One of the least socially recognized human dimensions is the one that has to do with serving, and more specifically with the condition of public service or with the exercise of professions focused on caring for others, for the community, for society. There are included the figures of the public servant, the doctor, the teacher and many others linked to a vocation or disposition to be useful for the good of many. The figure of the politician should also be included there, increasingly blurred by that perversion that privileges personal profit or ambition at the expense of the collective good, or that substitutes the objectives of power for the use of power.
Many come to public office responding to a positive way of conceiving their role in society. They assume it as a choice, knowing the dedication it implies and the sacrifice it can represent for their own interest and comfort. They respond in some way to a choice in which aspirations, tradition, and the will to serve weigh. There are those who come only for comfort, ease, cronyism, calculation or convenience. They are, unfortunately, the simple earners of a salary, the supporters of minimum effort, those hooked by friendship, kinship or political commitment.
When talking about the public servant, the ideal has those traits that many aspire to and others miss. They are those values that society hopes to find and that many strive to live with dignity and honesty. They respond to that image of the efficient public official or servant, motivated by the common good, committed to his duties and to society. His contribution is the sum of capacity, efficiency, motivation, initiative and responsibility.
One of the spaces most clearly open to public service is politics. There the most distinguished ideals coexist with the greatest deformations. The politician is, in principle, someone who assumes the interests of the community as his own, who decides to put his capacity and dedication at the service of the group, whose cause is society, whose objectives are the common good, freedoms, coexistence, collective well-being, social peace.
The social vocation of the politician and the honesty of his election impose on him an ethical condition that cannot be separated from the truth, from honesty, from the true interests of the citizen whom he represents and whose will he must express, from the trust he receives and from the that is owed. The good politician is someone who puts his personal interest in the background. His ambition goes further than his person. He knows that politics is not the place to get rich. His leadership runs parallel to his ability to listen, interpret, commit, form teams, do. Max Weber distinguished between profession, trade and occupation. “People who make a living from politics, who make it their only and exclusive means of living, are not suitable for politics.”
For quite some time, unfortunately, deviation has become the rule. It has been blurring in the world, even in countries that boasted democratic solidity, honesty, tradition, and values. The use of power for one’s own benefit or that of those close to you has fueled corruption, lies, betrayal, the use of power for one’s own purposes, the concertation with forces that threaten dignity, peace and coexistence. Political leadership exercised and recognized by the community as a true service will be the best impulse towards an honest and efficient democracy, at the service of the citizen and his dignity.
Recovering politics as a service is one of the conditions for the country’s rebirth. There are those who think that it is a task for the new generations. It should be a present commitment that allows no delays. Politics will continue to be a public service activity. Without contributions to society, however, today they represent more of a cause for concern than hope for an authentic will to serve.
The Serving entry was first published in EL NACIONAL.