I recently started watching Netflix’s Designated Survivor.
Tom Kirkman was a low-level official whose fate changed after an attack that killed the President and all the cabinet members leaving him to be the next president.
While watching the series, the weight of being a president dawned on me. Imagine making a decision for the whole country. My problems suddenly felt too little.
2022 Presidential Elections
While watching, I also remembered the presidential aspirants running for the highest position in our country this year. Popular names would be: Leni, Bongbong, Ping, Pacquiao, and Isko. Designated Survivor should be one watched by these people, then let them answer the strategies they would do for each problem in the series. After that, let them decide if they still want to run. Will they change their minds? Oh, I wonder.
Have you heard their jingles lately? The dances, the endless commercials, promotions, parades, etc. Since I came here last June, it has been all about the coming election and it looked like a circus. What does dancing, singing, and all the entertainment have to do with presidency? The highest position in the country. -sigh-
Watching the Designated Survivor and then looking at the people running for positions, I couldn’t help but ask myself:
“Do these people know the weight of the job they are getting themselves into?”
“Are these people serious in running?”
“Are they willing to carry this heavy weight(from the Designated Survivor) decision after decision?”
“Why would they go through all this(year-long) stress?”
When Choosing a Leader
When choosing a leader, one can’t be “a potential leader” only. He is not to be trained anymore, he is not to have a learning time to make experiments on the role. He needs to look like a leader, is a leader, acts as a leader, talks with authority, and so on.
He or she needs to be already a leader.
When choosing our leader, we can be guided as well. Again, we are not choosing a leader who will undergo training, if that’s the case we can still choose potential ones, but what we are looking for is someone who is already leading.
- Moral excellence. Many people leave this as the last, but this should be the first. If the morality of this leader shows a pattern of questionable behaviour from the start, that’s already a red flag. His ruling would decay a nation by approving and executing laws that could harm people.
- Intellectual excellence. This doesn’t mean that he or she has to be the top in their school or a genius. It just means this person should have knowledge in the field. You can be the best in fine arts or medicine, but if you know nothing about economics, governance, and law, then there is a lack of intellectual excellence for the position. It is really sad that in the Philippines, the standard for the highest position in the country is just so low. Does it need change? Yes. Applying for any job has more requirement than this.
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- Emotional excellence. How is this person under pressure? How’s his anger management? Too high and too low of emotion can be both dangerous for the people. A person with a balanced and well-handled emotional area is a good candidate for the position. If you have watched the Designated Survivor, you’ll see how difficult it is to be a president. The weigh of the country feels like heavy on his/her shoulders.
- Physical excellence. Someone who takes good care of his heath is a plus. The strain of stress a president would have could cause his health to deteriorate at times. It is advantage to have a leader who takes good care of his health by having a good balance in his lifestyle.
Now, if we use this guide, we can easily pinpoint who fits the role or who we need to remove from it. Of course, we can’t have a perfect leader, but you can choose someone who reaches these points the closest. Again, we are not looking for potential leaders or people who will still go under training, we need someone who will and can do the job from Day 1.
