A cover-up

I don’t know what the supporters of FPJ want to accomplish by naming a group of advisers, all titled "Doctor". If it was intended to impress, it has failed. Only the impressionable will be. At the heart of the issue is an anomaly of electing an ignorant actor for president. Once we grasp its wrongness, all else follows. We do not need a team of experts as "advisers" if we had a system that makes it possible for an intelligent and capable leader to run our government. But given a system in which a popular but . unqualified candidate like FPJ can become president we have had to resort to find ways to make his government work. But wait a minute. It is not just an unqualified presidential candidate that we have to reckon with, they are now foisting a group of advisers, bright and intelligent academics they may be but it is merely compounding one error with another.

The team of advisers with illustrious names like Dr. Bernardo Villegas and Dr. Raul Fabella may be respected in academe but they are no different from FPJ who may be a good actor but not for being president. His appointed group is a cover-up for FPJ’s incapability. All this, it is said, we do for democracy. Isn’t that insane? What is even sadder is that only a few understand this is not democracy but a perversion of democracy. Put in a metaphor that may be easier to understand, we get a plumber to fix a leaking faucet and an electrician to fix a faulty wiring. Even if a gardener tells you that he will cram and study all the books on electricity or even get his friend, a college graduate to help him, I bet you will hire him to fix your faulty wiring.

This is not to belittle the learned "doctors". They may be good in their fields of studies and churn out good papers so leave them be in what they do best. They can suggest ideas, but like the rest of us "they ain’t in the job". The same with their candidate. There is no arguing FPJ is a good actor but being president is something else. He should continue making films, better still, and if he does not mind unsolicited advice, films that can raise the people’s consciousness that shooting with fast guns is not always the best way to solve differences. I am also appalled that the learned Dr. Bernardo Villegas has assured us that FPJ is wading through books and cramming to understand "economics". As if that is possible. Please naman.

I would not be able to cram nor even read through the jargon of economic books and I have had some education. As it is FPJ is mouthing words he does not even understand – one day he says he is a healing president and another that his critics and enemies may not see thelight of day. Phew. The man has no mind of his own and this is only the beginning. Sorry, I am not impressed with FPJ for president and neither with his team of advisers. They are both part of a political schema that has had failed historical precedents. I would put it in its simplest terms – it is about the election of a man of the masses to promise reform (to calm the masses) and a group of experts to be sure the system is preserved will not work. It might be a "a safety valve" but how about confronting the real problems that have made us a backward country with teeming poor instead of pretending to solve problems with the election of a man of the masses?

If ever FPJ is elected, he should run the country with whatever he knows and with his own convictions. That is what it means to aspire for the presidency in a democracy. The masa must be given what they voted for – an actor who claims he will lift them from poverty. This kind of election has nothing to do with concrete problems and practical solutions. It is all pretense, propaganda gimmicks for the desperate attempt to return Marcos personae with a popular actor as its Trojan horse.

Malaysian leader to address Asia Media summit. In April I will be in Kuala Lumpur for the 3rd Asia Media summit as a member of the board of advisers for News World Asia. Malaysian Prime Minister, YB Datuk Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi, will deliver the keynote speech on The Challenges of Covering Multi-Ethnic, Multi-Cultural, Multi-Religious Societies . Former Prime Minister Mahathir will speak on Islam and Media. The meeting is organized by News World Asia and the Asia Pacific Institute for Broadcast Development in collaboration with Malaysia’s Institute for Strategic and International Studies. It will concentrate on the coverage of Islam, safety and security issues, media coverage of violence and terrorism, media and globalisation, media and religion, reconstructing the media in Iraq and Afghanistan, media reporting of HIV/Aids and other health issues, plus the need for a new media agenda to adequately address the role of women.Other speakers include Mr. Shashi Tharoor, Under Secretary General for Communications and Public Information at the United Nations; Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad, India’s Minister for Broadcasting & Information; Mr. Hadi Khanegi, Advisor to the President of Iran; Chris Cramer, Managing Director CNN International and President of the International News Safety Institute; Tony Donovan, Managing Director of Reuters TV; Dr Stephen King, Director, BBC World Service Trust, and Ma Guoli, Senior Editor in charge of Olympic Coverage,CCTV, Beijing .The Asia Media Summit has the full support of, among others, FES, UNESCO, the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union, the European Broadcasting Union, the Arab States Broadcasting Union, the Pacific Islands Broadcasting Association, the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, the Banff Television Foundation of Canada and the ITV.News.

One man’s struggle to win justice. W.A. Mialhe was RP honorary consul for many years. He belongs to an intrepid family of French origin that pioneered in the Philippines when it was but forest and dirt roads. They stayed on for generations and became Filipino citizens. Berg’s Department store in the Escolta, a Manila landmark of yesteryears, was in their Burke building. But during the Mitterand government his residence and tax position was questioned. He had to resign his post as Philippine Honorary Consul General in Bordeaux, France in 1963. That is how far back he had to fight litigation. His father was instrumental in negotiating the first Treaty of Friendship signed by President Elpidio Quirino and French Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Georges Bidault in 1946. The good news is that after some 21 years of expensive and debilitating litigations, an Administrative Court of Appeals has categorically dismissed all the claims of the French gorvernment for lack of due process and a fair trial. He regrets his mother died in 1999 without knowing that the family would be vindicated.

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E-mail: cpedros @edsamail.com.ph