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Higher
food and fuel prices. A volatile and uncertain peso.
Preparedness for potential natural disasters. Shrinking
personal buying power.
Read the
newspaper headlines and perhaps, more important, the
letters to the editor, and you will find that the public
is in a state of frustration over these and other
issues.
The
public is frustrated and getting angrier at the
unfolding of events. Public transportation goes on
strike. The Manila Electric Co. takes the blame for
higher power costs. The oil companies are seen as greedy
corporate giants. Business, in general, is rebuked for
not giving in to much higher wage scales.
People,
in general, and “the public,” in particular, want things
to be simple and clear with problems easily defined and
solutions readily available. Unfortunately, life is not
like that, simple and clear, and we all know that. Yet,
we still expect it to be that way in the public sector.
Part,
maybe a large part, of the aggravation and impatience
that we are seeing now is caused by the public’s not
understanding the “whys” of all the problems.
Frustration comes from confusion, and confusion comes
from ignorance. The average person, individually, and
the public, collectively, have very limited
understanding, let alone knowledge, of the world, a very
complex world.
Take oil
prices. Allow me to list some (but certainly not all)
the factors that have created both shortterm and
long-term effects leading to higher crude prices:
1)
Diminishing production from
North Sea and Indonesian wells.
2)
Increased demand from
India
and China and countries like the Philippines.
3)
Never-ending political/social instability in Nigeria.
4)
Continuing rise of dependence on imported oil in the US.
5)
Weakening dollar due to a stagnant US economy and higher
gold prices.
6)
Russia’s dependence on high oil prices to keep its
economy growing.
7) High
taxes and a lack of financial incentives to spur
oil-industry investment.
8)
Shortage of refining capacity, particularly for
higher-quality petroleum products.
9)
Increase in speculative investment in crude-oil prices.
10) Bad
government polices, reducing production in countries
like Venezuela.
However,
all that can fit on a protestor’s sign, and in many
people’s worldview, is “End Oil Deregulation Now” or
“Nationalize the Oil Companies.”
Do not
misunderstand me, though. The public is not stupid
regardless of the level of education, nor is the public
naïve about the complexity of the nation’s concerns. The
problem is ignorance.
What
responsibility does a government have to inform and
educate the public? What is the responsibility of the
people to be informed and educated by that government?
When was
the last time a President of the Philippines made a
major policy speech, also explaining to the public the
causes that necessitate that policy? The State of the
Nation Address rarely educates and most often sounds
like a campaign speech. The “sound bites” from
Malacañang and from Cabinet secretaries do not do
justice to the intelligence of the people, nor to the
complexities of the problems.
In
fairness, though, when the President or a department
secretary does try to raise public understanding, too
often the public suddenly goes deaf. There is a
pervasive distrust of what this or any government says.
Look at
the attitude. From economist Milton Friedman: “The
government solution to a problem is usually as bad as
the problem.” Thomas Paine: “Government, even in its
best state, is but a necessary evil.” H. L. Mencken:
“Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives
under.”
And the
attitude about the public is not much better. Winston
Churchill: “The best argument against democracy is a
five-minute conversation with the average voter.” Larry
Flynt on majority rule: “You can’t have five wolves and
one sheep voting on what to have for supper.”
There is
distrust, even a love-hate relationship, between the
governed and the government. The people do not believe
their government and the government does not believe
that the public can be trusted with the truth.
People,
then, turn to the press and media. Yet here, too,
“facts” are presented with a bias. Read three different
newspapers speaking about high oil/rice/power prices and
you will hear three different conclusions. In fact, we
usually read a particular newspaper because it echoes
what we already believe about a problem. If you can find
a front page with real facts (like the BusinessMirror)
and not just biased reporting, that paper will educate
you, and that is what a country needs.
John F.
Kennedy: “. . . [A] nation that is afraid to let its
people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market
is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
We all
live in a difficult and complex time. Sometime,
somewhere, the government will establish a credible,
nonpolitical and trustworthy Department of Public
Information to inform and, thereby, assist people to be
knowledgeable about the issues that affect the nation. A
better-informed public and a government more responsive
to that public, working together, might be able to solve
problems a little better.
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