Celebrating Ninoy’s birthday

Last Monday, Nov. 27, the government declared it as a special holiday. It was supposed to be a day for honoring our national hero, Andres Bonifacio. Whether by design or by coincidence, that day, Nov. 27, was the 91st birth anniversary of Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr. Although I suppose it was unintentional, we ended up celebrating the life of another hero, assassinated exactly 40 years ago.

Throughout history, the Filipino people have been searching for a great leader who possesses both charisma and the qualities of a hero. Things are no different today. Many historians have been reluctant to see history in terms of “great men.” Thinkers believe that circumstances play an important role. But there are also historians and thinkers who believe that there are certain qualities that enable leaders to mold the social forces around them.

I have often wondered what would have happened if Ninoy had survived that assassination attempt. Would he have become the great leader the Philippines continues to look up to? The German sociologist Max Weber said that in a personality-based leadership (versus institutional-based), the leader can exercise leadership in one of three ways. The first would be legal authority based on accepted laws and procedures. The second is traditional authority based on the established belief “in the sanctity of immemorial traditions” such as patriarchal or spiritual authority. This is clearly the basis for the authority of the Catholic bishops and other religious leaders. However, these two types of power are most effective when either one is combined with charismatic authority.

According to Weber, charisma is a “quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and women and treated as endowed with the supernatural, or superhuman.”

Central to the qualities of a charismatic leader is the power to persuade through communications skills.

Certainly Ninoy Aquino was charismatic. I can still remember, back in 1978, before the sham Batasang Pambansa elections, in one short 30-minute television interview, Ninoy inspired a whole populace to come out in the streets and conduct a noise barrage throughout the night in the