The ZEYO Frontier

Our neighbor developed country, Japan will be having it's election for the vacant seat of the Prime Minister after Shinzo Abe's resignation last Wednesday. Abe's tenure was rocked by major issues about mishandling of public funds by his cabinet officials and his alleged mishandling of a bookkeeping matter about Japan's National Pension Program in which many voters reacted furiously especially the senior citizens because of their status of rapidly aging country with a declining birth-rate among their population which might threatens their population size. Abe did not answered the allegations that were accused he did but he immediately resigned after these allegations were thrown at him. What could be the reason behind his resignation? Did he really accept his mistakes obediently? What is the connection of his move with the political culture of the Philippines?

One reason why Abe resigned in the context of the history of Japan is the ancient tradition of "Seppuku" or a samurai trying to regain his lost honor and dignity through death. In other words Abe resigned because of the shame he faced during the scandals that rocked his administration. Other explanation maybe that he did not want to face the trial or legal matters at hand for some reasons. But I would like to focus on the reason that Abe resigned because of the shame that he received which triggered the doubts and anxiety over his administration. Previous Prime Ministers of Japan, like Abe resigned due to the connection of the allegations of corruption and inefficiency in their work. Why do they resign so quickly after being accused of corruptions and inefficiency? Why do our own politicians, despite countless allegations of corruption, inefficiency, abuse of power and other misconducts of being a public official still remains in power and instead of explaining WHY, they resort to pointing out the blame to other people or striking back against their critics and ignores the clamor of people to explain Why are they involved in these scandals or misconducts? Japanese Prime Ministers with the exception of Abe explained their side to the public about their involvement with the allegations that were thrown at them. After that they resigned with the reason of guilt and honor, and their failure to lead and serve well the welfare of the public that they have been serving. You see, their culture has something to do with their political attitudes. They really value their honor and dignity given that they held something so sensitive like power in public offices, that once their honor has been tainted or has been stained with doubt and scandals, they are willing to step down and turn over their position to someone else and explain why are these allegations have been point at them. The culture that they were accountable to the people that they are serving or leading is a very crucial one in the development of their political norms and social concepts as well. This practice of preserving their honor is also manifested in their business world. Failure or bankruptcy triggers people or persons who believe that they were the one's responsible for the failure of their company, resigns or commit suicide to atone for their failures.

But here in the Philippines what do the people do in the face of scandals and intrigues? They are trying to point the blame to others or worse, dragging other people in the scandals or allegations that they face resulting to conflicts which in turn becomes really personal due to the fact that more and more people are drag into the confusion instead of the people that were accused explaining what they need to explain to the public or to their stakeholders, the people in which they were held responsible. One factor of this attitude might be that we Filipinos are not really accustomed to being responsible or being held liable for our actions. Maybe it's not really part of our culture that we try to answer each moves or actions that we made that undermine the greater population and instead point to others the blame or shame or even neglect the need to answer those allegations of our incapability to do the required or the expected things out of us. So if this is part of our culture, can we assume that money and power are the reason that in light of the scandals and intrigues that people in public office face, they still cling on to their respective positions and instead enhance their grip to power due to the fear of any kind of threat to them loosing grip of their power and authority?

That's my challenge for all of my readers in my blog. Are we really that kind of people that really does not care anymore of our honor and dignity just to remain in power? Because if we are really like that, the greatest threat to our existence in this chaotic world is our incapability to acknowledge the fact that we could be strip off our powers and status due to the mistakes that we did. Although it's not really practical anymore to follow the seppuku code of ethics by the ancient samurai warriors of Japan, but we could simplify it's meaning through admittance of our mistakes and explaining what must be explain to the people that were expecting you to do your respective duties.

I hope that the readers would give their reactions and comments. But please be sure to be responsible and mature enough with your comments because we are trying to resolve issues that are relevant in our everyday life in our society, not create disputes regarding our comments that sometimes without us knowing it are hurting other people's feelings.

-Rek-