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Manny Valdehuesa

 IN the ancient democracy of Greece, it was entirely normal for people’s representatives and senators to walk around and engage in street talk with promenaders and kibitzers; a practice that transformed their plazas and assembly points quite literally into a marketplace (agora) of ideas.

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It’s too bad our congressmen and senators, administrators and kagawads, don’t walk around, take a close look at their neighborhoods, or mix with the people.

It would enliven democracy and politics, bring government and people closer, and give rise to practical ideas for cooperation and interaction between citizenry and bureaucracy.

No one seems familiar with “management by walking around”—making the rounds of the jurisdiction regularly to get a street-level sense of the community situation. Doing so enables one to act on what’s needful.

To engage in this style of public management would yield very valuable insights in an administrator. It can aid problem-solving. For example: traffic problems and garbage collection. Or cleanliness and beautification.

Such a management style also enables on to more effectively address problems which are not easily observed or appreciated by someone behind an office desk in an air-conditioned building.

A measure of intimacy with the neighborhood or community also reveals problems that aren’t so obvious, making them clearer, their effects more vivid.

Even an abstract concept or value—like civic spirit, for instance—can be assessed or observed by taking stock of the way people maintain their surroundings; civic-minded people keep their yards or neighborhood clean, neat, and orderly.

A roving official can readily see also whether ordinances are honored or dishonored including sanitation and environmental regulations, suggesting to him what measures are needed.

Unfortunately, no initiative is evinced by the general run of public servants. Mostly traditional politicians, or trapos, they seem oblivious to the finer points of urban or rural development.

Trapo governance renders the bureaucracy ineffective and inefficient. They haven’t learned that effectiveness is doing the right thing, while efficiency is doing things right.

Thus, even the most obvious shortcomings in the community goes unnoticed. A First-Class City like Cagayan de Oro, for example, shouldn’t find it too difficult to handle itinerant mendicants and vendors. But there they are.

And check out the so-called “comfort rooms” in restaurants, internet cafes, and even parks! Is anyone in charge of inspecting and maintaining them?

 (Author of books on governance, Manny Valdehuesa is national chairman and convenor of Gising Barangay Movement Inc. valdehuesa@gmail.com)

 

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