EDITORIAL - Getting it all wrong

Rep. Tomas Osmeña has got it all wrong. It was not a vote of confidence that kept him in the mayor's seat for so long. Cebuanos simply had no viable choices at the time. What opposition there was at the time was either token or plain infirm.

Osmeña's invocation of a Cebuano vote of confidence came in the wake of Mayor Michael Rama's eventual determination to become his own man. Ground under the heel of Osmeña for so long, Rama is finally getting the courage to speak his mind, exposing a list of Osmeña failures.

This has always been the Osmeña modus. He props people up to free his own self for other undertakings. But only for as long as they are willing to be his stooges. Once they get too comfortable with their freedom, he cuts them down and undermines them.

 This is not the lot of Rama alone. Others have suffered similarly before, like former mayor Alvin Garcia. Osmeña plopped Garcia on the mayor's chair. But when it was no longer in Osmena's interests to give a free rein to Garcia, he began to cut him down.

One of the classics in local political confrontations happened in the mayor's office at City Hall during Garcia's incumbency when Osmeña barged in and things degenerated into a shouting match between the two former friends.

No such shouting match has occurred between Osmeña and Rama. At least none so far. But Rama is starting to assert himself. Producing a list of "300 concerns" that Osmeña allegedly failed to address during his incumbency is already like shouting, minus the audio.

To those who don't know them, Garcia and Rama are both very soft spoken persons. They are friendly. Some would describe them as benign. In a word, they are not combative. They do not pick quarrels. If they have to fight at all, they have to be sufficiently provoked.

And nothing sufficiently provokes a benign person than to continually insult him in public, as if basic human dignity was going out of style. Great leaders guide, challenge and inspire their men. They do not reduce them to trash.