Mahathir Mohammad Political Dynamics and Institutions

12-1262 Dr. Nick Alviar

“Year of the Poor”
Pope Francis II’s speech was more on the families how it can be the most significant role
in the nation to which they are the roots that are the cause for the nation to grow and also more
on the government – how they responded to needs of the society especially the poor. The
Bishops of the Philippines, according to the pope, have asked that this year would be the “year of
the poor” in which we focus more on how we are going to help them. Through this, he not only
brought this to the government but to the people of the nation per se. Moreover, there was a
particular statement that caught my attention or many assuming that it is being presented by the
media.
The pope’s statement “I hope that this prophetic summons will challenge everyone, at all
levels of society, to reject every form of corruption which diverts resources from the poor, and to
make concerted efforts to ensure the inclusion of every man and woman and child in the life of
the community” brought an impact or sends a message to the Philippine government in which the
nation itself is full of corrupted leaders that contributed to the poorness of the poor. In addition,
he added a statement in which it is “necessary that political leaders be outstanding honesty,
integrity and commitment to the common good and in this way will help preserve the rich human
and natural resources with which God has blessed this country.” Ideally, this is related to the
social contract of John Locke in which men by nature are good in which the government will
always protect the life, liberty and property of every citizen in the country. However, in reality,
this could not be achieved and below are the reason why.
First, corruption in politics can never be removed since it has already been in the system
throughout the course of history. Second, political leaders nowadays are only after the fame in
which they are looking forward for their legacy so that “they will be known in the history of the
Philippines.” Lastly, to sum all of these up, most political leaders are self-interested. As pointed
out by Plato, families are nuisances in training leaders in which they will learn how to be self-
interested in way of supporting their family rather than the nation.
In our case, political elite families are one of these examples in which not only they are
after money and power but also the legacy or their name’s sake. This also where Hobbs’ idea can
be related in which man by nature bad in which they are self-interested in the sense that they
only care for themselves rather than the society. To conclude, the statements above are factors
that the ideal statement from the speech of Pope Francis II may be impossible if negative entities
are still present within political leaders. However, despite these negative statements, the Pope’s
speech inspired several Filipinos especially in the part wherein he mentioned the victims of
Typhoon Yolanda in which he praised the Filipinos for being strong as a nation despite of the
traumatic experience they have encountered.