Richard Heydarian Needs To See That SYSTEMS Also Matter

The issue with Richard Heydarian is not that he's anti-Duterte but that he doesn't see that systems do matter in running everything. It's always the argument that nothing will change if we change the system but if people remain the same. What people need to see is that systems INFLUENCE behavior. Did Lee Kuan Yew wait until all Singaporeans were no longer pasaway before he set up the system or did he set up the system first? I don't care if Heydarian is anti-Duterte. The late Carlos Celdran was also anti-Duterte. The big difference is that Celdran saw that systems influence behavior and that the system is defective. Heydarian, unfortunately, doesn't see it that way.

The quote he has about the Aquinos is something I'd like to talk about with COMMON SENSE. I don't have to be a political analyst (which I'm obviously NOT) to see the problem. He did cite the late Cory Aquino and former president Noynoy Aquino. Sadly, all he's doing apparently is just to blame Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. He now admits that Cory only had six years to fix the 21 years of Marcos' mess and Noynoy had the same for Gloria's 10 years. This really is one thing - does Heydarian see the problem of the six years? Did he even consider that Cory herself was a housewife with no political experience? Did he see that six years is NOT ENOUGH for Noynoy to make a massive change? Yet, he apparently remains a staunch defender of the 1987 Constitution. Doing some self-study on politics and systems can help ANYONE even nobody citizens get a grasp of why systems change is needed.

It's a good thing that Heydarian praises Isko Moreno. However, he needs to see those systems again... DO MATTER. If anything, the mess has accumulated to the point that it's already getting harder to clean up. If he says President Rodrigo R. Duterte can't clean up his own mess then did he bother to ANALYZE the current problems with the current, again, SYSTEM? I wonder if he has bothered to analyze how first-world countries did it, considering he's a real political analyst and I'm just a nobody blogger? Did he realize it took China and Singapore decades to be progressive? Did he realize that it took Taiwan some time before it became the first-world country that it is today? He also needs to see that Isko can't clean a mess in just six years. In fact, NO PRESIDENT CAN and the time limits and the tools given are too limited.

What Heydarian needs to see is the parliamentary system's power. Some presidential countries that adopted parliamentary features (such as Taiwan and South Korea) are doing better than the Philippines. However, what I aim for is to go for a Malaysian-style of governance. I mean, he's a political analyst so he should be able to see how parliaments function. What if the Philippines had a weekly question hour of the lawmakers of both sides of the coin? Just imagine how that would change politics drastically because everyone is scrutinized WEEKLY. Hopefully, Heydarian will change his direction in seeing the need for constitutional reform even if he remains a Duterte critic.