“Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
― William O. Douglas
What a happy coincidence! The arrival of spring and the change in leadership in the Toronto Filipino community’s top organization.
The season of rebirth comes and goes without fail, year in and year out.
But up there in PIDC (Philippine Independence Day Council), the umbrella for “almost 300” community associations in Toronto, it had been a season of discontent, of insecurity and of false happiness.
The blithe facade of the recent past could not hide the indisputable reality. One infighting bred a child of jealousy and envy. Anxiety led to a parting of ways. Discontent unraveled the bitterness.
The year 2012 promises a departure from all those. If the Middle East had its Arab Spring that brought change practically overnight, Toronto will have its Filipino Spring that may set a new standard in community governance.
Spring is the metaphor I chose to describe the literal opening of doors and windows in PIDC. To allow the sun to shine its radiant rays and illumine the dark corners and crevices in PIDC is hugely important.
Spring signifies renewal. To Norma Carpio, it is a re-commitment to old-fashioned values, a show of goodwill. And why not?
A new leadership – hers – that embraces everybody has taken over with a vow of transparency, unwittingly setting itself apart from the exclusive, elitist organization of old. That’s not meant to condemn the past; rather, it is a recognition of previous mistakes.
Some people may say it’s too soon to harp about Norma Carpio and her PIDC. On the contrary, it’s worth noting that she’s succeeding where others have failed.
Take a good look. It’s been just several weeks into her job as PIDC president and she’s already defined her term in the most visible, understandable manner.
Three words describe it: transparency, respect, honesty.
In all practicality, she’s lifted the veil of arrogance and indifference which had shrouded PIDC in the last two years at least.
For example, the asinine imposition on selected media of a waiver that foolishly divided the press into friendlies and antagonists. That was uncalled for.
But Norma Carpio appears far different from this breed. She has her spring, I daresay. Its full meaning is not lost as she embarks on a leadership role to regain the trust of a community that had been let loose in the quest for self-glory.
And to reach that point, she correctly diagnosed the symptoms and found the solution.
Transparency. Respect. Honesty.
Those may sound like a slogan, yes, but they are key words that recognize media’s critical role as a trusted partner, rather than as objects of enmity, in serving the community.
In one recent conversation with her and some media colleagues, Norma Carpio narrates how she told her PIDC co-volunteers, thus: “Be candid and respectful when dealing with media”.
It’s refreshing to hear that given the humiliating treatment of the press by some PIDC officials several month back. But the other big surprise then was that the local press association didn’t even care to react. One journalist explained that it’s because it is a social club.
Her first order of business came to a test during a press conference at Max’s Restaurant in mid-March. The tone was both friendly and adversarial, candid and courteous and sometimes focused and sometimes evasive.
The important thing though is that PIDC officials fielded media questions with a kind of transparency and honesty that’s never exhibited before.
Some answers may be found wanting in details but who cares at this point? The opening of PIDC’s floodgates already released a torrent of information about certain role-players.
Norma Carpio’s transparency is demystifying the many myths in the community. It surely defines her as it does a new PIDC. #