The days of the inept and corrupt politicians in our midst may be marked and numbered and what may emerge after they are discarded at the polls in next year’s elections are a new breed of leaders with candor and decisiveness and a wider view of the national scene that will guide their judgment.

This may be a dream but a non-profit public policy think tank is exerting every effort to make it a reality starting with the coming 2010 national and local elections.

The Movement for Good Governance, a newly-formed multi-sectoral group, aims to change all that wickedness and iniquities that characterize present-day politics by presenting what it calls a People’s Dream Team led by a true reformist, a non-trapo standard bearer to inspire confidence and energy in shaping national destiny.

The movement, according to its organizers, was inspired by the community-based American primary approach for selecting national candidates. It aims to implement a system that gives equal chances of winning for non-traditional politicians running against what the public derisively calls “tradpols” for traditional politicians.

Ricky Xavier, MGG spokesperson, in a statement addressed to the media, said his group has started preparations for the People’s Primaries since December last year, to help communities in the selection process of prospective leaders for the coming election exercises.

“While we do not have a two-party system, there is a dividing line between the ‘trapo’ and the ‘non-trapo’ politicians in our parties,” he said.

The primaries will get rid of the traditional party formula for winning, e.g., overspending, media overkill, public image packaging, easy slogan, and fund-raising from vested interests, Xavier explained, adding that “at this stage of our political history, we need to retool our democratic processes to fix our corrupt political system.”

Fixing our corrupt political system is long overdue, of course, and the fact that moves are being undertaken more seriously is a hopeful phenomenon, if you may call it that.

The truth is, fixing our depraved political system can no longer be deferred or postponed.

Just the other day in this space I wrote about proposals in Congress to stop once and for all the arrogance of political dynasties lording it over as the dominant power holders in their turfs to the exclusion of all the rest.

It is against the Constitution and yet they do it with vengeance – and the people seem helpless. But hopefully, with members of the political dynasties, rising above themselves supporting the move, that aspect of political depravity would end, if not now then eventually.

When that happens it would provide fresh vindication of one of our deep-seated political anxieties.

In the case of the Movement for Good Governance, which seeks to change the traditional party elections processes, the shift to the People’s Primaries system will require massive mobilization of people to make it work as envisioned by its advocates and benefactors.

It will need at least 20 percent of the electorate per congressional district totaling around seven million votes nationwide. Under such scheme, the aspirant with the highest electoral votes will be declared the presidential candidate to lead the slate of candidates to be known as The People’s Dream Team.

The reported participating agencies in the movement include the Global Filipino Network, Movement of Hope, Subsidiary Movement, Green Convergence, Partidong Pandaigdigan Pilipino, Magnificat Movement, and a few others.

In the meantime, Good luck to The People’s Dream Team! Elections are the way we find chosen people.

(zhern_218@yahoo.com)