ON SERVING THE GOVERNMENT

Many people opted to be in government service for reasons ranging from just having a job and just for the sake of serving the people. Whatever the motivation, working in the government has it's own dark and lighter side. Civil servants, as what government workers are called receive a very reasonable compensation, depending on your job description and position title. But comments have been made about "ginoberno" or "basta na lang" job performance of those who are in government service.Some issues were raised about government workers leaving their posts for personal transactions, having their manicure and pedicure during working hours right on their desks, being impolite and discourteous to clienteles, etc. The list could fill two or three pages of legal sized paper. But that is not the point. Things like those are indications of corruption. Cutting time and yet reflecting the ideal number of hours per day is corruption.Asking money in exchange for facilitating a transaction is corruption. If you are in the position where people are constantly in contact with you for some transaction or for just the simple reason of asking help and you make use of that constant contact to further your personal business-either lending money or selling goods to captive customers is plain and simple corruption. No NGO or cause-oriented exposure is required to conclude that it is not just illegal but also immoral, considering that you are abusing your moral ascendancy. Stealing government property and make use of that in your home is clearly an immoral act. If people inside the organization cannot say something against the culprit because he/she has also committed shenanigans will bring the organization into perdition. Who will provide check and balance if those who are so keen on criticizing the officials are also doing anomalous things? There is a legal dictum that says "you must come to court with clean hands'. But in today's set up, most of those who raise a case against somebody are not also morally fit. They just use their legal knowledge to pin down their enemies, or to threaten potential ones. Where is an organization going if this situation exist? A low ranking employee gets into power struggle with the executives just to show off that he knows many things and to make the executives realize that he or she can be a menace to their career. I have seen that many times. An ant trying to bite the ears of an elephant to make it feel its presence. And these kind of people are a pain in the neck. They are like kidney stones. They are like pebbles lodged in the toes. One of my former bosses exclaimed during a meeting. "Well, you are already existent when I came here. But had I a choice, I would have to have men and women of my choice to work with me." The remedy? The painful process of manually removing the foreign object. But can security of tenure make a parallel? Far from it!Or so it seems.