic, misogynistic, sexist and bullies.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo—Ed)