After Edsa Dos, I expressed the opinion, mainly in private, that having stepped down, and having avoided bloodshed, Joseph Estrada should be left alone in Greenhills and left to wallow in his riches. Ouster, under the circumstances, was enough. When Edsa Dos forces insisted he should be thrown in jail, again, I expressed reservations on the basis of the country remaining deeply divided, and on the principle that you do not kick a man when he is down. When the pressure to charge him and try him proved irresistible, I cautioned that pending the trial, he should still be allowed to stay in Greenhills, as humiliating him would not serve the interest of justice.
What happened of course was that he was clumsily arrested, and treated in such a manner as to provoke the Edsa Tres revolt. A revolt the forces salivating over his humiliation proved powerless to prevent or even counter. The reformist instincts of the President were swiftly abandoned at that point, when it proved her Civil Society allies couldn’t protect her; instead, the military and the operators shielded her and the inevitable slide to 2003 (her decision to run again), 2004 (the manner in which the campaign was conducted), 2005 (the divorce between the President and what remained of the reformists within her government) and 2006 began.
After having gone against her instincts and ordering the arrest of Estrada, the President always proved ambiguous about the trial and a conviction: from day one, she’d preferred exile as a solution. If that proved impossible, she would be persistent in offering a pardon. Meanwhile, she expressed no dissatisfaction with the trial being dragged out, since a quick resolution of the case wouldn’t do her any good (in the absence of a willingness, on Estrada’s part, to recognize her legitimacy by accepting a pardon from her), and while a drawn-out trial also served Estrada’s purposes (either postponing an inevitable conviction or keeping him in the limelight as some sort of self-styled prisoner of conscience), neither side seemed capable of figuring out what a possible compromise could be.
And so, earlier this year I proposed that Estrada cut the Gordian knot and run for office. It offered up a possibility for the public to resolve something the court was proving unable to do. Estrada preferred to continue posturing from his Tanay rest house. After the election, when it became clear Estrada’s endorsement was not as powerful as people had expected, and when the President for her part, saw the public mood (nationally-speaking) was completely against her, the trial began to move toward a resolution. On the day the verdict was handed down, both Estrada and Arroyo loyalists discovered they stood larger in their own minds than in the eyes of a public that shrugged off Estrada’s conviction. Both saw themselves in the mirror, and didn’t like what they saw: they saw themselves as sliding, inexorably, too, into the has-been column of the political divide.
With neither side having shown themselves as particularly devoted to the law, I felt that the whole thing should be done with, and Estrada pardoned. I did end up qualifying that opinion with a further opinion that a pardon shouldn’t include his taking home the loot. The opinion of Prof. Popoy de Vera struck me, which was, that the Filipino concept of justice is restitution and not retribution -as he later told me, besides that was the public view that Estrada shouldn’t keep his loot, and having been disgraced, he should bow out of politics.
The pardon, as it’s emerged, involves exactly that, and suggests at whom the pardon is aimed, in p.r. terms: the Estrada constituency among the masses. The pardon contains a pledge (whether meaningless or not) that Estrada will not seek elective office, and that he forfeits the properties and monies ordered confiscated by the court.
Estrada, for his part, had angled for nothing less than a full, sweeping pardon. the President, on the other hand, anxious as she was to grant that pardon, had to be able to throw some sort of bone to her constituents and so, made a counter-proposal: Estrada should accept a conditional pardon, the only condition being his being unable to keep the loot (which Estrada, after all, had unblinkingly claimed was never his). What seems to have finally clinched the deal was something personal and not political -the widely-held assumption that Estrada’s mother doesn’t have very much longer left to live.
Add to that the unappetizing prospects, for the Estrada, of continued detention (however pleasant it is, but from his perspective still an intolerable situation), his being unsure of whether he would secure the overturning of the verdict on appeal, and the chance that a future government might not be anxious to pander to him the way the President has, and you can well imagine why Estrada would want to settle things now, and forget any chance to achieve a proper vindication. Add to this, finally, the pending transfer of Estrada to New Bilibid prisons: being fingerprinted in an orange jumpsuit, shaved of his Elvis-style pompadour, having to endure a jail cell.
You can imagine, too, that the President, beset on all sides by problems of her own making, and who never wanted things to reach this point, anyway, would want to settle matters, too, and her willingness to take one more gamble by saying she’d allow his being sent to Bilibid.
And so, they sealed the deal.
I am not surprised by the pardon, and I’m generally inclined to look at it the way Torn & Frayed does (he opposed amnesty, though I think amnesty would have been more politically acceptable all around), but I think it does leave a little room for further interpretation.
It tells us that the President has more to gain in terms of good will from the Estrada constituency than she has to lose from Edsa Dos forces who will be angry, upset, and shocked, but who in the end lack what matters most to the President: numbers, in terms of votes, and a willingness to make those numbers count, whether in terms of public protests or going to the polls.That political math has been clear since May, 2001: and the losers here are the Edsa Dos veterans who are shocked and appalled, only now, not least because the folly of their support for the President has been exposed, not to the President but to themselves. As far as Estrada’s supporters are concerned he made the best out of a raw deal.
But it also tells us that Estrada is permanently incapable of saving anything beyond his own hide. In the end he had to kneel and beg for mercy from a President he’d never recognized as legitimate; he would not risk vindicating himself in the courts, the ultimate demonstration of his disbelieving his own rhetoric. He can always say what does it profit a man, if he is unable to bury his mother as a free man? As far as that goes, he’s right; but he would have been allowed to bury her anyway, but he could not allow himself to endure the prospects of the Supreme Court upholding his conviction, or worse, his being hauled off to Muntinlupa to endure the kind of imprisonment regularly endured by his constituents.
In the strange, because almost mystical, way our society manages to see rays of sunshine, public opinion had finally welcomed Estrada’s conviction as closure to the great divisions of 2001. His supporters could proclaim him a willing martyr; his critics could view it as vindication. Estrada and Arroyo both managed to deny that closure to both, and that’s the reason there’s public dissatisfaction. at least withing Edsa Dos and some Edsa Tres circles, with the deal.
One comment I heard, from some Edsa Dos veterans, was, “and he didn’t even spend a single day in jail.” I understand some Estrada supporters were upset, too, because their idol caved in and left them twisting in the wind, proclaiming the illegitimacy of an administration from which Estrada himself decided to seek a pardon only a legitimate president can grant.
What this has achieved is that it has simply reshuffled the deck chairs on the Titanic. The President removed the chains keeping steerage from joining the First Class passengers on the deck of the sinking ship. Those astute enough to realize the ship’s doomed long ago fired the distress rockets and clambered into lifeboats.
In a nation where symbolism trumps substance, Estrada never had to suffer for his rhetoric, the President never gave the legal process to reach its final conclusion; there wasn’t even a token effort at proving justice could be tempered with mercy; instead, mercenary calculations were passed off as executive mercy. But, as Amang Rodriguez so famously said, “in the long of time, we shall success.”
Much as everyone saw the pardon coming, what I don’t think anyone outside of official circles expected was for it to be used so crudely, so patently politically: a historic verdict required a historic demonstration of presidential statesmanship; instead, it was a tool used to blunt the effects of embarrassing headlines resulting from the Senate hearing; and it was a brusque dismissal of those who, all these eventful years, stubbornly insisted on giving the President the benefit of the doubt because she had to be, somehow, better than her predecessor.
What happens next? It remains to be seen whether Estrada will be grateful to Arroyo, and whether a new Arroyo-Estrada alliance is in the making. I can only hope so. It relieves the opposition of the burden of having to maintain an uneasy peace with the Estrada forces, and finally offers up the prospects for the veterans of Edsa 1 and 2 to reunite.
Then again, it may also give Estrada a new lease on political life. But the damage has been done; a free man, Estrada is free to return to engaging in his vices in full public view, and to prove himself ungrateful and incapable of doing anything for those who loyally stood by his side since his fall from power.
If Estrada were to run for the presidency again, he would lose. But he can begin investing, quite heavily, in the political futures of his sons. What that future is, remains to be seen. now he is just another ex-president. He has achieved his aims, and how minimal they turned out to be. There is nothing left for him to do, not least because who, now, will follow him after his kneeling before the President?
And as for the President, it’s back to the War Room because so many other fights still need to be fought, and any relief she obtains always proves increasingly temporary. Tuesday and Wednesday night, apparently, neophyte congressmen were brought to the Palace for their egos to be stroked. Last night, a larger meeting of all non-opposition congressmen was held at the Palace, ostensibly to survey the political situation, but possibly to consider the party line concerning the President’s cash gifts, since the governors already came up with their own excuse.
Jove Francisco chronicles how reporters found out about the pardon, which wasn’t expected to be announced until Friday. Reporters apparently take their cue from how the President color-codes her dresses: if she’s in blue, you know she’s in crisis mode. Also, Jove mentions a gathering of the Cabalens in the Palace, which made for a surreal scene:
I heard some people who witnessed the event comment that the event was a bad idea. That it won’t help their cabalen-PGMA any bit. Imagine, here’s a President who has been distancing herself from the payola issue, and then here are Mayors saying stuff like “they need the controversial cash gifts” … inside the palace mismo. In bad taste, at sino man daw nag isip, – malamang di nag iisip. Ill advised, ika nga.
As for the goings on in the Palace bunker, word is that Sec. Bunye’s assumption of the role of Acting Executive Secretary is in preparation for his assuming the role in a more permanent capacity, which is why two deputy presidential spokesmen have been appointed; Sec. Ermita, according to scuttlebutt has been given a one-way ticket to America, and before he left, he told his people to start packing their things.
The reason the announcement of the pardon was moved to Thursday, instead of Friday, when the Palace prefers to make big announcements so it has the weekend to survey the scene and gage public reaction, is chronicled in turn by Uniffors. It’s a great read. And explains why the Palace dispensed with its only make breaking news as the weekend starts rule of thumb.
For a roundup of blogger’s reactions to the pardon, see tonyocruz.com.
Technorati Tags: Edsa, philippines, politics, president
“This new atmosphere, it’s unbalancing everybody,” Puno also said. “Over time, they will get use to it.”
“Let’s move on,catch us if you can time again!”
Institutions like this give us hope for the future…
So this is what it all boils down to. We are to choose between rejecting the current, traditional politics and flawed exercise of civil service or accepting corruption, patronage politics, wheeling and dealing, compromise, and turncoatism as the way things are and we cannot do anything about it. Its either accept it or face more disastrous consequences – a divided nation? We are to accept not less than the leaders of our “homeland,” the guardians of our posterity, as mere humans who err, no, less than than human, politicians, who are predisposed to lying, cheating, and stealing every now and then, no big deal, its a lesser evil compared to anarchy, anyway, these allegations can’t be proven in court anyway. There’s no smoking gun, no paper trail, no credible witnesses (if there are, they are quickly discredited) except perhaps of the glaring sight of our countrymen suffering in poverty in the midst of 7.5%GDP growth, after borrowing billions of dollars for development “kuno.” There’s so much money coming in, but nobody can figure out why the country is still like a sick man. Its a mystery, its magical, its a nightmare. Its like being robbed by a room mate, you know it was him, but you can’t prove it, so you have a choice of packing up or staying and suffer a fate you cannot change.
So Puno et al expect us to take things as they are, as its the way things are done in government. The Escuderos and Cayetanos, as well as other “promising” senators (I meant those who promised us a lot during elections) are also one with this? Where’s the “magbibigay ng puna” they were talking about earlier? Even the CBCP/Mike Velarde broke the “separation of church and state” rule to tell us that reconciliation is more important than the desire for accountability of our public officials. “Pagbigyan na lang natin sila para walang gulo” line of thinking?
These people really underestimate the Filipino, they still believe that we are of “mediocre” minds, that we cannot abide by standards, hence the need for compromise.
Ramrod,
Re mbw, my cousin just graduated from that school this year.
Is that so? Congratulations to him/her… Excellent! Is he/she sailing the oceans already?
When I go to RP and I have time, I visit MAAP, the site and the students never fail to impress me.
Ramrod,
You are right to point out that Filipinos are not “mediocre” minds and are capable of abiding by standards — really a question of standards being set.
Our politicians are muddling the standards. They have the power to set the correct standards.
“These groups can provide a lot of help/assistance as to the funding concerns of NGOs, especially the start-ups.”
Ah, if only McDonald’s is our government, the poor will be eating burgers in air-conditioned places. The Filipino dream.
And yet the best source of Charity is the Government. It has the power and authority to raise funds, the capabilities in dispersing them among the vast number of constituents, the expertise to know where it is most needed and it itself is bound not to abuse the trust of its donors, the Taxpayers.
from pdi:
the military-speak is slipping: not just somebody picked up from the street, eh?
There’s no smoking gun, no paper trail, no credible witnesses (if there are, they are quickly discredited) except perhaps of the glaring sight of our countrymen suffering in poverty in the midst of 7.5%GDP growth, after borrowing billions of dollars for development “kuno.†There’s so much money coming in, but nobody can figure out why the country is still like a sick man. Its a mystery, its magical, its a nightmare.
———————————–
Pero ramrod, di ba nagbabayad dintayo ng utang?
Let fast forward na lang to people power 10!
So Puno et al expect us to take things as they are, as its the way things are done in government. The Escuderos and Cayetanos, as well as other “promising†senators (I meant those who promised us a lot during elections) are also one with this? Where’s the “magbibigay ng puna†they were talking about earlier? Even the CBCP/Mike Velarde broke the “separation of church and state†rule to tell us that reconciliation is more important than the desire for accountability of our public officials. “Pagbigyan na lang natin sila para walang gulo†line of thinking?
—————————-
Pero kung iiaaply mo yung Covey Principles, these politicians can do whatever they want to do and the people has a choice wether it they would let these politician to rule over their lives…
outright disagree.
The United States Supreme Court ruled that pornography should be left to communities to decide on what is and what is not pornography.
They said it succinctly that when you see it you will know that it is porno.
The same can be said of political pornography. It is societal relativism at it’s finest.
For only a few observers, Big Mike, GMA, the rest of the majority of political and business establishment are major producers, actors of political pornography. It has become a major business model historically due to our colonial history of pandering to the colonizers.
Pornography is nothing but prostitutes on display in action. Will all due apologies to sex workers.
Loyalties to the sovereign in the hope of material gain and benefits. The naked display of prostitution (porn) becomes the main business model. Unless economics and economic development create the sovereign civil society embodied in a sovereign constitution man will always be in a state of nature.
What happened to Neri Jr? In full view of the world he disrobed and said, I was offered money to bend over but Abalos is not my type. She said forget the offer but do as he says. Bend over…… Not meant to offend the gay community.
“Pero kung iiaaply mo yung Covey Principles, these politicians can do whatever they want to do and the people has a choice wether it they would let these politician to rule over their lives…” – rego
rego,
Sana nga mai-apply yung sina-suggest mong principles by Stephen Covey but the problem is that we don’t even have principled politics to begin with,what we have is transactional and oligarchic politics.
“Political expediency has long buried principled politics in this country” – Julkipli Wadi, political science and Islamic studies professor at the University of the Philippines
Just did some readings of the Past Scandals in our Political History and found out that there were a lot of political scandals in our past and one just recently.
Some would always ask? is it just a rumour is or there is truth to it? So many allegations of scandals going on in the Philippines Political arena, yet not many of them were brought to its proper resolution.
Way back in early 2000, The Globe and Mail (a major daily paper) asked the Government under the access of Information Act, why it paid half a million ($550,000) to an ad agency, Groupaction Marketing, for a report that can not be found and no one in the Government or in the business concerned can answer that question. In some quarters that one simple question would be dismissed as just rumour, but not in this case, it started the ball rolling and was later known as the biggest scandal in our political history, the “sponsorship program scandal”, and it was resolved and the people involved were justly punished..clik my handle if you want to find out how we tackle our own scandals and corruptions it could be of help..
“outright disagree”..Devil
to my “an expertise to know which is it most needed”
Well to some or most politician, who run the government it is most needed in their own pockets and bank accounts. But Devils, I am talking about the other kind of Politicians, and there are still a plenty of them around, even in the Philippines, just that a few drown them out..
“…it started the ball rolling and was later known as the biggest scandal in our political history, the “sponsorship program scandalâ€Â, and it was resolved and the people involved were justly punished.” -vic
vic,
I wonder if the Prime Minister is directly involved in the scandal, would you know?
Yes, I agree, if the electorate were all “proactive” and decide not to be victimized all the time but are made aware that we have the power to chart our own destiny as a people, choose an alternative future, but this takes a massive “enlightening” program. The study of Covey principles and their application involved thousands of corporate funds just to train managers, supervisors, etc. Come to think of it, the church, the schools, even the government HRD (or something similar) are ideal avenues for cascading these principles, but would the leadership allow this? What could the “powers that be” gain from an enlightened and proactive electorate? I believe they would prefer maintaining a “gullible” one, its more expedient to “buy votes.”
Yun na nga ang masaklap, nagbabayad tayo ng utang tapos hindi natin nakikita kung saan nagamit ang pera…
Sana nga mai-apply yung sina-suggest mong principles by Stephen Covey but the problem is that we don’t even have principled politics to begin with,what we have is transactional and oligarchic politics.
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qwert,
I believe covey habits is very much aplicable. Habit one, Be Proactive will be very useful if we really take time to apply it.
why should we allow transactional and oligarchic poltics to rule our lives?
From the start that I joined this blog I said;
I believe the greatness and the progress of our country will not be defined by what Gloria or our leaders did or did not do. But rather it will be defined by how the people CHOOSE to react to Gloria or the other leaders.
gwert,
According to the final report of Justice Gomery Inquiry, PM of the day Chretien was cited for failure to keep a good watch during his tenure but was not implicated for having direct knowledge of his underlings. PM Paul Martin was not in any way implicated.
There were few elected officials who were sanctioned, but not charged criminally. But three major players were charged and convicted and now being sued by the Federal government to get back all the “stolen monies”. The police had an extensive parallel investigations, but all testimonies during the inquiries, were not allowed to be used for criminal prosecutions and some were held in private so as not to compromise the inquiry and its witnesses. Most judicial inquiries are of the blameless type so at to solicit facts or “truth” from witnesses and participants and its purpose mainly is to find the defects and thereby can find proper solutions to the defects. It works quite well, but just very expensive. Councils for all parties of interest are provided and all experts in the fields such as forensic personnel, auditors, etc are also hired at the inquiries’ expense and it takes a year or two to wrap up…
All criminal investigations are undertaken by the Police independently(RCMP for Federal Matters and Provincial police or City for Locals and yet RCMP has the authority and power over all criminal investigations if it feels local police forces are not capable).
TROUBLE IN THE PALACE!
Target ni Tulfo
Bandera
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Signs of implosion? Loss of morale? If this goes on, the defenders themselves will be at each other’s throats. All the B&W Movement and other cause-oriented groups need to do is keep up the pressure. It has the effect of sustained suppressing fire, the defenders have to keep their heads down most of the time, and keep them in a defensive mode, very terrifying place to be, they will make mistake after mistake…
“I want to say this to our people. I made my mistakes, but in all of my years of public life, I have never profited, never profited from public service. I have earned every cent. And in all of my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I can say that in my years of public life, that I welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know whether or not their President’s a crook. Well, I’m not a crook. I’ve earned everything I’ve got.â€Â
Guess which President said this!
The ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE! You know, I have admired these people eversince I was a little boy. I had a classmate in grade two who gave me his hard bound compilation of comic books (RCMP), he was my first best friend but his family went back to Canada two years after. I remember his name was David Prather…
equalizer,
Hindi ba yan din sinabi n Erap?
ramrod:Lol
Hindi kaya ni Erap ang malalim na English!
Richard M.Nixon(before he resigned)
Ganyan ang din pattern sa US of A.Deny,deny,deny and then buking…
Me too! My older brother had a large collection of comicbooks, mostly about superheroes, but the only ones that i read were the ones about the RCMP and the American Civil war.
equalizer,
Nag English din si Erap that night, something like “I know I made mistakes in my life…”
Nixon said that, strange, the similarities are uncanny…
I have been reading about Richard M.Nixon.
I see so many similarities with GMA.
He was impeached for:
a)obstruction of justice
b)abuse of power
c)contempt of Congress.
rego, I somewhat agree. but u have to concede that to an extent, Gloria and our politicians will have a lot of power defining that progress – or in some cases, regress.
I agree, the people have to be proactive. Unfortunately, we have not yet reached that level yet. If you study the Filipino psyche, propaganda is more effective, using GC Homan’s Informal Groups Theory is more applicable (break the electorate down into small subgroups put in a persuasive leader-type and you have them by the balls), the media and word-of-mouth to a significant extent, can still dictate the “choice” of most people. Only a handful are capable of “critical thinking” and unless we clone somebody like devils and replace 80% of the voting public with these clones, the political scenario will never change. But of course if we did, we’d have have too much politicians’ blood spilled all over the place (lol). But I’m hopeful though that increased access to “quality education” is a big factor to this “empowered” people you are referring to.
cvj, vic,
How did the RCMP maintain their reputation all these years? Its making them look like the exception rather than the norm, sometimes its funny, I remember a movie (comedy) starring Brendan Fraser once…
cjv and ramrod,
The RCMP had a few misadventures, one just recently, when it was involved in the suplying of intellegence to the U.S. Authorities resulting of a Canadian citizen stopping over the U.S. rendered to Syria on suspicion that he belong to some terrorist org., the case of Maher Arar, which cost the RCMP commissioner his Job, embarrased the Government and resulted in another Inquiry which absolved Mr. Arar of all suspicion and a compensation for his sufferings for $12 millions. Yet just Recently, U.S. Secretary of State Rice representing the U.S. Government although admitting their part of the mistake, yet still can not find the courage to apologize to Mr. Arar, like our PM did..maybe someday and take him off the no fly list..
As it is formulated i disagree. Everyone is capable of critical thinking. It’s only that we have different blind spots depending on our patterns of thought. Some are blind to Erap’s weaknesses. Others are blind to GMA’s.
equalizer,
I agree with the first two, but i disagree with the 3rd -contempt of congress, “spoiling congress” maybe, or “flooding congressmen with cash.” I hope they drown in it so it becomes a crime…lol
Vic, Ramrod, what i like about the RCMP is that they are as tough as the American Cowboys but without the bravado. Which reminds me, i also read that non-fiction comicbook about the American West – Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Donner party etc.
ramrod,
The RCMP started as a proud tradition of Police mounted on the horseback, (no patrol cars then) and in the old days pledge their loyalty to the Crown and to the crown only..Today they still maintain that tradition by security of tenure, very generous compensation, and the way the recruitment process is done, no amigo system, no political intervention and only the qualified are privileged to join the Force. And the oversight, since the are the country’s pride, they are being closely watched by the Media, the Parliament and the Public.
Any man or woman who don the “Red Serge” will carry that tradition…
“According to the final report of Justice Gomery Inquiry, PM of the day Chretien was cited for failure to keep a good watch during his tenure but was not implicated for having direct knowledge of his underlings. PM Paul Martin was not in any way implicated.”- vic
vic,
There are two issues here that is relevant in our present political problem. First, the failure to keep a good watch during Chretien’s tenure (or any head of state for that matter) and second, “having a direct knowledge of his underlings”. The reason why I wanted GMA to resign or be impeached is primarily because of her nonfeasance ( the first abovementioned issue)and not necessarily her malfeasance, as some would maintain that there is no evidence to that effect. The malfeasance of GMA, if ever there is and there was, should be determined by the proper courts but her nonfeasance is so obvious that even foreign observers agree to it, what with the report of United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston. I would surmise that PM Chretien was already out of office when this citation was given, but GMA has three more years (barring unseen circumstances)left in her term. Three more years of nonfeasance, I hope not.
cvj,
Okay, I’ll go with you on “everyone is capable of critical thinking” I’ll rephrase it to “only a handful will actually utilize critical thinking.” Its like “common sense” its not actually common to all. To a certain extent “critical thinking” is a skill that not even all schools teach as most have become instruments of mass indoctrination of conformity. Its a lot easier to follow the bandwagon than to go against the tide. This is where Puno and the like are very good at, exploiting this weakness or blind spot. This is where the local government and SK mechanism become very important to the government. Take 10 ordinary people from the street, give them all equal length sticks (except 1), isolate 1, while instructing the other 9 to say all the sticks are of the same length. Chances are the 1 (isolated) will follow what the other 9 are saying. Some people have been good money mastering the application of this theory in the the Philippine setting and it has never grown old, its still being done as we blog…
Totally agree. Even now, many members of the upper and middle class (I assume mostly highly-educated) still take a “see no evil, hear no evil” approach to GMA. Or when Erap steals from public funds, then he is a plunderer who deserves to be punished by the full force of the law, but when GMA lies, cheats, and steals, then blame the political culture.
you can say that again. most teachers here worship rote memorization. and it is the lowest form of learning.
gwert,
The sponsorship program frauds was so cleverly done by a network of Quebec Liberals and some of the money went back to the party coffers. Even then Finance Minister Paul Martin who is being Chretien most important member of cabinet had no knowledge of what was going on. There were no direct involvement of higher ups officials and there was not any suspicion until the Globe and Mail ask for the information under the Access of Information Act.
But it was then PM Chretien who called on the Auditor General to find more of the allegations and it was inherited by Paul Martin who replaced Chretien after ll years, one of the longest tenure for PM.
Paul Martin re-assure the public that if the inquiry found out evidence that he knew of the fraud, he will resign, but no need to, because his government was defeated on the election called after losing the confidence due to that scandal.
The difference between the two, is the Administration of President Arroyo, is not doing anything to clear or resolve most of the scandals, on the contrary She is doing all to block all attempts to “dig deep” whether they are just malicious rumours or just the tip of the iceberg. And most just fade without the public knowing if is there is the truth to all the allegations.
Like a said one simple question by an inquiring paper and the iceberg surfaced and sank the government of the Liberals..
cvj,
I have been facinated by “group dynamics” eversince I was tasked to lead people, it is very important to appreciate it so it would be easier to lead/manage well, but it can also be used to manipulate people and these people would even “thank you” if you if its done right.
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=947612
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0038-0431(195803)21%3A1%3C30%3ACNIIG%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q
http://sgr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/citation/11/4/359
cvj,
I posted several links to GC Homans theory and application in society and industry but its under moderation.
I have been facinated by “group dynamics†eversince I was tasked to lead people, it is very important to appreciate it so it would be easier to lead/manage well, but it can also be used to manipulate people and these people would even “thank you†if its done right.
“Like a said one simple question by an inquiring paper and the iceberg surfaced and sank the government of the Liberals..”- vic
I wonder,How many simple questions should be asked for the iceberg to surfaced and sink the Arroyo government?
vic,
From what I gather from your comments, successful countries like Canada had their share of bad governance but were able to handle it well, while the Philippines is still struggling with it. Is this because the Philippines is still an immature democracy and there is a possibility that all these experiences will be part of our learning process? If so, there is hope in the Philippines after all.
“I wonder,How many simple questions should be asked for the iceberg to surfaced and sink the Arroyo government?”
gwert, your guees is just as good as most, except for Arroyo’s die hards..None for her ship is Anchored in the desert sand loaded with gold and silver and ready to dole them out for any attempt even by the pirates of the Carribean who may gone lost and ended up in the desert..