The ding-dong qualities of a leader

Given the latent charges levied in the media against the Vice President derived from the Aquino administration’s campaign to exact vengeance for what ruling party officials deem as the anomalies of nonpartymates and other presidential challengers, plus the recent discussions between Benigno Aquino III and Sen. Grace Poe on the possibility of either a presidential or vice presidential bid in 2016, and finally, the obvious ratcheting up in the dung-dirty demolition jobs instigated by one blindly ambitious official as his principal gambit to gain undeserved popularity, it might be natural to discuss leadership qualities for the country’s highest office.

But let us differ. The traditional springboard for the presidency has always been the Senate. And thus, for the moment, as we are in dreadful fear of earning spite and ridicule from the brave, bold and brazen anonymous, we’ve chosen to seek out those evasive leadership qualities for the Senate instead.

While, indeed, his first name often refers to the sound made by the pealing of bells and in the alliteration and onomatopoeia there is, in the sound, playful charm and puerile allusions to light heartedness, look up the dictionary meaning of the word “ding dong.” Dig deeper into the brilliant choice of TV soap opera actor Dingdong Dantes as a serious ruling party candidate for the Senate of the Republic.

The scary immediately turns horrific when we juxtapose the celluloid and silver-screen images of Dantes, the TV soap-opera actor, against the prospective and all-too-possible image of a larger than life Dantes, the honorable senator of the Republic against the ideal qualities of a leader we seek on one end, and the severely compromised qualities of those we actually elect into one of the highest positions in the land on the other end.

The death knell for the honorable Senate has tolled before, and every now and then, perhaps too often that the august chamber we once knew as the Senate is no longer as august as its denizens are likewise no longer as honorable. In a bizarre way, the senate is as actor-ready as it is clown-friendly. Simply listen in on the Blue Ribbon Committee hearings.

As a body with 24 members, three are currently technically in jail, detained, accused of a crime that may well befall those others simply awaiting their eventual turn, first at the indictment desk and then at a well-appointed prison.

Simply disregard ideological differences and as Lady Justice would, attempt to apply the law equitably and fairly. After all, the demarcation that divides the three is not that they are any different. It may simply be that they belong to the opposition.

Three from 24. Consider only those who attend its sessions, or those who are even moderately productive and the seemingly insubstantial fraction becomes even more significant, thus explaining why the Senate may be nothing more than a theatrical farce.

If that is what the Senate has become, then what are the sterling qualities of a leader; or better still, what are the qualities of a legislator and member of the higher chamber of Congress that make the actor Dantes well-qualified to join its ranks?

He is not spawned from a political dynasty. He has not had one day in office as a local politician, whether as a councilman or as an administrator of a local government unit.

He has not sat on a government council nor might he be eligible to any office requiring civil-service eligibility. Given a limitless litany of shortcomings that should technically hamper his ambition, among the shortlist of bets that the ruling party that endorses him as a principal candidate, ironically, he has the best chances of making it.

Our folly thus lies where we define the ding-dong qualities of the ding-a-ling leaders we want.