The Thinking Beans

Funny how people rally on the streets screaming to oust their government officials for an unwanted governance of poor performance, funny how people scream at the top of their lungs because of hunger and poverty just because the government cannot give them what they asked and funny how people scrutinize corruption when they themselves do it even on a daily basis.

But then, why is still corruption prevalent? Why is it that these government officials are corrupt? Has anyone thought about this before he/she marched to the government offices? One concrete reason is that, they had to since the people pushed them too. During election campaigns, people expect from their candidates to give them something, people expect from their officials to make their roads concrete, to install basketball courts for their barangay, to give them medicine and even relief goods even if they are not yet in office. And where do we expect them to get the funds to support these people’s pleas? They are not yet in position but they are already compelled to do it, win or lose, they already spent much. So, when they are already in office, what do they do? They get very busy just to regain what they spent during the campaign period.

It is even ironic that people expect their congressmen to build roads, public services, medical missions, feeding programs and the like when their sole purpose in the office is to formulate laws that will safeguard their constituents. But officials who do their duty are not recognized by the people, lest they are only labeled as corrupt since no projects are visible for the people to see.

Why did I mention that even those who are not government officials still are corrupt? Easy, for a child with younger siblings, exercise of “maturity rule” can be a very corrupt way, or how about bringing office supplies for household consumptions like writing papers, ballpoint pens and the like for those who are already working? Or how about asking more from your parents what you really need or what is required for school projects?
So, if I ask you now, aren’t you corrupt too? Do you have the right to march up to the gates of the government offices just to scream that corrupt officials should resign? Think again. I myself is guilty of such.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 10:25 pm and is filed under Philippines, Society and Culture.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.