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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| People Power Goes Pffft! By Antonio C. Abaya March 12, 2003 This comment comes a little late, overwhelmed as it may have been by the drums of war, but it must be articulated nonetheless because it has a bearing on the future of this country. No event since the Americans restored Philippine independence on July 4, 1946 � and no event, except the Second World War, since Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed Philippine independence on June 12, 1896 - has had such an actual or potential impact on the Filipino national psyche as the essentially bloodless overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos in February 1986 by People Power. This historic denouement � subsequently duplicated in as far away as South Africa and Eastern Europe - was the one brief, shining moment for the postwar generations, just as the Propaganda Movement and subsequent Revolution � first against Spain, then against America � was the one brief, shining moment for the turn-of-the-19th-century generations. For a few days in 1986, Filipinos were on center stage of the global village, and we performed magnificently for all the world to see and admire. It was, gushed an American on-the-spot TV commentator, the closest thing in the 20th century to the Storming of the Bastille. Yet hardly anyone�s blood was shed in the process. People Power 1, a.k.a. EDSA 1, gave us, the postwar generations, the sense of nationhood, the feeling that we shared a common destiny, which has eluded us in the past of our living memories because of decades of cannibalistic politics. That our People Power uprising failed to translate into revolutionary changes as it did in South Africa and Eastern Europe is to our everlasting shame. Why it failed to do so is best explained by the kind of leaders that the spontaneous event threw to the fore. Profoundly mediocre to the core; bereft of any vision except the restoration of the body politic to its pre-martial law configuration, as if that configuration represented the best that any people is capable of; with all good intentions, democratic in its orientation, but without a vision of a New Jerusalem to guide it, soon mired in endless squabbles as cannibalistic politics replaced the euphoria of discovering a shared destiny. Many observers, including this writer, have noted that every year less and less people seem to bother to celebrate the anniversary of People Power. I know my family � my children and I did our time at the barricades - stopped going to EDSA after the first anniversary because we waited for the national leaders to articulate an agenda that could inspire and excite us and the rest of the country to outdo ourselves, but we waited in vain. Month after month, year after year, president after president, nothing but the same, tired old platitudes from the same, tired old politicians, the same trapos over and over and over again, all seemingly cut from the same mold, who cannot seem to see and think beyond the next elections, who seem incapable of solving the most basic problems. Seventeen years after People Power 1, not a single Marcos relative or crony has gone to jail for his/her crimes during the Marcos kleptocracy, despite more than a hundred cases against them pending in courts. Why is this country still grappling with the garbage problem and the traffic problem and the population problem? Other countries which struggled up from much deeper ruts than we have have graduated to more cerebral concerns such as the greying of the population, the exploitation of cyberspace, the exploration of genetic engineering, the search for alternative sources of energy, the preservation of the environment, etc? Are we really daring Bangladesh to come and overtake us in this decade? ***** It was the middle class who instigated and fleshed out the People Power uprising of 1986. The upper classes were/are more concerned with preserving and enjoying their wealth than with anything else, while the underclasses were/are too embroiled in the daily struggle for survival to give any serious thought to how society should be organized and how its resources should be distributed. It is the middle class who have the intellectual angst and the leisure time to explore the possible parameters of social change. It is the middle class who have the sense of right and wrong that is offended and outraged by execrable governance and willful acts of injustice. It is the middle class who have the intestinal fortitude to voice their anger and their despair over the parlous state of this country and, if need be, it is the middle class who will stand up and be counted again, assuming they find a leader or leaders whom they can believe in, to right the many wrongs . That only 500 people � outnumbered by 600 security policemen - showed up for the celebrations last February 25, is eloquent proof that the middle class have finally and totally lost faith in People Power and the trapos who have become associated with it. Who would now be left to wage President Arroyo�s �revolution in the way we do and the way we think politics and economics?� Her father-confessors? ***** This article appears in the March 22, 2003 issue of the Philippines Free Press magazine but was not disseminated on the Internet. |