IN my nearly seven years of working for OpinYon, I’ve lost track of how many times I have been lectured by my superiors due to mistakes in my job.
Sure, I felt very bad afterward, but our publisher, Mr. Ray Junia, always has this to say: it was nothing personal and that all he wanted is for our organization to improve.
In fact, he related to us more than once, today’s corporate atmosphere is much better than, say, twenty years ago, when you could expect harsh words, shouting, and browbeating from your superiors.
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I had kept thinking of that after reports that two high-ranking government officials rebuffed international reports about poor performance in their government agencies.
What irked me is that instead of accepting those reports and using them as gauges to improve their performance, they insisted that the data used by international organizations were either outmoded or wrong.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones (a person I once respected, sadly) even had the gall to demand an apology from World Bank after the latter released a study showing how far Filipino students lagged behind in proficiency.
The sad thing is that many of our government officials treat any kind of criticism as efforts to undermine the government.
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This reminds me of the situation in hardline autocratic countries like North Korea or Turkmenistan.
There, bad news is treated as simply taboo. I’ve seen news programs from those two countries, and what struck me is the “over-positivity.” No crime, no disasters, no crises, no problems.
All is well! Our economy is booming! Our people are happy! Our government is doing wonders!
Incidentally, North Korea and Turkmenistan are one of the few countries that claim to have been unaffected by the Covid-19 pandemic, although even the World Health Organization has disputed those claims.
An independent journalism website in Turkmenistan has noted that cases of “pneumonia” have zoomed up, belying claims from government officials that Covid-19 is practically non-existent in their country.
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One unfortunate result of this “All is Well” attitude is that many government officials often had to lie or exaggerate just to please their leader and ensure that their own records remain untarnished just to save their skins.
Couple this with the ingrained thinking of a few officials that any kind of criticism is just a ploy by the “dilawans” or “Communists” to destroy the Duterte administration.
The result? Onion-skinned public officials who just couldn’t take bad news.
Mr. John Rana, a columnist for OpinYon, noted a few weeks ago that the current administration’s leadership style, while producing some positive results, has resulted in the following:
· “Discouraged healthy and rational exchanges that could have produced better informed decisions.
· “Encouraged sychopancy as a survival mechanism, saying and doing only what pleases the President.
· “Alienated even supporters with sincere desire to help the administration.”
The problem with this kind of thinking is, when no one acknowledges that anything is wrong, sure as hell EVERYTHING will go wrong.