Politics that heals.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Junefe Gilig Payot

IN NIHONGO, the kanji (characters used in Japanese writing) that stands for "political administration" is read as sei. It is composed of two graphemes, the building blocks of kanji, that mean "correct" and "teacher." Thus, for students of Nihongo like me, a good way to remember how sei is written is to think that political administration is to teach what is correct. When sei is combined with ji, the kanji that means "to cure" or "to heal," one gets seiji, the Japanese word for "politics." So politics is political administration that heals whatever it is that needs to be healed.

My Chinese friend told me it is the same in Chinese, for the Japanese got their writing system from them.

Now these are just mnemonic devices which students of Nihongo like me come up with, but I strongly feel that this is how the Japanese and Chinese word for politics could very well have originated. Because it makes a lot of sense: political administration teaches what is correct and politics is political administration that cures. Except maybe if you are in the Philippines.

I said maybe, because politics is a vast area of human activity. And many people-teachers, NGOs, students, the religious-are involved in political activities that are good. But let me zero in on our politicians.

First, far from teaching what is correct, many of our politicians and government officials are exemplars of how not to be good public servants. A few weeks ago, I tried to contact the offices of some congressmen to ask them about how poor communities can access the Countrywide Development Fund, now called the Priority Development Assistance Fund, as if the change in name would change the suspicious nature of this pork-barrel fund. Out of the seven I contacted (I wanted to contact more but gave up), only one office readily accommodated me: that of Batanes Rep. Florencio "Butch" Abad. His staff was really knowledgeable and very transparent. They told me about the need for a barangay resolution requesting funds and a program of work detailing the project specifics, both of which will then be forwarded to their office. The other six, however, either didn't know how the PDAF was to be accessed by the public or refused to talk about it.