POLITICAL NEUTRALITY

 “Philippine politics, the way it has been and is still being practiced is possibly the biggest bane in our life as a nation, and the most pernicious obstacle to our achieving full human development,” quoted during the opening salvo of the Pastoral Exhortation on Philippine Politics made by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in 1997.

It is with great irony when what we envisioned to be something as a solution to the growing problem of our country and the “supposed-to-be” provider of public welfare become the detrimental burden to the common good, and what is expected to bring a socio-economic development turned out to be the root cause of poverty and misery.

As a public servant working in a community with different beliefs, trusts and choices, I should remain neutral by abstaining myself in using my position to further the ends of my candidates or to give any direct support to political parties while in service; at times, it was difficult especially hearing negative things about my candidate, which now relates to professionalism, to compose and control myself despite being indirectly affected by issues.

Democratically, I do have the freedom to express my opinions and ideas about a certain candidate as an employee and I retain the liberty to have private discussions of any political issues and of voting; but not to the extent that I will be creating fights or any forms of war to co-workers simply because their ideas does not approve to mine.

Sad but true, once you are government-employed under a certain politician, all good and opportunities are at hand and you exhaust all possibilities to be able to use that for self-beneficial. Thus, when a new candidate takes hold of an office, those employees who worked under the previous governance, are now fired and replaced by new individuals supporting the newly-elected politician.

I look at politics as something constructive like building alliances or understanding different interests. It allows me to understand more of politics, since my country is intensely political; but on the other hand, I learned how to be not closely involved in politics at the same time.

However, I most agree that employees are not hired or fired because they support a certain politician but due to their merits or their performance at work.  I do my job because I was paid to do it and I am happy to do it not because I am under a government which I like or not.

You see, I tend to look at things with a certain amount of bias. I do not do this intentionally, but I just seem to reject opinions or ideas subconsciously. I try to read or listen as much as I can and I really try my best to understand and take issues neutrally.

Let’s take this as an example, at our office, we have a queue. I see a friend from the people sitting and waiting for their number to be called but I stick with the queue, why? Because all of those people in the office are patiently waiting for their turn, and I do not want my clients to get angry because I did not follow our number system. That is already a form of neutrality. It was hard because I am a friend but at the same time, I must not forget that I am there for public service, not for one, but for everyone.

I think the goal isn’t necessarily for political neutrality because everyone has their side, instead it is identifying my side and my biases and how can it affect the conclusions that I draw. I shouldn’t aim to eliminate bias, rather to empathize with the other side. I consider myself as a conservative socialist, my biases led me to loath to the left, but I do not close my ears to the idea of the other person, even if my emotional reaction is the exact opposite.

Learning how to react and how to control one’s emotions can lead to a more productive system. Expressions of our ideas should be done to express but not to impress or to create any forms of misunderstanding or wrong judgments just because we support another politician.

Leading a public life is not being under someone’s governance but being sensible, responsible, and professionally diligent to public service that can lead to a reasonable and unbiased decision-making thus creating a more efficient and balanced work place wherein people are not siding or discriminating in any forms against any parties.

We have our own views and points but we should be careful on what we ought to say because we cannot please everyone around us.