My experience in the student
government is a fitting cherry on top of my banana split experience as a
student in the university. It is, should I say, the culmination and the summit
of my entire Ateneo college life, for it is in this part of my life that depth
of understanding on life’s values and a wider perspective on things have come
to my awareness.
Leadership
and Politics
The most important thing I learned
in the student government is leadership – its theoretical and practical
approaches and the reconciliation of the two. I also came to a point of
diagnosing where politicking and the dirty games of politics begin in the call
for leadership.
Leadership begins with a conscious
choice to serve others as Greenleaf pointed out. It is a path chosen by those
who like Christ would want to go deep down the trash bin in order to save souls
and teach them self-advancement and growth rather than simply turn the trash
bin outside down. It is a service experience where leaders have to be like
Jesus, the Emmanuel, the God-with-us where integration of the self, the
personal values of one, and the character and the needs of the other must
occur. It is an experience where one needs to stop, to listen, to understand
and to reflect. A leader must always know what his heart yearns for. A leader
must always evaluate he values most despite the deafening sound of personal
interest, of self-gratification, of honor and of awards. More importantly, a
leader must learn to immerse himself to the community he ought to serve. He
must be able to build communities by valuing others which he must show by first
and foremost by learning to listen and to weigh things free from biases and
prejudices in order to search for truth for it is truth that will serve as his
strength. It is this truth that will serve as his guiding star so that wherever
he may find himself, be it at the expense of all possible awards and honors he
may get, he will find happiness and solitude for himself and for those whom he
chose to serve. The search for truth however will entail that a leader must
have a heart, a mind and an ear as big as the whole world.
Politicking, just like leadership,
begins with people thinking of themselves and evaluating their personal values.
This in its very nature is not wrong provided that it does not impede critical
thinking and the ability to listen without biases and prejudices and the
humbling experience of being compassionate so as to be with others and to be on
where they currently stand. It is when one decides to stand for his values
without thinking of others or providing that necessary openness to come to an
understanding with the other that politicking begins. It is the art of looking
for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly,
and applying the wrong remedy as Earnest Benn says it. It is in this scenario
that the quote “Nobody gets out of politics clean” is immortalized. One, though
he may choose to lead, will not be able to lead and escape the dirty games of
politics if a politician exists in his environment. The latter will either
create mud for the former to throw or the latter will be the very same person
to start throwing mud at the former. The leader is then left at a dilemma to
throw back a mud to save his face and tell the whole world that he is clean or
to stick with genuine leadership at heart despite all the mockery and political
tricks thrown at him though this would mean modern-day crucifixion and
martyrdom. Despite the cleanness of heart of one to serve, it is very much
certain that he will not get out clean in this system.
My SSG
Engagement
My nine months of engagement in
the student government have been filled with troubles, issues, problems, conflicts
and misunderstanding internally in the SSG, with my fellow students and with
the administrators. These experiences are the ones I treasured the most though
they have given me heartaches, headaches and sleepless nights for it is in
these experiences that I learned to engage in dialogue, to listen to others and
to forego with my prejudices and biases in search for the truth. It is in these
events that I learned to feel compassion, to be with others in spirit and more
importantly, to value them. It is also in these experiences that I learned to
be critical and to be professionally skeptical so as not to become an easy prey
of prejudice, personal interest and fraud. These moments have led me to
scrutinize myself more, to reflect and discern more deeply so as to know what I
truly value most in life. It is in these events I say that I have truly grown
as a person and as an Atenean. I am very much thankful for this opportunity of
knowing myself more and of experiencing a bit the reality which I will have to
face outside the portals of the Ateneo, my comfort zone.
Aside from growing as a person, I
am very much happy that we were able to initiate the needed reform in an
institution which was already at the brink of losing its very essence for the
students and for the university community. With reflection, we were able to
identify that representation and service are the most crucial functions of the
student government.
In its representation function,
the student government serves as the voice of the students in all university
issues and concerns that is why student government officers sits in university
councils and committees. They are tasked to air out the concerns of the
students on different policies, proposals and programs so as not to put at
stake their welfare. This imposes a vital responsibility to all officials and
volunteers to first and foremost listen and to be aware of the sentiments of
the students they ought to serve and represent. This is better done by creating
communities of dialogues, immersion and direct engagement with the students. Online
networking sites are a good way to do this but the superficiality of these
modes must not hamper the creation of authentic and genuine relationship
between and among the officials and the ordinary students.
Our administration prides itself
of having good, active and participative student representatives in different
councils and committees of the university. We have provided good and strong
inputs in the discussions of these university arms and have firmly stood for
student welfare carrying the mantra of being a pro-student rather than as
anti-admin. Our major lapse however is our inability to build communities and
the lack of empowerment of the student congress. Yes, we have created and
supported good policies and programs for the students. Yes, we have an active
group where students are free to disclose and we also have an online form where
students can submit queries, reports and complaints. Yes, we have acted upon
these concerns raised. Unfortunately, these are only short-term. We have
started reaching out but we have not yet achieved our goal of bringing back the
student government to the student body. We have only stayed in that superficial
interaction students through FB and online forms. We have not forged genuine
relationship with the majority of the students in the grass roots leaving
sustainable engagement and unity among students just a dream for the future
leaders still to fulfil.
Service, on the other hand, incidentally
carries with it the formative function of the student government. It must be
able to deliver programs that will contribute to the university mission of
forming individuals who competent, conscientious, Christ-centered and
compassionately committed to change. It must have at its core the ability to
cater to the needs of the students for them to be freed from the shackles that
hamper them in advancing, developing and growing. This we did by streamlining
the functions in the SSG by having a permanent volunteer pool and the creation
of the departments. We also had a better delivery of the intramurals and by
providing varied topics given by famous national personalities for the
Alternative Class Program.
The SSG FB page and online
complaints form perhaps are the most famous mark of this administration.
Unfortunately, it is also on these two modes that the greatest issue on service
which the student government must act upon dwells. The greatest service which the student
government gives is raising student concerns and acting upon them but this practice
puts student leaders in a dilemma as to the meaning of service. To what extent should he engage in behalf of
the student? To what extent should he raise voice for the persons he ought to
represent? How can he better empower the students raising queries and
complaints to show up and go beyond the superficiality of the cyberworld and
face those persons he is complaining about?
The rest of our
accomplishments, other issues being faced and plans by the student government
in the next two months, you can view at a separate post.
My Most Memorable
Experiences
In
SSG, nothing beats knowing and spending time with the people the student
government ought to serve. Nothing beats appreciating the diverse interests of
student organizations and sharing in these interests in order to build
partnership and lifetime friendship.
Among others, I treasure those moments when I
spent time listening to poetries and stories by Ateneo Literary Association,
chatting with members of EAGLES INC during the Xavier Day and with APEX members
during a COP orientation, Hi’s and Hello’s of Junior Eagles in their everyday
fund raising for their EAR project at the four pillars, jamming with the CCD
Voltz during the reverse carolling, spending a Christmas party with CSVs,
tutorials with ACIL, Rice forum with EcoSoc, Testimonial Dinner with JPIA, planning
for the Xavier Cup with the Remontados Debaters, supporting the Golden Knights
and meeting them personally and watching and learning football during the
Ateneo Football League. These and all other interactions allowed me to see the
needs in the different niches of the life an Ateneo student giving me a bigger
picture of how to bring the SSG closer to the students. These and all other
meet ups and chats showed to me that SSG life ironically is not about papers,
discussions, policies, programs, services, proposals, representations,
complaints, funds, grievances, resolutions, court decisions, chaotic elections,
propagandas, platforms and parties. More
than anything else, it is about building communities. It is about building a
family of Ateneans who share the same vision and who share the same fate. It is
about friendship, partnership and alliances, working together and working
things out. It is about listening with one another, engaging in dialogues in
search for truth and sharing the spirit and the heart of leadership and service
to promote development of individuals, of the Ateneo community and in the long
run, the development of the nation and of Bikol in particular.
The irony however about this
realization is that while I am humbled by these experiences with different
organizations, I have failed to create a community within the student government
itself. I found the student government as an office, as an institution and as a
workplace. Admittedly, I was very much task-oriented seeing the things which we
have to rebuild and the services and programs we have to offer. I fear that if
things wouldn’t be made the soonest time possible, we might find ourselves in
an irrelevant institution. I felt the need to resuscitate the SSG by pushing
hard and working to achieve the goals regardless of who will be affected,
regardless of who will be sacrificed. Now, I am the reaping the fruits of this
strategy. Indeed, the ssg has started to become relevant for the students and
for the university but I have lost the opportunity of becoming good friends
with my co-officers whom with all honesty, until just recently I have
considered simply as partners and co-workers and some of them, even subordinates.
I have been a good manager for the ssg but I have failed to become a leader for
these people. I thought service for and
with others is directed only towards the persons whom we ought to serve as
officers of the government. I missed that when Christ said serve one another,
those others also include the members of my immediate community, Chucky, Lanz,
Ryciel, Faith, Marian, Paw, Nadine, Noel, Ryan, AA, Kim, Felix, Van, John,
Kevin, Ralph and Darren. I have failed to lend my ears to them. I have also
failed to share my heart with them and this, I regret this very day.
The only thing I have for now is
hope, hope that things would be better, that we would perfectly understand each
other and we will never be aloof with me just as I am with them. I do not know where to begin but I remain
hopeful. I do not know when the wounds with heal but I remain hopeful and open
for all possibilities.
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