EDITORIAL - Public scolding reveals character

The State of the Nation Address by the president is a very formal speech. Just because it is delivered by a politician should not make it an occasion for political bombast and rabble-rousing. Instead, it is that one time in the year when the leader of a nation officially reports to his people.

In this very important speech, the president is expected to narrate his accomplishments and lay down what he hopes to accomplish even more. He tells the people, many of whom are in the dark about official acts of government, about where the nation had been and where he expects to take it the rest of his term.

The purpose of the SONA is so formal, and so crucial, that the representatives of other countries are invited to grace the occasion. What the president presents in the presence of these foreign representatives is precisely what they will be passing on to their respective leaders.

In other words, the SONA is policy-setting as far as foreign governments are concerned. What the president says in his speech will, to a large extent, determine how foreign governments will eventually relate with the Philippines.

It therefore leaves a very bad taste in the mouth for the president to use the SONA as an occasion to publicly scold anyone, regardless of how deserving they may be of some hard scolding. And it leaves an even worse taste in the mouth for the president to go to the extent of using foul language as he scolds.

The president is not a president for nothing. He has virtually every means at his disposal to know almost anything. If in the course of a normal day he feels anyone needs to be scolded, all he has to do is send for the guy and there in the privacy of Malacañang give the offending one the tongue-lashing of a lifetime.

Certainly, the existence of bad eggs in government did not occur to the president right then and there as he was delivering his speech. Surely it did not dawn on him as he went from page to page that it was better to give them an impromptu dressing down.

To give anyone a public scolding during a SONA more than just leaves a bad taste in the mouth. It strips the leader right down to the bone and reveal his character and whether it deserves the respect and trust of the nation and the world.

And yet the SONA was not the first occasion that the president gave anyone a public scolding. In fact he has done it many times, and always when the subjects of his scolding were in the midst of some celebration. Is the president a killjoy? Good if it is only that. The fear is, he is twisted somewhere.