Manny Valdehuesa .
BAD governance is the opposite of good government. The mission of a good citizen should be to establish and uphold good governance.
Where good government reigns, harmony, peace and order, and productivity obtains. Feeling secure and stable, a community’s mood is conducive to creative pursuits. Then positive things happen as progress takes its normal course.
On the other hand, bad governance causes, stagnation, unhappiness, despair, and unrest. The mood of some if not all sectors of the community turns sour and resentful, becoming uglier as peace and order deteriorates and livelihood is disrupted.
Bad governance wrecks solidarity in a community. It gives rise to criminality in some, apathy in others, impunity for wrongdoers.
Resentment grows, anger wells up, and stress levels rise, causing the impatient to turn rebellious. Lives and livelihood are disrupted, or face threats of disruption, creating the conditions for general unrest or insurgency.
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As the situation deteriorates, inequalities become pronounced, supply and demand in goods and services is affected, the gap between the privileged and underprivileged widen, and relationships between the rich and the poor are strained, creating insecurity in the neighborhoods.
If left to fester, the situation builds up stress levels among the most affected sectors, afflicting the collective mood and sense of wellbeing, and deepening discontent and resentment all around.
Discontent and resentment create negative impacts that make conditions ultimately unbearable, driving desperate characters to reckless acts that cause further insecurity in the community.
This situation arises in communities where citizens do not take their civic duties seriously, especially their role in governing the locality.
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The indifference or cavalier attitude towards one’s role in governance encourages officials and citizens alike to become lackadaisical. The officials take their duties lightly, the citizens let abuses take place with impunity.
The officials, left free to do as they please, take liberties with the powers and authority entrusted to them. Before long, inefficiency and wrongdoing become habitual, corruption widespread, and a culture of impunity takes hold.
It is a development that cannot be avoided if the citizens are inattentive or truant in their civic duties. They deprive the community of their active participation, especially in providing the checks and balances necessary for proper, efficient, and honest government.
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Unless the people come to their senses and act like responsible citizens do in a democracy, nothing and no one can rectify or sanction the abuses or incompetence of the officials.
In time, as dissatisfaction and unhappiness descend upon the community like darkening storm clouds, its concerned citizens turn into activists and agitators, sounding the alarm, calling for action.
Agitation will grow as complaints and protests rock the community. Then the agitators resort to disruptive ways of expressing dissatisfaction and unhappiness, raising their voices all the more, provoking anger all around.
When the voices and sounds of protest reach high decibels, social temperatures rise and indignation becomes inflammatory as disaffected citizens are angered—becoming activists or supporters of insurgents who resort to reckless behavior. Pretty soon the stage is set for heated confrontation and a possible uprising.
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With all this happening, with lackadaisical citizens unknowing or uncaring, apathy will deaden public concern. Lacking political will, they become easy prey to agitators who seek to manipulate or rule over them.
At that point, the insurgents can simply take over the power and authority that the citizens do not bother to exercise in order to keep control of their community. The citizens would be no match against the reckless adventurism of insurgents, especially if the latter are armed.
The moral of this story: citizens must keep in mind that there’s no substitute for good governance if harmony, order, stability, and contentment are to reign in the community. Nor is there a substitute for the conviction in the rank and file that good governance is the key to progress and security.
It is good governance that enables a community to mobilize its resources effectively for whatever purpose including its basic needs. The citizens themselves can initiate the needed programs and services.
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If the citizens leave all the tasks of governing to their officials (public servants!), that’s bad governance. That plants the seeds of discontent, protest, defiance, and rebellion.
Would anyone be surprised to learn that that was in fact the situation in Marawi City prior to May 2017? Were the city’s officials and citizenry—especially in the 24 barangays that became Ground Zero—performing their duties, alert to the looming threats to their community?
What enabled the insurgents to bring in their co-conspirators, their armaments, their supplies, and set up shop?
The insurgency—which culminated in the almost total destruction and the displacement of thousands of citizens—proved to be a classic case of mayhem and devastation that bad governance can wreak.
(Manny Valdehuesa Jr. is a former Unesco regional director for Asia-Pacific; secretary-general, Southeast Asia Publishers Association; director, development academy of Philippines; member, Philippine Mission to the UN; vice chair, Local Government Academy; member, government peace panel during the administration of Corazon Aquino; awardee, PPI-Unicef outstanding columnist. An author of books on governance, he is chairman/convenor of Gising Barangay Movement Inc.. E-mail: valdehuesa@gmail.com)
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