The squeeze is tightening

This is not about Nelson Mandela but I would like to start off with him. The reason Mandela was such a great person loved and respected by everyone was because he was a leader who chose unity and reconciliation and not vengeance and persecution.

By preferring humility and healing, he projected strength and earned the right to lead with value and honor. Had Mandela chosen to devote his energies chasing after those who threw him into prison and oppressed his people, he would have been just another leader. And South Africa just another nation undergoing change.

But next to the G7 of the world's leading economies of the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan, there is now the so-called BRICS -- or Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. South Africa in particular would not have made it in the short time after Apartheid had Mandela chosen a different path.

Had the path he took South Africa down been the path of retribution, that country would probably be in territory familiar with most Filipinos today. This is probably the reason why Noynoy Aquino did not go to South Africa. He probably knew he is leagues removed in character from Mandela.

And that is very sad because, of all world leaders alive today, only Noynoy has a direct claim to being the flesh and blood of internationally recognized democracy icons. His parents, Ninoy and Cory Aquino were, to a certain extent, up there with Mandela.

But Noynoy did not go. Instead, he chose to merely sign the condolence book at the South African embassy. That is not the way the son of democracy icons pays respect to a fellow democracy icon. If only for what his parents contributed to the world, Noynoy should have shown his face in South Africa.

Noynoy cannot use the Asean-Japan commemorative summit as an alibi because prior to the gathering there was ample time for him to fly to South Africa if he truly wanted to be there. Had he done so, he would have been in far more illustrious company with the likes of Barrack Obama.

But for Noynoy, just signing the condolence book at the South African embassy in Manila is a sufficient enough gesture to pay respects to a democracy icon like his parents. Why, he showed far more respect for Janet Napoles by receiving her in Malacañang.              Despite bearing the heavy yoke of oppression all his life, Mandela chose to forgive and reconcile, and thus unite his divided country, after he became president. Now halfway through his term, Noynoy continues to chase his enemies, almost to the exclusion of everything else.

No wonder South Africa is where it's at, and we are where we are at. Why, even the Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar, considered the local pond of regional sports, we are languishing in the sorry company of losers and also-runs.

Look at it this way, we can never attain self-confidence for ourselves and the respect of other countries if our leader cannot even move on, three years after his election, beyond his petty vengefulness and lack of other perspectives.

His predecessor may have been widely perceived to be a crook. But at least she had other perspectives and never lost sight of them. That is why certain things were a lot better in that era, which is unlike now where everything is heading downhill.

Aside from natural calamities, against which we can do nothing, there are a lot of man-made disasters that we can do nothing as well, and all because our leader is not looking around to see that everything is well. Our leader is focused on only one thing -- fighting his enemies.

When the Yolanda relief dries up, and the P4 per kilowatt hour electricity rates kick in, and China begins to put on the squeeze, and Nur Misuari acts up again in jealousy over the preferred treatment the MILF is getting, and the Supreme Court rules on the DAP, Noynoy will remember Mandela and not understand why.