Arroyo's SONA color and what it means

Mrs. Arroyo wore a fushcia colored dress, described a radio reporter who covered the State of the Nation address (SONA) yesterday. There were instances where Mrs. Arroyo wore shades of red or a simple fiery red dress--when she gave that SONA that condemned rebel soldiers who trooped to a posh hotel just to make a statement.

Now, many people, especially those who criticize her, see this as an expression of her fighting stance. Yes, many would definitely give some "color" into this. Though Mrs. Arroyo's color selection is simply out of touch and definitely NOT the fashion color of this year (yellow is 'IN'), observers believe this highlights her main message---fight for the Filipino People.

To her, she's fighting a good fight---improving the economy, giving houses to the poor and enhancing the investor environment. For some though, she failed, and failed miserably.
This is something which I observed. Instead of relaying the right message, Mrs. Arroyo actually showed her tendency to be really out of touch of reality. That summarizes her entire administration.



For example, she gave us a glowing rundown of economic policies, which, are really excellent. Yet, what she probably failed to say is there is still a growing segment of our population that did not see or even felt this. GDP and GNP are two indicators of economic progress. Yet, for those in the lowest rungs of society, these terms mean nothing.



She talked about the vastly improving ICT sector but what she failed to say is, those who belonged to the 600,000 or so people who got jobs from this sector, all belonged to the educated (at least) segment of the society. Of course, there is some spillover effects, like in the construction business. And indirectly, some segments of the lowest of the poorest classes benefited by working as masons and construction workers. Yet, as I said, this is still a work in progress.



Now, if we ask then, should we then conclude that she failed in her performance as president? Not entirely. She was able to weather all these storms that came in her way---political and economic instabilities. It takes a strong willed leader to survive all that. And for that, let's give her credit.



What is important is, Mrs. Arroyo's administration just proved one glaring fact---we need a change in the system. Honestly, our choices to succeed her lack one or two very important leadership qualities. Of course, these people have their own management styles and concepts of governance. But, these are, at best, unproven. They are all abstractions.



If you're a weak leader in a highly fragmented society such as ours, you'll be gobbled up by rapacious weaker political players all waiting in the wings just to resume their posts in the deposed regime. To her credit, Mrs. Arroyo successfully managed to keep the keel of the state under control. Were it not for her effective management, we would have fallen again to the control of the previous regime owners whom we so accused of failing us before.