HOT POLITICS THAT WAS

On March 31 - noon time, my position as Vice-President officially expired. The end of a roller coaster journey finally is at hand and this deserves some points to reflect and share. First, I want to share that the office of the Vice-President sounds to be the most useless job in a government. As if I am waiting for the President to die or to flunk and take office. But thanks to the framers of the CSG constitution, I was also mandated to be the convener of the 15th Directorate – the sort of congress composed of the presidents of the 7 college councils. Now, it is in this setup where my problem began. As any man sees it, I am serving two masters at one time - the executive and the convener of the legislative branch. In its legal wisdom, this is an ideal set up where the powers can harmoniously link from branch to branch but this is far from reality in my situation. To put it plainly, a noticeable rift began to happen between the councils and the executive body after the General Assembly [due to some parochial reactions to a fusty blog post]. So I have to shift my gear so I acted as the immediate mediator of the sides that solidified even my heart demanded justice for the importance of the councils in the CSG framework. This is where the fun started.

I seem to ping pong from side to side, always compromising and mediating. I began to be passive and employed a policy in which I called “appeasement” [not firing the shots] which was tested during the surfacing of an impeachment initiative against the president. The impeachment during the first semester was never filed due to this and I considered it a victory since we preserved the stability of the government. In this time frame, there were also some circulating rumours that the Commissions were the actual culprits behind a coup de tat plot. This was demystified during the mid year retreat in Opol when they were called for and admitted that they themselves disfavour this “non-substantive” impeachment complaint. So in this present predicament, I felt like in the hot seat because I pretty much influence the very soul of the democratic institution of the student government – the Directorate/ the Congress. Fast forward; this seat was finally put in the test when the call for impeachment grew with substantive claims and data. The rift eventually erupted into a massive fault line fuelled by the seemingly intentional by pass of the Directorate’s authority, some mishaps in the campaign period, personal slurs and political alliances. This eventually resulted to the suspension of the president for the rest of his term by a higher power.

One thing that taught me during this period is the not so pleasant reality when politics is occupying too much space in the head especially in people you look up to. It can cause us to be calculative and manipulative, horrific attributes for young leaders who are supposedly the future leaders of this nation. It taught me how to sharpen independent judgement and the anguish of blind loyalty. When I know something is wrong, I should assert the right which I believe is something that I lacked because I am either too forgiving or too afraid to stand against the many. We should never compromise respect for the sake of expediency. I also learned the necessity of disagreement. We all disagree but we should not go personal about it. I also felt sick and tired about being left out by important matters of government which eventually opened my heart to one side of the rift. I also understood that the most disabling feeling of any student leader is that feeling of being held hostage by one’s own expectations and also by the unaccounted expectations of others. The best way to combat this is to have a clear plan you are confident about which comes from the sound opinion from the students. I am not bitter at all; I embrace all of these as great experiences fertile for growth and maturity. I treat myself very blessed for having experienced the roller coaster life of governance and politics. I am happy that even though a cloud of animosity hovers over us, we still share the solidarity we shaped as a group of students who sacrificed to serve others. This is the common purpose that binds us above personal and ideological differences.

This is my note to future leaders. Always invest in relationships. And measure your success on quantifiable indicators, not on gut feeling and emotions. Govern with greater responsibility and common sense.