(This essay was written as an editorial piece for the 2007 Philippine Collegian Editorial Examinations. It was first posted in the author’s Friendster blog on March 9, 2007.)
We need a revolution of the heart.
At a time of immense political tension, of continuing economic unevenness, and of widening social inequality, one thing has become clear: the country direly needs a new plan to steer the Filipino people towards the uncharted waters of the future. And on the eve of the University of the Philippines’ bicentennial beginning, the country’s premier state university is called upon to draft that plan.
This need is accentuated by the bankruptcy of the status quo strategy, and the obsolescence of the alternative strategy presented by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Both are failures. The status quo, represented by the Macapagal-Arroyo administration, has merely perpetuated the permeating social cancer exposed by Dr. Jose Rizal in Noli Me Tangere. On the other hand, the protracted people’s war strategy of the CPP-NPA has merely protracted the suffering of Andres Bonifacio’s descendant classes – the peasants and workers. Yes, Mr. Sison, what was revolutionary in 1968 has descended to destructive dogmatism in the present time – an oxymoronic conservatism of the Left.
A revolution to be truly revolutionary must, first and foremost, be a daring, if constantly evolving, departure from the old discourse. On the basis of this criterion alone, both the Right and the Left are found wanting. Let us thus reexamine.
From the theoretical standpoint, the contemporary problems of Philippine society can be explained as a taxing function of the violent contest for power between the ruling political elites, on one hand, and, on the other, the revolting leftist elites. Both schools utilize violence as the paramount, if not solitary, methodology to win the power discourse. Thus, the theoretical debate is between the Establishment’s Theory of Bureaucratic Militarization and the Left’s Theory of Revolution through armed struggle. Not incidentally, however, both discourses are formulations of UP students.
The empirical evidence is damning. Ever since Mrs. Macapagal-Arroyo came to power in 2001, the incidence of human rights violations – more than 830 political killings (never mind the Marcos Dictatorship)– leads to the conclusion that her administration has failed to prosecute violence against political activists and journalists while it is in power. As for the Reds, from their revival in 1968, they have been hell-bent on another thing – use violence to capture state power. This is why, notwithstanding the 1986 People Power revolution, they are both trapped in their theoretical past. And we in our empirical present.
Yet both plans are founded on the same fundamentally erroneous assumption; that is, that power, and through power alone, can we build the nation and move the Filipino people to march towards their collective future. This error must be corrected now.
It must be borne in mind always that no nation was built in one day. It takes time, indeed many generations, to build a prosperous nation and a progressive civilization. The most powerful societies today are those whose founders had the vision to sacrifice in their present to secure the welfare of the future generations. For the greatness of a society, of any nation, can only be attained if old men are willing to plant seeds whose shade they know they will not be able to sit under.
The answer, therefore, to the question of nation-building is neither the elections salivated by traditional politicians nor the armed revolution espoused by the Reds. The answer is generation. For even if we elect the most intelligent leaders, if the hearts of the people are fixated with dreams of going to distant lands we will still not attain progress. And even if the armed revolution is won today, if the minds of the Filipino masses are not equipped with education we will not be in heaven tomorrow.
The lasting and effective solution to our national ailment is really the emergence of an entire new generation of Filipinos whose hearts bleed for the country’s future. We require a clear break from our old values- a revolution. As the premier state university, we are called upon to produce a new generation of lawyers who will not perpetrate lies but will advocate for the oppressed and helpless, of doctors who will not take up nursing but will stay to cure the country’s sickness, of engineers who will build roads not potholes, of businessmen who will spawn development enterprises and will not seek profit for profit’s sake, and of teachers who will educate the young not make customers of them. Indeed, we need a new set of leaders who are willing to be first followers; who are not drunk with the orgasm of power but will instead drink the passion for serving.
It will take many painful years. But that is precisely how diamonds of nations are made – through the punishing furnace of time and pressure. There are no shortcuts. We must learn the principle of dying for the country everyday. We must be willing to die of our old values so that this country, regenerated by the sacrifices of the young, may one day rise up on its feet.
We must be willing indeed to die for the country no longer through armed revolution or bureaucratic militarization, but by dedicating ourselves to the pursuit of national excellence and perseverance in the discharge of our individual roles and responsibilities, as part of the larger task of nation-building. This we must do on a daily basis.
As we see the dawn of our second century, we, the community of scholars that is the University of the Philippines, must plant our hearts in our native land, so that by the grace of the Lord Almighty, the soil may yield fruit once more.
Yes, we need a revolution of the heart.
