Thomas Jefferson discontinued the practice of personally delivering the president’s report to Congress that was inaugurated by George Washington, the first president, on January 8, 1790, in New York, the capital of the new nation until 1801. But since the US Constitution required a president to report to Congress, Jefferson wrote his message and had it read by a clerk.

Jefferson held that the constitutional requirement had the foul scent of the monarchy that the Americans deposed in the War for Independence, known since as the American Revolution, for it derived from the “Speech from the Throne” that the English monarch delivered to Parliament. However, His Majesty’s speech was apparently what His Majesty wanted Parliament to do for him, whereas a president’s message was something else besides. The US president’s constitutional duty was like that, and that’s why Jefferson fulfilled his by writing his report to be read by a clerk instead of standing magisterially behind the podium to deliver it.

It was Woodrow Wilson who reestablished the practice in 1913, continued by Calvin Coolidge and followed by presidents until 1923. Until then, the report was known by its original name, the President’s Annual Message to Congress. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who addressed the joint sessions of Congress on January 1, 1934, for the first time since Coolidge, used the term State of the Union message, abbreviated Sotu. From then on other national leaders called their reports State of the Nation speeches, which we, in keeping step with world progress, converted to State of the Nation Address, or Sona, notwithstanding that it sounds like “zona.” Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, because our presidents habitually try to “zone” the state of the nation within the boundaries of their perceptions.

So there you have it: From the British monarchical SFTT come the presidential Sotu and Sona. They are all delivered from “the commanding heights,” and whether they are democratic or despotic, national leaders are compelled to tell the people through their representatives how their countries are doing insofar as they see it. No one else, as the tradition goes, can see things as well as leaders, having all the information that they want or need to make their perceptions and judgments conform with realities. Inevitably, there are always disagreements on the actual state of nations, but this is what makes democracy a fun political system, even if there are tears amid the laughter.

Sotus and Sonas are taken seriously not only because they afford presidents the opportunity of defending their performance against the assaults of critics and detractors even if, throughout the year, the media afford both sides a regular, frequently a daily, venue for their perorations. Presidents’ complaints about the one-sidedness or bias of the media are belied by the facts since every little thing that presidents say and do is faithfully reported. It’s true, of course, that the media are critical, but presidents have their own information apparatuses. Except for habitual cynics who know the price of everything and the value of nothing, presidential statements, especially their Sotus and Sonas, can always count on attentive listeners from political friends and foes. It’s because the Sona or Sotu consolidates an administration’s response to issues of national concern.

Symbolism

The Sona (let’s call it Sona from hereon) is taken seriously because of its symbolism.

Firstly, it symbolizes accountability. As an account, fanciful or not, of an administration’s performance, it recognizes that in a democracy the president is accountable by being obliged to report on the state of the nation. Frequently called by the media as the president’s “report card,” it suggests a willingness to be graded, although in the view of the reporter, the card merits a grade of 99, if not 100, a 1 if not minus 1. No president will submit a report card that will invite a failing grade, even if it’s the pleasure of the grader—the people and the media—to tend to be miserly. But as the report is presented to Congress, the grading depends on whether it’s the majority or the minority who gives the grade. This has become the norm in recent years.

Secondly, the ceremony of the Sona symbolizes the principle of the separation of powers. Although that’s no longer the practice, the ritual requires an invitation from Congress for the president to render his report. As the US constitutionalists conceived it, the executive may not enter the legislative chamber without an invitation. In our case, the president apparently decides when he or she will deliver the Sona, although in usual practice, it’s at the opening session of Congress.

The ritual also requires that a standing ovation should greet the president when she enters the hall and when she stands to deliver her speech, in homage to the position. Her speech may merit applause from the usual sectors, at the end of which a standing ovation is also permitted, if not required. Supreme Court justices rarely applaud, and only when the Sona refers to the administration of justice. The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military leadership, if present, do not stand in ovation except in relation to pronouncements on foreign policy, never on domestic policy. This is not our practice.

Standing ovations mean only that the office merits them, not because the person who occupies it is the darling of the nation. That applauses from the audience are duly counted by the media is an exercise in arithmetic: they can be taken any way one pleases.

All the same, the Sona focuses the nation on what is important and relevant.  When well done, it rallies the nation and focuses its attention on what is important and relevant. It is most significant in times of crisis. Presidents who have achieved greatness have proved equal to the ceremony of uniting a nation.

FDR’s speech

A memorable example is Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s State of the Union speech before the 73rd Congress of the United States in 1934.

He began by saying that he did not appear before Congress to make requests for a special and detailed item of legislation but “to seek counsel” in building from the ruins of the past “a new structure.”

“Civilization,” he went on, “cannot go back; civilization must not stand still. We have undertaken new methods. It is our task to perfect, to improve, to alter when necessary, but in all cases to go forward. To consolidate what we are doing, to make social and economic structure capable of dealing with modern life is the joint task of the legislative, the judicial and the executive branches of the national government.”

As the world knows, FDR’s “New Deal” saved American capitalism, leaving a legacy that continued with “Fair Deal” and “New Frontier,” making the US as near as could be to a welfare state, but later washed away by the Ronald Reagan “revolution,” the Reagan who survived the Depression through FDR’s “big government.” Anyway, that’s water under the bridge, that’s up to the Democrats and the American people to decide.

He also presented a vision that’s worth remembering in the era of globalization and privatization, which amount, in the extreme case, to a doctrine of greed: “Without regard to party, the overwhelming majority of our people seek a greater opportunity for humanity to prosper and to find happiness. They recognize that human welfare has not increased through mere materialism and luxury, but does progress through integrity, unselfishness, responsibility and justice.”

Now, with the perspective of 73 years, how do these words resonate in the heart of America and the world at large, not to mention in our hearts?

Roosevelt also railed against “crimes of organized banditry, cold-blooded shootings, lynching and kidnapping [which] have threatened our security.... Their violations of ethics and their violations of law call on the strong arm of government for immediate suppression, they also call on the country for an aroused public opinion.”

He wasn’t referring to noncomformists, dissidents, subversives or terrorists, but criminals of whatever guise, for note his outrage at the violators of “ethics.” In referring to “malefactors of great wealth” (a phrase that won him the honorific title of “traitor to his class”), he also encouraged consumers’ for “fair prices and honest sales.”

In keeping with the spirit of the State of the Union Address, that of rallying the nation, he said: “The letter of the Constitution wisely declared a separation [of powers], but the impulse of common purpose declares a union. In this spirit we join once more in serving the American people.”

The Sona we want to hear

One is tempted to say that something like FDR’s speech is the Sona the people deserve to get instead of what a UP sociology student called a “medieval speech like a monarch’s.” This judgment recalls the Speech from the Throne which Jefferson wouldn’t have anything to do with. But you know how UP students are; they want something like Pericles’ speech on Greek democracy or Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. And yet, it’s not altogether unrealistic to wish for a “report to the nation” that echoes the spirit of FDR’s speech (Filipinos have a fondness for Roose­velt). As a matter of fact, paraphrasing or even plagiarizing it would have sounded the right note to the temper of the times.

If the nation is at war, as some very smart people in government fervidly hold, it’s not so much against terrorists as defined by them as against poverty, corruption, injustice, inequality and that old standby, hypocrisy. While there’s no call for complacency about terrorism, honesty demands that it be recognized for who the perpetrators are. For starters, the Summit on Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances should have been given extended treatment rather than calling for stronger laws. If the Sona is a report card, it should have included all the subjects, not just the ones selected for good effect by the reporter.

This is not to say that the Sona contains nothing that deserves at least a passing grade. It has incontestable statistics of economic improvement, proof of which is the contentment of the business community. Who can, for example, take exception with the growth of call centers in the country? Who can deny the proliferation of shopping malls? Who can quarrel about the remittances of overseas workers? Employment has, indeed, gone up from time to time.

The one promising note in the Sona is the call for electoral reform after an election that once again raised more questions than it resolved issues. It was as if the need for electoral reforms only became apparent now when they have always been the basic problem since national independence and earlier. Automation is not the answer; it’s just the new gimmick. The answer lies in the people who get appointed to the Commission on Elections.

The convenient excuse is that poverty breeds corruption rather than the corruption of power, which is rooted—you guessed it—in the conduct of our elections. It’s not because running for office is expensive; it’s because those who spend want to recoup their investment tenfold, a vastly high ROI that makes politics a sunshine industry.

We can ask for stronger laws against all forms of wrongdoing—as if there aren’t enough of them—but what’s really needed is the enforcement of these laws “without fear or favor,” for otherwise, only the less favored will have reason to fear, often from injustice.

“Laws,” as Balzac observed, “are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.”

FDR spoke not only for the American people during and after the Great Depression, but also for Filipinos when he said that “they recognize that human welfare has not increased through materialism and luxury, but it does through integrity, unselfishness, responsibility and justice.”

A tall order?

But this is the war of all wars: the campaign for fidelity to our dreams and aspirations as a people living under a constitutional democracy.

The monarchical tradition

Thomas Jefferson discontinued the practice of personally delivering the president’s report to Congress that was inaugurated by George Washington, the first president, on January 8, 1790, in New York, the capital of the new nation until 1801. But since the US Constitution required a president to report to Congress, Jefferson wrote his message and had it read by a clerk.

The future of San Miguel

‘We’ve done preliminary studies, going so far as to hire an independent adviser to shortlist for us attractive industries in which we might choose to participate, industries like mining, power, infrastructure, water, other utilities and property.’

Seeing the World

We can state, quite categorically, that we are living in very demanding times. Our planet is under stress. Our country confronts serious challenges. Our communities are in search of real solutions to age-old problems.

The hidden good news about CEO dismissals

Worldwide, boards of large corporations are dismissing four times more CEOs today than in 1995, a trend that raises an important question: Are boards undermining the chief executive’s ability to lead for the long term?

Overcoming resistance to change

There are a few in every bunch: the naysayers, the predictors of disaster, the ones who dig in their heels and fight you at every turn. What would a change initiative be without them?

From Small to Big Screen

Jim Libiran is not your regular commercial filmmaker and screenwriter who has a standard formula for a box-office hit and makes use of predictable plots and cliché lines.

Winning: What makes a lousy leader

Q: What is lousy leadership? Goran Milic, Zagreb, Croatia

A: Now, why would you ask that question? Certainly not because you want to be a lousy leader yourself!

It can only be because you’re checking your instincts about someone you know. Maybe even the person who writes your paycheck.

A challenger like no other

THE grip on the speakership of Lakas Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr. of Pangasinan has never been threatened since he assumed the post the first time. He has taken it effortlessly four times.

Ukiwa na udhia, penyeza rupia

The title of this piece is a Swahili proverb which means: to get rid of an annoyance, pay some money.

‘Just do it’

IMAGINE a situation where killings and disappearances are taking place. The victims form a distinct and disliked, though by no means unpopular political grouping. In fact, they have the most populist agenda of any other.

Leadership that focuses on the customer–really

Many executives and managers exhort their followers to make the customer the center of everything they do. Yet for all the passion and conviction of their words, genuine customer focus remains theory rather than practice in their organizations.

Forward-Thinking Cultures

It’s hard to manage any organization so that its long-term interests aren’t sacrificed to short-term expedience. But there is an added wrinkle for organizations whose operations are globally dispersed: cultural orientation toward the future varies widely the world over.

Book Keeper

The life of National Book Store founder Socorro C. Ramos should serve as an inspiration to the younger generation on how to hurdle the numerous challenges thrown our way. Her success, not just in business but in all aspects of life, stresses the importance of focus, dedication, hard work, education and other important values.

It takes a village to raise a child

Aldo, 5, did not mean to trap his mother when he asked her if God made everything, to which she answered, naturally, “Yes, He did.”

“Why did He make the poor?”

Baguio Calling

BAGUIO City—Success in today’s fiercely competitive global economy depends on an organization’s ability to change and the abilities of the people around it to respond.

A ‘broken people’ in booming India

DALLIPUR—The hip young Indians working inside this country’s multinational call centers have one thing in common: Almost all hail from India’s upper and middle castes, elites in this highly stratified society.

What is your company’s ‘signature’ experience?

Your company’s signature experience exemplifies what you do especially well; it’s the odd or unique process that makes your company stand out in people’s minds. Developing a signature experience and communicating it to job candidates can help you streamline your hiring process. It also helps you build an unusually engaged, excited and committed work force.

Strategy: private equity’s long view

What can the gods of private equity (PE) teach us about managing for the long term? If you think that their lightning reflex, do-what-it-takes approach has nothing to tell us about the long haul, you’d be wrong.

Wrapped up

Having fun and making money are two things that Rommel Juan can mix quite easily.

Winning: China, India and US economic dominance

Q: You have written about the reasons to invest in India and China, but you haven’t said whether you think those countries pose a threat to American hegemony in the world economy. Do they? Sahara Chhabra, Dallas

China Rising

HONOLULU—The rapid spread of product development and research in high-technology industries toward the Asia-Pacific Region is accelerating China’s rise as an economic superpower.

Why do presidents lie?

TO understand why presidents lie, following Herbert Spencer’s advice, judgment must first be withheld, for above all men (and women, to be gender-blind), they have different desires, hopes, fears and restraints, although it is a truth from experience that all presidents, no matter how saintly (a wrong term to use on them in the first place), lie.

As Capitalist As Ever

HONG KONG—Tim Freshwater, Asia vice chairman of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., gazes across the Hong Kong skyline from his 68th-floor window toward a rectangular building that houses the barracks of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

How to Zap the Zombie

A company finds great success with a product or service. Makes loads of cash. Builds a seemingly strong brand. Settles in to a satisfying position of dominance. A couple of years pass and then, out of nowhere, a new player swoops in and gobbles up most of the customers, leaving little but scraps for the once dominant firm.

GREED IS BACK

Earlier this year, someone was confident that Hydril Co.’s stock was due to take flight—and very soon. During the two days ended on Friday, February 9, investors purchased options conveying the right, through February 16, to buy more than 160,000 Hydril shares for $90 apiece.

What is the color of gold?

I lost my appetite for shark’s fin soup when I learned how the shark was skinned alive and thrown back into the sea. But not entirely, for it tastes good. Some of the good and precious things in this world—including such wonders as the Pyramids of Egypt and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon—have a cruel history. It seems that civilization is built on blood for the most part. But time and the hunger for precious, wondrous things blurs the history of the process.

Toward An Independent, Fair And Fast Justice System

Adrian Cristobal: The Supreme Court has been in the news lately, principally because in these perilous times, we think of the Supreme Court as “the enemy of political persecution.” We tend to think of the three branches of government—Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislative—as contradictory to each other.

Real Leaders Negotiate

Good leaders are invariably effective negotiators. After all, authority has its limits. Some of the people you lead are smarter, more talented and, in some situations, more powerful than you are. In addition, often you’re called to lead people over whom you have no authority, such as members of commissions, boards and other departments in your organization.

Set Up To Fail: Economist Paul Ormerod on strategy and extinction

In his recent book Why Most Things Fail, theoretical economist Paul Ormerod argues that failure is the defining characteristic of biological, social and economic systems. But Ormerod, a former economic forecaster and now principal of Volterra, the London-based consulting firm he cofounded, doesn’t think that’s a bad thing.

Tubbataha dreaming

My initiation to Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park started with a back-roll, one day in May, into Jessie Beazley Reef. The first sharks of the trip were close enough to make out the white on their tips. Grey reef sharks were on active patrol, too, and we spotted no less than three pregnant sharks, bulging at their sides.

The ethics of revolution

THE death of Elias achieves revolutionary significance the moment society is recognized as a creator of victims in order to execute them. Elias had been condemned even before he was born, and it only remained for society to carry out the death sentence.

Down in the Valley

SAN JOSE—Silicon Valley, says San Jose/Silicon Valley Journal editor Norman Bell, is more of a state of mind than a piece of geography.

3 habits that hold leaders back–and how to overcome them

In my 10 years as a board member of the Peter Drucker Foundation, one of the wisest things I heard him say was, “We spend a lot of time teaching leaders what to do.

Help newly hired executives adapt quickly

The main reason why newly hired outside executives have such an abysmal failure rate (40 percent, according to one study) is poor acculturation: They don’t adapt well to the new company’s ways of doing things. In fact, some three-quarters of 53 senior human-resources managers I surveyed cited poor cultural fit as the driver for onboarding failures.

Chip off the old block

Developing a good work ethic at a young age proved to be beneficial for Intel Technology Philippines managing director Michael Wentling.

Help wanted: HK banker soaks Indian call centers in black humor

Shyam Mehra, 26, is a self-professed loser in New Delhi. When he dons a telephone headset each night, though, he becomes Sam Marcy, a polite troubleshooter for Americans angered by their home appliances.

Seeking a sea change

It was—and still—is considered the country’s southern backdoor, a way out for Filipinos caught in the grip of poverty and conflict, and a way in for Filipinos wanting to free themselves of that grip, through the power of smuggled goods and smuggled ideologies.

The rise of confessional politics

THREE centuries and a decade have changed America’s image of itself, it seems. In 1797, under George Washington, John Adams signed a treaty with Tripoli with the following disclaimer:

At Your Service

ALTHOUGH the Philippines’ tourism industry is now assessed by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) as the best-performing in Asia, the number of local manpower shifting to work in the tourism industry abroad also continues to rise.

The Force of the Weak