Crisis?

Thursday, 24 November 2011 03:03

Written by Louie C. Montemar

Everybody’s looking at the top now with some even crying "Crisis!"

What crisis? A Constitutional one, says some, with a case on the right to travel of a former resident of Malacañang testing the resolve of the current leadership to go after perceived erring elements of the previous administration, with a Supreme Court order being made to appear inutile—hence the so-called Constitutional crisis.

A national political telenovela — which I have christened My Immigration Girl — has now unfolded as titillating perhaps to some as Binondo Girl is to fans of Kim Chiu. I must admit, this Immigration Girl (which I subtitle Angry Birds: Paliparin Na!) issue is politically exciting. This is one excellent material for students of law and politics.

However, to my mind, the real political crisis—if there be any—that this issue suggests is not one that is legal in nature, but one that is about leadership. One about direction.

The real crisis is one that really connects the previous administration with the current one. It is a crisis that shows, for some, the similarity of the two regimes. It is one which is felt down below at the level of our least developed communities, especially.

This crisis is about what this administration is doing (and what the previous administration has done) as regards being able to: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, and develop a global partnership for development.

These challenges are what constitute the development crisis which we have been facing as a country. By 2015, we are supposed to have already done something about these issues given an international commitment which we made. In September 2000, member states of the United Nations (UN) gathered at the so-called Millennium Summit to “affirm commitments towards reducing poverty and the worst forms of human deprivation.” States, including ours, made the Millennium Declaration which sets specific targets in eliminating extreme poverty worldwide.

These constitute, in other words, the so-called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

These goals and their attendant targets were reached at global conferences in the 1990s and I wish to underscore that these MDGs include the following: “Goal 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. Target 1: Halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty between 1990-2015 Target 2: Halve the proportion of population below the minimum level of dietary energy consumption and halve the proportion of underweight children (under five years old) Target 3: Halve the proportion of people with no access to safe drinking water or those who cannot afford it by 2015.”

I recently met with a very able Planning and Development Officer of one city up north in Luzon. One thing which surprised me about what he shared was this: They could not get reliable data and information from the national line agencies. The national officials and bureaucrats he deals with are saying they cannot just share their data? And they could not explain how they really arrived at their information. What then is the basis of this government for trying to honor its commitment to achieving the MDG’s? What was the previous administration’s basis for making all those claims of being “on track” in achieving the MDGs for 2015? Naglolokohan lang ba tayo? O niloloko tayo?

This very able local government administrator was forced to invent his own system, their City’s own management information system (MIS), to make sense of how to really make realistic targets for local development. Now they are more confident that their MDG targets are in their sights, as it were. But then can they make it to 2015 especially with local elections just around the corner?

So where have previous efforts on the MDG gone and what has really been done to achieve the MDG targets by 2015? This government is committed to a “Matuwid na Daan” and this path is, at the least, supposed to lead to 2015, metaphorically and beyond. Right?

So where are we on that path of achieving, for instance, MDG goal number one: Halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty between 1990-2015? Halving the proportion of population below the minimum level of dietary energy consumption and halving the proportion of underweight children? Halving the proportion of people with no access to safe drinking water or those who cannot afford it by 2015?

These are real questions that require real answers. Our legal hawks may bicker ‘til Kingdom come about whether TRO really means “temporary restraining order” or “travel restriction order”, but the real debate should be done down below with national government providing consistent and committed development management knowledge and skills.

As that song goes, “Do you know, where you’re going to? Do you like the things that life is showing you?” There’s the real crisis. A crisis of leadership. The real crisis of leadership for development.

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites