Indeed, the country is in a leadership crisis. This crisis is not necessarily ascribed solely to GMA, or even to Erap but it had been with us since the third republic was inaugurated in 1946. I believe that from President Roxas down to GMA, we have not had a leader who is an embodiment of the lofty aspirations of the Filipino people.
Contemporary Filipino leaders have time and again through one-sided treaties, agreements and concessions took the side of foreign interests, as if these were our own. They allowed the degeneration of our cultural heritage and actually stood by as ravaging foreign influence flooded the consciousness of the ordinary Filipino. Worse, our leaders alternately bled the country dry, left it debt-ridden, almost, if not completely bankrupt. Are Filipino leaders really unworthy or is there an explanation to this apparent fraud?
Looking at our institutions, we find the ugly head of the colonially-based educational system that Filipinos inherited from the 50 years of American occupation. The system, originally designed to help pacify, subjugate and prepare the Filipinos accept American dominance, with few modifications, continued to be used in educating the Filipinos despite its bias against genuine Filipinos interests. While the system molded the Filipino into a technically and professionally competent person, it left him wanting in patriotism and love for his own country.
The defective educational system did not cultivate in him the pride of being a Filipino. He has vague ideas about Filipino greatness. He is not proud that we had Baltazar, Rizal, Bonifacio, Jacinto, Mabini, Del Pilar, great minds of the Malayan race. He is unimpressed by the fact that we were the first Asiatic people to establish a republic, a republic crafted by an intelligent people, a republic bravely defended by a patriotic people faced by certain death, unafraid of the vastly superior army of the United States. Instead, the educational system successfully blurred our glorious struggle for nationhood and planted the seed of subservience and longing for everything foreign. It is not a surprise to find many Filipinos express contempt of their own country of birth.
Proof of the turnabout of the character of Filipino leadership from the patriotism of Aguinaldo to the subservient tendency of contemporary leaders can be seen in the fate that the great nationalists – Recto and Tanada suffered in the hands of the electorate. These men, who probably represented the prototype of the patriotic Filipino leaders molded in the ideals of the 1890’s were not only maligned but rejected by the very people whom they wanted to lead out of servitude and indifference.
So, what lies ahead for Filipinos? We can still bring back the old glory that was when Filipinos stood up and claimed what was theirs. First and foremost let us break the camouflage of history, expose naked the truth and learn from it. The lesson it teaches us is the first principle Filipinos have unconsciously unlearned over the years: no nation on earth will sacrifice itself for another, that there is always something hidden in any magnanimous gesture, some kind of commercial or political gain that one country expects to get in relating with another regardless of what the former claims on the surface.
History clearly tells us not to be subservient or mendicant but be resolute, rely on ourselves and be prepared to protect and defend our own interest because another nation will likely be tempted to take it away from us, and we are left to defend it by ourselves alone. If self-reliance and vigilance have become the vision of our future leaders, then we would have arrived as a truly new, independent nation, worthy of the loyalty and support of all patriotic Filipinos everywhere.
Contemporary Filipino leaders have time and again through one-sided treaties, agreements and concessions took the side of foreign interests, as if these were our own. They allowed the degeneration of our cultural heritage and actually stood by as ravaging foreign influence flooded the consciousness of the ordinary Filipino. Worse, our leaders alternately bled the country dry, left it debt-ridden, almost, if not completely bankrupt. Are Filipino leaders really unworthy or is there an explanation to this apparent fraud?
Looking at our institutions, we find the ugly head of the colonially-based educational system that Filipinos inherited from the 50 years of American occupation. The system, originally designed to help pacify, subjugate and prepare the Filipinos accept American dominance, with few modifications, continued to be used in educating the Filipinos despite its bias against genuine Filipinos interests. While the system molded the Filipino into a technically and professionally competent person, it left him wanting in patriotism and love for his own country.
The defective educational system did not cultivate in him the pride of being a Filipino. He has vague ideas about Filipino greatness. He is not proud that we had Baltazar, Rizal, Bonifacio, Jacinto, Mabini, Del Pilar, great minds of the Malayan race. He is unimpressed by the fact that we were the first Asiatic people to establish a republic, a republic crafted by an intelligent people, a republic bravely defended by a patriotic people faced by certain death, unafraid of the vastly superior army of the United States. Instead, the educational system successfully blurred our glorious struggle for nationhood and planted the seed of subservience and longing for everything foreign. It is not a surprise to find many Filipinos express contempt of their own country of birth.
Proof of the turnabout of the character of Filipino leadership from the patriotism of Aguinaldo to the subservient tendency of contemporary leaders can be seen in the fate that the great nationalists – Recto and Tanada suffered in the hands of the electorate. These men, who probably represented the prototype of the patriotic Filipino leaders molded in the ideals of the 1890’s were not only maligned but rejected by the very people whom they wanted to lead out of servitude and indifference.
So, what lies ahead for Filipinos? We can still bring back the old glory that was when Filipinos stood up and claimed what was theirs. First and foremost let us break the camouflage of history, expose naked the truth and learn from it. The lesson it teaches us is the first principle Filipinos have unconsciously unlearned over the years: no nation on earth will sacrifice itself for another, that there is always something hidden in any magnanimous gesture, some kind of commercial or political gain that one country expects to get in relating with another regardless of what the former claims on the surface.
History clearly tells us not to be subservient or mendicant but be resolute, rely on ourselves and be prepared to protect and defend our own interest because another nation will likely be tempted to take it away from us, and we are left to defend it by ourselves alone. If self-reliance and vigilance have become the vision of our future leaders, then we would have arrived as a truly new, independent nation, worthy of the loyalty and support of all patriotic Filipinos everywhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment