May paninindigan

I cringe whenever someone says politician so and so has no "paninindigan" or principles. This is usually BS slang for "I don't like him/her and I wanna take his place as [insert government position here]" or "He/she's not a Communist/Marxist/Socialist/etc, let's get rid of him/her."

A similar amount of cringing takes place when I hear of a politician or his spokesman claim to have "paninindigan" but trying to be so vague about his principles as to render me saying in my typically laconic way "oooookkkaayyyy..." whilst scratching my head.

But what can you expect from politics? Are principles lacking or are they simply shrouded for the purpose of keeping the political career of Mr. Politician feasible? I lean more on the latter. Everyone, I believe, has principles, it's just nobody agrees on principles and conflicts ensue on the basis of principles. And in order to minimize conflicts and for political expediency, principles or the articulation of the same is minimized.

And so it is with this in mind do I enjoy the comical affair of local politics in which groups calling for the ouster of a particular government official accuse him/her of a dreadful lack of principles when it is clear that the said politician's principles discourages him/her from doing such abandonment of responsibilities.