Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair once said, “The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes.”
Nowadays, we rarely hear of leaders, especially here in the Phlippines, who stood up for the common good. These persons, in whom most of us put our trust and confidence, have now turned out to be nothing more than embodiments of empty promises and false hopes.
The president and some of his cabinet members are not exempt from this public perception.
When Noynoy Aquino hurled himself into the political arena, we Filipinos somehow caught a fleeting glimpse of national contentment. It was a portrait of peace, progress and political principles. We saw in him the mark not of a charismatic leader but rather of a unifying force that would rally every hopeful towards the path of true change the country needs most.
All that is in the past now for the present paints a different picture.
The perceived inclination of the government leaders particularly of the president, to support the call for a ‘reproductive health program’ is in itself a wrong step towards the right direction. While we recognize the fact that indeed, there is an urgent need to curb increasing population, the solution to the problem must be based not just on science and logic but also on morality as well.
Since its inception, the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill had created divisiveness instead of unity, chaos instead of tranquillity and fantasy instead of reality. This measure has failed to present itself as the true answer to the ultimate question: “How can we make lives better?”
Instead of improving ways to uplift the conditions of the population, most of our leaders would rather repress the population by introducing decrees that are anomalous rather than virtuous.
In other words, they just want an easy way out. And we all know, that ‘easy’ has never been part of the human performance that we call ‘life.’
