I think the concept of people power has to be redefined, or better said, allowed to grow and develop into its more mature form. It's been crying for this need. We should give more serious attention to it. It should not be wasted.

As it is now, it looks like it's a tool exploited by unscrupulous politicians quick to cause mob rule to advance their political views. Often these views are clearly selfish and narrow but cleverly dressed as something good for the people.

For this purpose, many calculating politicians want people power to remain puerile and stunted, that can easily be swayed by any wind of sentiment and doctrine that happen to win popularity at a given moment.

That is, they want the people to be childish: shallow in thinking, rash in judgment, and drastic, even violent in action. They just want the people to hang on the politicians, skirts, or to stick like a shadow of these men.

This clearly goes against what St. Paul advised: Brethren, do not become children in sense, but in malice be children, and in sense be perfect. (1 Cor 14,20)

Or what our Lord himself said: Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be therefore wise as serpents and simples as doves. (Mt 10, 16)

People power has to gain more depth and insight, more prudence and active vigilance, better ability to effect change in a more human way. It has to stay away from the volatility and instability of raging passions and mindless mob actions.

This will obviously require continuing education. I hope that everyone helps, as well as realizes that he also has to learn. The families, schools and the Church should spearhead this. But the effort should also be reinforced by the media and by the politicians themselves.

There are basic guidelines to follow. A very fundamental virtue in this regard is prudence. It is the ability to weigh things properly. It involves study, data gathering, consultations and dialogue, then judgment, a plan of action, and action itself. Short of action, prudence would not be authentic prudence.

As a virtue, prudence has to be a permanent feature in our actions, a living element much like our heartbeat. We have to say this, because there are people who think prudence comes only when we are faced with special concerns.

Prudence, being a living virtue, should be open to everything. This does not mean that we assume the attitude of anything goes. It simply means we are willing to begin and begin again, do and redo things, reinvent and renew ourselves as often as necessary.

In this regard, it would be good to understand well the ways of freedom and charity.

This is crucial because in tackling different views and opinions, we have to respect one another's positions. No need for intrigue-sowing, nor for bickering, judging people's motives, etc.

No matter how we may disagree from one another, at the end of the day we are all brothers and sisters who are obliged to love one another. Sooner or later, the best position, the most fair and acceptable, will prevail. We need to be patient and to have good control over our emotions and passions.

With a more prudent people power, we can calmly sift what are essential from what are not in any given issue, we can set proper priorities for our development strategies. We have to be wary of some politician's diversionary, if not destabilizing tactics.

With a more vigilant people power, we can sooner or later detect moves and initiatives that are not really in step with the demands of the common good. We can discern those clever, manipulative, and self-serving actions of politicians.

We can be good watchdogs, knowledgeable, for example, about the steps projects have to take from start to finish, and able to monitor the flow of responsibility and money involved.

This is crucial to our social life and unity. It's only in this way that we can hope corruption in government offices high and low can be minimized, if not eliminated and made a thing of the past.

**********

Fr. Roy Cimagala is the Chaplain of Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE) in Talamban, Cebu City. You can email him at:Email: roycimagala@boholchronicle.com