Some comments on Beating the Odds
by: Clarita R. Carlos, Dept of Political Science, UP
Last Saturday, June 19, 2010, as I prepared to meet my graduate
courses, I saw a beautifully jacketed book and a short note with
invitation from a former star student, now colleague, Prof/Dr.
Renato Velasco. I glanced at the ink blotter looking invitation
which overleaf I thought would double as a blotter for those who
remembered fountain pens in the past, until I remembered that no one
now uses fountain pens and inks. Enough of recycling and
multifunctionality.
The invitation contained a picture of what seemed to be the front and
back cover of the book which Dr. Rene Velasco wanted me to
review. Closer examination, however, told me that there were two
books, both nearly similarly titled, the one of Rene’s and Ric’s titled
“Beating the Odds”and the other one titled “Beat the Odds” authored by
Gary Olivar, erstwhile political activist now, government
spokesperson. Now, what are the odds that two titles being
launched ostensibly on the same date will be similarly titled? I
don’t know the answer...just wondering...
The Preface already warns the reader that the book is not about
political battles but more about how President Arroyo managed the
bureaucracy and the country’s politics through 6 challenges namely:
terrorism, peace, drugs, SARS, Oakwood and the Budget. Those of
us who may have expected some salacious details about the more
controversial stories like Hello Garci or the ZTE scandal will be
disappointed that these two were not included in this book. This
reminded me of William Clinton’s autobiography which I asked my Elites
in Politics class to read where my students were so looking forward to
know the story about Monica Lewinsky but were widely disappointed when
the only part of the 1,000 page Clinton story about Lewinsky was a one
liner: “ I did it because I could...” What a downer... At least, In
Rene’s and Ric’s book, in the first instance, you know what the
coverage of the 272 page book would be...and, it does not include Hello
Garci nor ZTE...
I wrote a dissertation on “Measuring motivations of leaders from a
distance: Ramon Magsaysay and Ferdinand Marcos”. Magsaysay was
already dead at the time of my writing and Marcos was still at the helm
presiding over the last years of martial law and as we learned later,
slowly withering away from a life threatening disease. I
mentioned this earlier study to demonstrate how, even after so many
years have passed since the various presidencies, it is still difficult
to assess lest make a dispassionate, distanced evaluation of what our
presidents have done and have not done. That this book is appearing a
few breaths from the end of the Arroyo administration may explain why
one is left nearly breathless as one reads the enumeration of the
many, many events and personages involved in telling the stories of 6
major challenges of the Arroyo administration.
Still, given the foregoing, Prof.Velasco’s and Atty. Saludo’s book is
useful for future social historians who would like to have a chronicle
of what various government entities under instructions and guidance
from the Chief Executive have done to confront the six
major challenges already noted. Despite the disclaimer that the
book was done in 2007 yet and merely updated, one gets the sense
after reading it that so much was left untold, so much more interesting
side stories, maybe, left unnarrated. What the two authors
succeeded in doing is to give its reader a rare glimpse of what goes on
in government and in Malacanang as the top honcho, President Arroyo,
tries to harness the resources and human expertise of the department
secretaries in meeting the many challenges.
I find the chapter on Oakwood quite riveting for many reasons.
Here, we have some gripping stories of how a group of young men, mostly
from Class 95 of the PMA, met with the President, articulated their
grievances and eventually staged what now became Oakwood. Here we
see also, as in the chapter on Peace how the government genuinely tried
to meet the challenges but in the end, how disappointingly, many other
factors and forces did not align to make things happen as
desired. Later, maybe, these two chapters on Oakwood and Peace
could be spun away from this book and written with more depth and
more passion to give us readers a better appreciation of how so much
noble desire and noble intentions are not enough to right things,
especially those unacceptable things, which are so deeply embedded in
our nation’s institutions.
I believe that this book did not quite show President Arroyo’s greatest
ability as a strategist par excellence. It did not succeed in
telling the minutiae in some stories which could have demonstrated more
clearly the level of frustration of a leader who wanted to do so much
but was hemmed in by both political as well as economic factors
which many times, threatened to derail even the most ardent desire to
achieve peace or to redress articulated grievances of certain groups
like the AFP. But, can Arroyo or any other leader for that matter
be any more effective given the many democratic deficits which
characterize our politics? Can Arroyo and any other leader like
Aquino be able to achieve more given that the bureaucracy is inertia at
rest and given that the greater part of the 92Million Filipinos have
put the government as the pivot of their lives and expect the
government to do everything for them? Can Aquino, in the next
2,000 days of his presidency, be able to do more given the sick and
fractious politics that we have?
Narrative is a very powerful explanatory platform. However, to be
able to provide explanations, it should pay more attention to sequences
of events, event structures and interactions and outcomes.
Unfortunately, only the chapter on Oakwood approximates this
requirement. As noted earlier, maybe this chapter can be
rewritten when there is more time, more actors can be interviewed and
maybe, the narratives of the other protagonists may also be taken into
account.
Remember, there are as many stories as there are storytellers...
Maybe also, some parts need some reflections and analysis of the
authors where they defend and elaborate on the title of the book on how
the President beat the odds against her in the domestic, regional and
international fronts as the country was buffeted by numerous
challenges. Each chapter may be improved with some
reflective comments and not simply some perfunctory observations.
The same is true for the last chapter which suddenly ended and where I
was looking for a conclusion or an integration, I only saw the final
listing of footnotes .
Finally, I have often enough repeated the need for a National Strategy
detailing what we want to do as a nation, what we have in
terms of human and natural resources and how we can put the two
together. Absent this, we have a late realization as found on
page 236 of this book where in discussing the budget it says,
almost as an afterthought : “...there is a lack of strategic focus on
spending priorities...” This issue cannot be dismissed lightly because
this is the core of our existence as a nation and our attempts to no
longer be labeled the Sick Man of Asia.. Certainly,
the Medium Term Development Plan is NOT a National Strategy. The
six challenges included in this book can very well be located in a big
plan where we see the linkages among them and the need for a
coordinated , comprehensive plan to confront them. If we don’t
pay attention to this, then, this next administration of Aquino will
simply be a change of faces...and Aquino will be equally
frustrated because despite the best intentions, the good life still
cannot be reached...touche...
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