WHY INTEGRITY?
The word “integrity” can be defined as the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles or moral uprightness”. Integrity can also be defined as a personal choice or an uncompromising and predictably consistent commitment to honor moral, ethical, spiritual and artistic values and principles.
Warren Buffet, one of the wealthiest persons today, attributes his fundamental ingredients to the success in business as being: Intelligence, Integrity and energy. As government is the people’s business, I believe that integrity must be an integral part of any governing’s platform.
Having integrity comes from a place within and has a basis. Integrity comes from applying principles and morals. We develop principles and morals from our parents in our upbringing, religious teachings, good role models and education. Integrity is cultivated, integrity is grown. Integrity comes from the seeds planted by our parents, our family and our environment. Integrity must be nurtured throughout our life time and it must be preserved through generations. Integrity grows from the seeds we plant, the care we give, the attention and love that is given to us.
Teaching children right from wrong, setting a good example, being supportive no matter what, teaching our children old customs and showing them how to become good and strong people is just some of the work done by parents to instill integrity. Parents alone cannot get the job done, we must all work together as a team so that integrity is not only instilled, but grows and invades our society. Single steps are great, but joining all those single steps into one big action is even greater.
With you, I will plant, water and care for the seeds of integrity in this society. With you, I will work towards a strong society, with principles and morals, which will be carried through generations. Our work today is not only for now, but for the future.
WHY TRANSPARENCY?
Openness, communication and accountability is transparency in a nut shell. When we think on transparency words such as the following should come to mind: obvious, evident, undisguised, unconcealed, clear, just to name a few. It has been defined simply as “the perceived quality of intentionally shared information from a sender”.
Transparency is operating in such a manner that it is easy for others to see what actions are being performed. Transparency may be achieved by sharing information and interacting with you the people. It starts with getting to know your needs and understanding the society in which we live. In order to understand all options available, research, study and communication needs to be done. We need to analyze and customize our plan to best serve you the people. This plan needs to be explained to you so that you can understand and approve. Then we need to go back, present and defend our plan to the related authorities. Finally, this plan has to be executed so that you the people can benefit. We need to provide the right environment, tools and education in order for you to grow.
Government’s business is your business! Therefore, you hold the right of knowing what is going on and taking place with your business. With my ability to be open, accountable and communicate with people, I believe that transparency can come back to the forefront and all handlings concerning you must be done in the most transparent manner possible.