noynoy orange noynoy

Is honesty the most important trait we need to see in our candidates especially those for the presidency? Noynoy Aquino's supporters think so. If they are to be believed, honesty will not only ensure good governance it will also solve unemployment, illiteracy, insurgency, crime, poverty and possibly even baldness. Of course I'm kidding. Honesty can't solve our country's problem with criminality.

Seriously, such is the power of the Yellow Fever and the Cory magic — they have a way of screwing up your logical mind. You think I'm exaggerating? Check out these samples taken from the Noynoy gushfest over the internet.

• Noynoy offers us hope. We may be disappointed again in the future, maybe not. But we see hope and we cling to that hope. We do not see that at all in ALL other candidateshe is the only who has the integrity, honesty and character for the job.
• given Noynoy's 'non-record', there is HOPE. Some may call it FAITH, whatever you may call it, the 60% of the people THINK it is better than what the others lay on the table. Honestly, I'd rather gamble on Noynoy than the proven records of the rest.
• My biggest reason for backing Noynoy and Mar is their honesty.

As you can plainly see the authors of these comments would like us to believe that Noynoy is an honest person. Now I'm just wondering how they arrived at that conclusion. I'm guessing they did so by simple deduction. Most likely they figured that since Noynoy's name has never been dragged into any corruption scandal he must be clean. Fair enough. I must admit that kind of reasoning is a little hard to dispute but since I'm feeling a little adventurous today I'll give it a try.

First of all I'd like to say that Noynoy is not necessarily an honest man even if he has not been implicated in any scandalous affair involving public funds. Notice that I said 'has not been implicated' not 'is not implicated' or 'will not be implicated.' I'm making an issue out of that distinction because if you really think hard about it Noynoy's clean record merely indicates that he has not been accused of any corruption, yet. That's just what it means. To say that it's an indication of honesty is a bit of a stretch. Fact is if we follow that faulty reasoning then we can safely say that the moment Noynoy gets accused of something he ceases to be 'honest.' The absence of one thing (accusations of corruption) does not necessarily establish the presence of another (honesty).

I have to hand it to Noynoy's handlers. Aside from establishing Noynoy's ownership of the 'honesty' brand, they also appear to have succeeded in positioning Noynoy as the solution to corruption.

• Noynoy = Honesty = Anti-Corruption.

Of course there's an even bigger equation at play here, which certainly works to the advantage of Noynoy and any other opposition candidate. It is this:

• Corruption = President Gloria Arroyo.

Considering the above mentioned equations we arrive at this:

• Noynoy = Anti-PGMA

And that my friends is how Noynoy is perceived by his supporters. Obviously, Noynoy's handlers want to make sure their candidate will have the best chance of winning and at this point in time the anti-PGMA angle seems to be all that's working for them.

While I can acknowledge the marketing wisdom here, I'm still of the opinion that an anti-PGMA stance is not enough. So, am I saying that being anti-PGMA is wrong? Of course not. Nor am I saying that we shouldn't vote for Noynoy because he is against PGMA. What I'm saying is we shouldn't vote for Noynoy or any other candidate who has nothing to offer but an anti-PGMA stance.

I hope you're not thinking I am not against corruption. For your information, like many others I also believe corruption is one of our biggest problems. As a matter of fact some of my earliest posts in this blog were about corruption and my ideas as to how it can be addressed. You can verify this here and here.

Like all the Noynoy supporters out there, I also don't care much for PGMA. I would also like to see her out of Malacanang. The only difference is I prefer that she be replaced by someone who has already demonstrated a real desire and ability to do much better. I don't care if that person has any connection, whether imagined or real, to PGMA. What's the problem if the next president is connected to PGMA anyway? Oh I forgot, a PGMA ally can make sure she won't have to spend a single day in court after she steps down. Talk about conspiracies.

Anti-PGMA candidates like Senator Chiz Escudero would like us to believe that PGMA's prosecution is the most important event that should happen after the 2010 elections. For me, it is not. The next president should not even be pressured to focus all his/her energy on this particular issue. That should not be the main thrust of the next president as there are much bigger issues that need attention foremost of which is the economy.

Just like Escudero, Noynoy is running on nothing but an Anti-PGMA platform. No, make that an Anti-PGMA slogan. But unlike Escudero, who in all fairness has been fairly consistent in inflaming people's passions with his oppositionist pandering, Noynoy doesn't fully commit to this anti-PGMA branding. Noynoy is simply vague about this and pretty much everything.

Well, there's really much to be said about a candidate who chooses to be vague or silent about what he really stands for and plans to do for the country. From the time he was thrust into the limelight following the death of his mother, former president Cory Aquino, Noynoy has shown nothing but qualities that hardly qualify him as a leader but certainly make him popular with people who refuse to see beyond dramatic devices. For one he has been milking the "I'm not sure I'm the one but with the people's support I can be" line for all it's worth. Dear reader, Noynoy is just playing to your emotions. Don't be fooled.

At the end of the day, what we're really talking about here is the country's future not some telenovela. With that in mind please know that what this country needs is a leader who has real plans and the right skill set to carry them out. If you want to see an end to corruption, hunger, poverty, crime, and everything else that ails the country, demand real solutions from Noynoy and all the other candidates. Let's base our analysis of the candidates on their ideas and not their campaign slogans and gimmicks.

In Noynoy's case, all this hoopla around his being honest is just a gimmick.