The fruit and the tree

By Eireen Manikan

One of the countries that have the most colorful, lamentable and amusing electoral process is of course ours. It begins at the very basic rule of campaign periods which ought to begin after filing and YET is done as early as the year before blatantly and not so blatantly the moment the victor sits in office. And one of the most irritating beliefs of incumbent politicians is that their children should inherit their positions. By the very fact that well… they are his/her fruit.

Let us not even consider the educational background (be it culinary, arts or none at all), the interest of the child (is he/she a people-person, a service-oriented one or just to also partake of the coffers?!) and the mental/psychological preparedness of the offspring to tackle such a role, if God forbid, elected? (Usually raised in wealthy surroundings and the usual accoutrements of being rich, is he/she ready to tackle the reality of the typical Filipino?).

In my 20 years or so in the government service, I have witnessed various kinds of leaders, and none excel more than those educationally equipped to tackle public service. One of the best mayors of the city (he also had a master’s in public management), even had his employees take on further studies in public management seeing the benefits of a learned workforce. A calling is just as important I opine, since serving will be a 24/7 job and not just when the public is around and the media-can-see-me time. Real public service is a tiring and time-consuming job and it you are not a people-person or are not inclined to be emphatically attuned then it is not for you. You will be drained and will short-change those who pay for your compensation. Which brings me to the third consideration, mental preparedness. Is the “chosen one” to be the “successor” in the proper mental frame to take on the role of the next everyone’s go-to? How does he/she deal with stress? Does he/she possess the value-set needed to bring the community forward, or worse is the child as corrupt as the parent and void of any sincere concern of the electorate?!

These considerations, meant to find a worthy and qualified individual to lead a community into the global arena are sometimes deliberately overlooked by leader-parents who:

1. Want to cling to power/ illegally amass wealth
2. Ironically love their children so much giving them automatic day-jobs without having to fight it out in the job search arena
3. Establish a dynastic rule that is meant to let the family reign for a hundred years and beyond
4. Avoid criminal and administrative liabilities should a “straight” leader succeed them

These ‘trees’ who wish to appoint their fruits as their successors may be doing all of us a disservice. The first crime would be to the children who may not want a career in public service truthfully but has no say in the matter; the second would be to us voters who might deserve someone more adept and qualified and the third would be to all the other deserving leaders who are more than capable but lack the political machinery and financial capability to mount a campaign that would ensure victory.

In all of these, the third disservice makes me the saddest of all.  Firstly, whatever issues parents have with their children are private and can only be solved among them (though involving the whole community especially if an incompetent “fruit” sits, is a crime of great proportions), secondly, as voters, we are not powerless at all. We have the choice to reject incompetence if we wish to, to put them in office and complain afterwards is downright absurd, in my opinion.

Now, to pass up on what could be a worthy leader who may bring the community to better heights while settling for a ‘fruit’ that is mediocre and Heaven forbid, corrupt is such a vertigo-inducing crime and ensures the cloudy fate of the community in the next number of years.

So before we bite into that enticing fruit, make sure the tree where it came from gave you an impressive service and did not in any way dry up the coffers.