Election dialogues:
The upcoming local election will be exciting because many elective posts are not going to be easy-wins for the incumbents.
Because of the pandemic, we would have to maximize radio and Internet, and hope that we, the citizens, will have the opportunity to have serious, engaging, and issue-based conversations with the political candidates.
I personally want to hear our candidates talk about their plans because the competing crisis brought about by the pandemic and Typhoon Odette are posing major challenges to the Province. The job ahead will not be easy.
We need to hear their plans to address loss of jobs and livelihood, access to health, disaster risk-reduction and risk–management, and how to fund these plans, and address leakage through inefficiency and corruption.
A good conversation with the candidates, over and above social media noise, is a win-win for all of us.
The business community or the academe can sponsor and moderate it, with crowd-sourced questions. Members of the media can also moderate.
Here are some difficult questions that could be asked:
1. In the last three years, whispers about politically- motivated killings have grown. What have you done to make the Province a safe place for everyone? What will you do to bring justice to the victims of these crimes?
2. Job-match is a major problem in the Province. How much will you invest to address this problem, and what will you do?
3. What’s your CoViD- and Odette-recovery plan?
4. Negros Oriental is rich in natural resources but there are growing reports of overfishing, environmental degradation due to massive quarrying, and the temporarily- shelved reclamation project in Dumaguete. With natural disasters always in the shadows, what have you done/what will you do to protect the environment, while pursuing sustainable development?
5. Many students have dropped out of school since the pandemic. Public hospitals are understaffed and poorly-resourced. Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) get very little support. Any specific plans to address these problems beyond what’s being done now?
I also want to hear our candidates’ assessment on the Top 5 problems in the Province. Knowing their priorities will also help us determine where we can be of use as private and concerned citizens.
After all, governance should not be monopolized only by those elected to office. An active community has a lot to offer.
We can’t meme and troll our way out of poverty, joblessness, and pandemics. This is why we need to talk to the candidates. Now.
___________________________________
Author’s email: [email protected]
