Not the best and the brightest?
When John F. Kennedy was elected US President in 1961, his administration attracted the “best and the brightest” talents from the academe, business, military, and other institutions. He was a popular and charismatic president-elect, that top professionals and graduates from many fields of studies volunteered to serve under his administration and the country, even accepting lower salaries and positions. McNamara, Salinger, Sorensen, and Moyers are examples. In fact, a book by David Halberstam titled “The Best and The Brightest,” which chronicled the persons and events at the time was published and became a non-fiction bestseller. Unfortunately, Kennedy was assassinated and the legacy of his administration never came about.
The recent and not-so-recent fiascos and scandals of officials of the Duterte administration that led to dismissals and resignations of Cabinet members and other high-ranking functionaries, shows the shallowness of the talent pool of this administration. There are some very qualified and capable officials in the economic team and military, but the past 27 months of governance has had more misses than hits in term of fulfilling campaign promises. Given the very partisan nature of Philippine politics, it is expected that the Duterte government would give positions to its supporters, but good management and governance requires that minimum qualifications and integrity should be observed if positive results are to be expected. It is also a given that the new administration would attract a sizable number of opportunists, so there should have been a screening procedure to weed out the extremely corrupt and incompetent.
Aside from the four Cabinet secretaries that have resigned or been replaced, DOJ, DOT, DFA among others, and a number of undersecretaries; the mass resignation of the Cocofed Board and mass firing of the officers and board of the Nayong Filipino Foundation does not speak well of the selection, vetting, and appointment system of this administration. Expected outcomes of government programs and projects can only be achieved by good managers and implementors without the baggage of corruption.
It is the objective of any organization, especially a new administration to have a large and deep source of capable officials. But this is dependent on the philosophy, ideology, and leadership of the ruling party and the temperament, ethics, and leadership style of the party heads. The potential hires have to be comfortable and can sync with the leaders. This is what attracted the best and the brightest to the Kennedy administration, and this is what will keep the existing best and bright minds in the current government.
The other thing that got my attention in the current government is why it has to be the president that has to castigate and/or fire erring or non-performing government officials. Every new administration inherits an organization and a control mechanism that it can improve. In a functioning organization, errors and failures are detected and resolved at the level it occurred or, at most the next higher level, but seldom the very top. Considering the size of the government and the many issues it has to address, the more problems that are resolved at the lower levels the more efficient and effective the administration is. The more problems or issues reaching the president shows the weakness of the lower levels and the less effective his governance is since he really does not have the time or expertise to resolve all problems. The world and society are getting more complicated, and information and communication technology advances are making national governance more imposing/demanding for leaders. So, leaders always need the “best and the brightest” in their team.
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