Kopi talk An excellent advice

Without intending to, President Aquino gave an excellent advice to politicians and government leaders who tend to inflict on their audience their interminable, self-inflating speeches.

During the Outstanding Manilans awarding ceremony, he delivered a very brief speech. He said his late mother had told him that if a speaker exceeds ten minutes, he is no longer speaking but ''pretending'' to speak. In his words: ''Nagpapanggap na siya.''

I think this is also true with the audience. Considering its very short attention span, the audience ceases to listen to a politician or government leader after ten minutes, unless he entertains or keeps them awake with jokes, drama, sensational announcements, or bodily antics. After ten minutes, the audience ''pretends'' to listen, trying very hard to suppress a yawn, or the sleepy nodding of the head.

As a former member of the Senate and the House of Representatives, President Aquino was often the listener, patiently staying at the receiving end of long speeches. So he knows how it feels to listen to the endless but often pointless declamations of politicians and government leaders. We can, therefore, look forward to the next presidency as the ''era of short talks.''

It is said that there are only two kinds of speeches: A good one, and a long one. Many long-winded orations by politicians goes on and on because they have nothing to say, so they have no way of knowing when they have finished saying it.

James Roosevelt gave another excellent advice on public speaking: ''Be sincere, be brief, be seated.''

And perhaps we can also learn from St. Thomas Aquinas who wrote: ''The greatest truths are the simplest.''