Osmeña: Wanted: Sustainable earth leaders

Antonio V. OsmeñaEstatements

THE Philippine Republic is badlly in need of sustainable earth leaders.
Throughout human history, however, the really important politics has been that of making the seemingly impossible–or the highly improbable–possible. True politics, then, is the art of creating new possibilities for human progress.

But how do we get from the seemingly impossible to the possible? The traditional methods have been education and persuasion, legal action (lawsuits), political action to institute new laws or change (mutual coercion) and revolution. All of these methods of social change can only be possible if the people decide to elect sustainable earth leaders.

It is now timely before the 2010 national election for the non-government organizations (NGOs), civic and religious organization, and specifically the educational institutions to inculcate in the electorate the need to go beyond traditional political methods to sustainable earth, or cybernetic, political methods, which couple long-range with short-term planning and action.

It is imperative that the youth be educated to support the qualities of a sustainable earth leader, who should have the following thoughts:
1. ecosphere view: must think in terms of preserving the ecosphere and the world’s resources for everyone now and in the future;
2. sees the goal as having everyone in the world win now as well as in the future (win-win games);
3. politics of the seemingly impossible made possible by use of vision, cybernetic politics and outstanding leadership; must be willing to propose solutions for complex and controversial problems;
4. holistic, cybernetic view: everything interacts with everything, and requires multivariable approaches over a long period of time;
5. Primarily concerned with ensuring survival and human dignity for all;
6. emphasizes long-term planning with all short-term planning done in relation to intermediate and long-term goals; the leader must talk of where we must go instead of where he or she has taken us;
7. Thinks a nation should assess all technological solutions to determine possible long-range side effects on the ecosphere and to determine whether the solutions improve human dignity and life quality;
8. insists that the best minds project and evaluate major alternatives;
9. realizes that a free but accountable press is essential to uncover and prevent information blockage and distortion; and recognizes that politicians have seized or controlled the press in many countries but the press has not seized power from any government;
10. operates openly to ensure maximum and accurate information flow to the people;
11. Evaluates growth on the basis of long-term ecosphere goals, knowing that a dynamic sustainable earth economy is the only viable long-term goal;
12. believes that in a finite world nearing its limit of resource availability, the problem of social justice must be solved by a more equitable distribution of wealth;
13. Thinks the greatest threats to peace and individual freedom are the arms race, overpopulation, overexploitation of finite resources by rich nations, and a world economic system that tends to make the rich richer and poor poorer;
14. acts to promote peace, eliminate poverty, stabilize population, control pollution and drastically reduce military expenditures and arms buildup throughout the world.
15. Thinks the solution to most problems is to deliberately slow the flow rate of matter and energy in the industrialized nations and to encourage appropriate technologies in Less Developed Countries to meet the people’s needs and to foster self-reliance.

Today, the major cybernetic weaknesses in the Philippine Government are:
1. the absence of a permanent and effective mechanism for developing and instituting long-range forecasts and plans;
2. disproportionate influence in government by special interest groups;
3. inadequate information flow within Congress and between Congress and the public;
4. the bureaucratic bottleneck; and
5. the failure to ensure the election of sustainable earth leaders.

No one knows how to get us out of this political lose-lose game.
Recognizing that it is too dangerous to leave the fate of our country in the hands of politicians, will ordinary citizens join together to try to find ways out of the political circus?