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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Born on the Twelfth of June By Antonio C. Abaya June 11, 2002 Close on the heels of his survey on Filipinos� disenchantment with democracy (See �Disenchanted with Democracy�), Professor Jose V. Abueva has come out with a sequel titled �Sad about RP democracy but proud to be Filipino� in the June 11, 2002 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The results come from the same nationwide public opinion survey conducted in November 2001. To the question �How proud are you to be a Filipino citizen?� 57% of respondents replied that they were Very Proud; 34% Proud; nine percent classified themselves as Not Proud, and one percent Not Proud at All. Among other things, the survey results showed that pride was strongest among the 18-24 year-olds (93%) and the 25-34 year olds (87%). The awkward thing about this line of questioning is that it would tend to be atavistic, parochial and/or jingoistic and consequently meaningless�unless the source or sources of that pride is/are pinpointed and expressly identified. What exactly are the respondents �proud of� when they say that they are proud of being Filipino citizens? Are they proud of their leaders, their public officials, their politicians, their military, their police, their judges, their showbiz fornicators, their scientists and engineers, their columnists and commentators, their kidnappers and criminals, their communists and secessionists, their overseas contract workers, their history, their cooking, their dancing ability, their basketball, etc? Unlike the Japanese, the Koreans, the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Cambodians, the Indonesians, the Burmese, the Indians and the Thais, we Filipinos are not heirs to ancient civilizations which have left monuments of their past glory. These islands were a frontier outpost, first of Islamic, then Hispanic, civilization of which the most visible remnants are the mission churches built by the Spaniards with forced indio labor and some scruffy grave sites of pre-Hispanic Muslim settlers in Mindanao. Certainly nothing on the scale of Borobodur or Angkor Wat or Pagan. Our golden age as a nation really goes back only some 100 years to the Propaganda Movement and Revolution against Spain. For better or for worse, our sense of pride in our roots cannot but be superficial and shallow in time and space for the simple reason that our �glorious ancestors� do not go far back in time nor did they manage to carve out in stone the measure of their greatness, before they were overwhelmed by the superior arms of foreign invaders. . In this part of the world, we share with the Malaysians and the Singaporeans a poverty in historical grandeur as the basis for national pride. We, or rather our supposed leaders, are therefore compelled to create in the here and now (with some help from the recent past, for the Filipinos) the reason for our greatness and the basis for our pride. But for that enterprise to succeed needs the emergence of visionary leaders who have the blueprint for the New Jerusalem and the political will to carry it out. Something which has eluded this country since at least 1946. Singapore, first under Lee Kwan Yew, then under Goh Chok Tong, has succeeded immensely in creating in the here and now the basis for their pride: an economically prosperous, politically stable, socially egalitarian society which is physically and morally clean, enjoys a standard of living equal to those of Western Europe, Japan, Australia and North America, and, thru the ISA, pointedly excludes communists and pro-communists from their social and political dynamics. Similarly, though on a more modest scale (principally because of a much larger population of a different racial mix), so has Malaysia under Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. His has been a more flamboyant style than Lee�s or Goh�s, and he deliberately created such high-profile, pride-inducing icons as the tallest building in the world, a world-class national car, excellence in regional athletic competition, and can-do national teams that climbed Mount Everest and trekked to the North and South Poles. Like Singapore, Malaysia also pointedly excludes communists and pro-communists from their internal dynamics. And what have we, Filipinos, and our leaders created in the past 56 years since Independence Day in July 4, 1946, or the 104 years since an earlier Independence Day in June 12, 1898, to make us proud of being Filipino citizens? Principally a hollow, liberal democratic state; one government after another so weak that it cannot enforce its own laws and cannot prevail over its self-proclaimed enemies; an economy that cannot generate enough jobs, forcing millions to seek employment abroad; and a society daily torn asunder by endless quarrels fuelled by cannibalistic politics and a relentlessly critical media, which itself is guilty of idiotizing the masang tanga with its fawning worship of showbiz. In the midst of all this, can we discern an icon or two that can be or could have been made the focus of authentic national pride? I would say EDSA 1 and EDSA 2, both the result of spontaneous middle class revolts against despicable leaders, which in the hands of astute political technicians could have been made the rallying point for a secular religion in the way that the Long March was for the Chinese, the attack on the Moncada Barracks for the Cubans, and the victory at Dien Bien Phu for the Vietnamese. But, unfortunately, the Aquino Government, main beneficiary of EDSA 1, dissipated all the goodwill and authentic pride waiting to be tapped. In its desire to please everyone, including the communists and their pro-communist allies in media and the clergy (who will never be pleased with anything less than a communist takeover of Malacanang), the Aquino Government, pulled this way and that, ended up pleasing no one, bewildered, confused and running like a headless chicken, pursued by Gringo Honasan with a cleaver. The Arroyo Government, main beneficiary of EDSA 2, has a genuine historic opportunity to turn things around for this country and give its humiliated and disheartened people something to be genuinely proud about. Whether or not it will use this opportunity in the next two years remains to be seen. ***** The bulk of this article first appeared in the July 1, 2002 issue of the Philippine Weekly Graphic magazine. |
| OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to �"Born on the 12th of June�" July 22, 2002 YOU WROTE: The Arroyo Government, main beneficiary of EDSA 2 has a genuine historic opportunity to turn things around for this country and give its humiliated and disheartened people something to be genuinely proud about. Whether or not it will use this opportunity in the next two years remains to be seen��� Rome was not built in seven days. Neither can ANY Philippine president build anything big enough in two years to make a difference. The only ticket for her, in my view, to get a positive echo from the populace, is to significantly reduce crime. That would make an impact and is doable within two years. But it requires a sustained, ferocious, headline-making crackdown on crime, never seen here before, including weeding out bad apples in the police, courts and government. If that were achieved, everything else would almost follow naturally. But the way we are going now, we still live under Quezon�s wish of a government run like hell by Filipinos. Peter J. Ritter. [email protected]. MY REPLY: GMA seems to have followed your advice of focusing on criminals and crooks during the past five weeks or so. With mixed results. While I agree that the tactic correctly projects the image of a president in command in the fight against criminality, the usual band of wishy-washy liberals and pro-communist nitpickers roast her over the human rights of suspected criminals. You know how it is in this country: be kind to crooks, be kind to criminals, be kind to Abu Sayyaf kidnappers, be kind to coup plotters, be kind to communists. ***** DEAR SIR: when wealth and power are the yardsticks with which to measure the well-being of humankind, then bless your Singapore, Western Europe, Japan, Australia and North (America). Sorry, but I don�t salivate at their illusory �grandeur.� A happy and meaningful life is better found somewhere. The world is better off with a mankind that sees humanity, not ideology, in the eyes of the poor pushed to the periphery simply because they are such. Hardcore capitalists and communists don�t differ much in their worship of their god-ideologies. The world is one miserable universe where people use people for selfish interests. We�re all people-users. And unless we change, our paradigms change, nothing much is expected. Best regards. Levy Lanaria. [email protected]. MY REPLY: Thank you for sharing your point of view, and I can understand your position of �A pox on both your houses!� But in practical terms, how does this translate into how the economy should be managed? Even the human development index, which measures , not GDP and GNP, but such indicators as access to clean drinking water, infant mortality, functional literacy, public health etc. presupposes the existence of water filtration plants, medical facilities, schools, public health centers, all of which require investments by the state and/or the private sector. Without investments, conditions deteriorate to sub-human levels, whether the state is capitalist, communist or free-wheeling nondescript anarchist. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |