Many people ask me why I would choose someone with values over someone with competency. Don’t get me wrong, if there was someone who had both, of course I’d choose him/her. But between a person who has values more than competency and a person who’s very competent but had very little or no values, I’d choose the first anytime.
Why? Let me quote Albus Dumbledore (because I’m a Potterhead and when I read the books, this phrase really stuck with me), “It is our choices, Harry, that show us what we truly really are, far more than our abilities.”
When we choose a leader we should always remember that far more than building the economy of a nation, this leader is building a community, and to some extent, building humanity. One can have all the competencies in the world but when one is not equipped with the right values, our very core as humans will be crumble. It continues to baffle me how people could so easily exchange respect and dignity for riches.
What’s more, I could not understand those who say that “poor people” would think of values last because they are hungry. Are you telling me that because one is poor, one cannot choose good? And having to choose between good and evil, will always choose the latter? Because you know those good news we read and see when a janitor or taxi driver gives back things that are not theirs? What do they say? That they were brought up by their parents with values, that no matter how poor they are, goodness comes first.
Harry Potter and Voldemort were both poor and oppressed. They were both discriminated on and then learned how to be excellent wizards. But the difference? One chose the path of good, the other chose evil. Sure, it’s fiction but don’t tell me we don’t have the same choices in real life.
P.S. Let me add here what Dumbledore also said of Cedric Diggory: “Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right, and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good and kind and brave because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort.”
Renee Karunungan 