Barriers to reform

Barriers to reform - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Writer Randy David (click link above) states:

1. We hear the same objections in the case of the “midnight appointments.” President Aquino recently issued an executive order nullifying the appointments that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo made during the last days of her presidency, in violation of the ban on midnight appointments. As expected, allies of the former president are urging the beneficiaries of these appointments to bring their case to the Supreme Court, confident that the justices, themselves appointees of the former president, will see it their way.

2. Because of the instant advantages it offers, there is no incentive to fight the system. A president who decides to be a transformative leader must be prepared to risk all the political capital he has. The fight against systemic corruption, if it is to be sustainable, must assume the single-mindedness of a crusade. He who dares to lead it must be unassailable in all his actions. The people he chooses must equally be beyond question in their personal and public lives. The public is not above expressing malicious glee when reformers stumble and fail.