Resolution vs. corruption

AS the Christmas holidays come to a close and we step into the New Year, we are actually going back, ‘going back to reality’ so to speak. And that is in fact the essence of New Year’s resolutions — going back to the year that just passed, reflecting on what had been and what could have been, looking into ourselves and pondering what we can do better in the coming year.

For most people, resolutions would be on a personal level: lose weight, be more prudent in spending and save more, be kinder to the neighbor, study harder, never be late for work etc.

For our elected local government officials, having sought to and winning the people’s approval to be their leader, their resolutions should include New Year declarations that will promote the welfare of their community. As LGU officials, they are bound by their oath to look beyond themselves. This should not be difficult since all they need to do is to remember their campaign promises, and work to implement these in the next 365 days.

While most politicians are of the mindset that campaign promises are meant to be forgotten, it’d serve them well to realize that more communities are not taking their promises lightly. Not anymore.

So, as plenty of promises were made last year, there is one we particularly hope to see fulfilled in 2011 include the vow for better governance, which starts off with a commitment to stamp out corruption. Getting rid of corruption in the country sounds like a humongous and an almost impossible task considering the history of crookedness that we have seen among many of our politicians and how deeply it has seeped into the entire government system.

But looking at it within a local government perspective, it feels more doable because the local government structure is smaller and easier to manage, and it is closer to the people such that grassroots participation could be, should be, tapped.

We can say goodbye to corruption, put good governance into practice, and improve the system — one barangay, one municipality, one city at a time.

With corruption out of the way, programs for social and economic welfare should prove easier to realize.

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