Post by tex on Jul 28, 2008 2:52:55 GMT -5
Revolution
SKETCHES By Ana Marie Pamintuan
Monday, July 14, 2008
Before Uncle Sam imposed a tutorial on our country on the ways of democracy, our founding fathers were already inspired by ideals of freedom, equality and fraternity that fueled a revolution in another country.
France celebrates the start of that revolution today, Bastille Day. It marks the day in 1789 when French citizens stormed the Bastille prison in Paris in protest over the abuses of King Louis XVI. The storming of the Bastille heralded the end of absolute monarchy in France, the birth of a sovereign nation and, three years later, the creation of the First Republic.
The French Revolution, as we all know, suffered from its own excesses. One of its leaders, Pierre Vergniaud, famously warned that, like Saturn, the revolution could devour all its children and engender tyranny and its attendant calamities.
How well we know the lessons of popular revolts.
But back in the 19th century, our peasant revolutionary leader Andres Bonifacio was unfazed by the excesses of the French. After teaching himself to read and write because he was too poor to afford formal schooling, Bonifacio learned the ways of violent revolution and the ideals of liberté, egalité, fraternité.
National hero Jose Rizal refused to endorse armed revolt, believing instead in the liberating power of education and preferring Philippine autonomy under the Spanish crown.
Bonifacio, on the other hand, was no pacifist. Though he might not have known it, his actions were more in keeping with Thomas Jefferson's theory that "the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
At the height of the "Hello, Garci" vote-rigging scandal in 2005, certain Western expatriates told me that the blood was what could have been missing from our two people power revolts, although the assassination of Ninoy Aquino fueled the first one.
If we want drastic changes, the expats said, we either put the guilty – or at least the guiltiest – in prison, or else eliminate them for good from this Earth, the way the Russians ended the reign of the czars, or the way the French ended their monarchy.
Such sentiments are surfacing again as people wonder if the crooks, liars, poll cheats and human rights violators who have ruled this country for the past seven years can ever be held accountable for their misdeeds.
* * *
As most people who have staged a revolution eventually find out, it takes more than regime change to bring about the expected positive effects from a mass uprising.
There is no guarantee that the replacement will be any better than the one that was replaced. The Arroyo administration is now increasingly being compared, in terms of rapacity in corruption and abuse of state power, not with the Estrada administration but with the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.
When the nine years of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are over, every weakness of the Filipino would have been exploited and the typical citizen would have nothing in mind but personal gain, with no sense of belonging to a larger whole or one nation. Almost every institution would have been corrupted by a gangster-like way of running the government. The Great Filipino Dream would be to leave his own country, land of regret and lost opportunities.
In other countries, a whiff of scandal would be enough to trigger the resignation of top government officials or executives of even the largest private corporations.
In our country, the tested response is simply to brazen it out, until the story is pushed away from the headlines by the next scandal.
Sticks and stones may hurt their bones, but words – angry messages on placards, or speeches in the halls of Congress – will not hurt the gangsters.
Words on carefully prepared lawsuits, backed by painstaking spadework, could hurt the crooks. But enemies of the administration are too lazy, or in too much of a hurry, or just plain incompetent.
* * *
At the end of the month we will be treated to an enumeration of all the projects and programs undertaken by the administration. We will hear self-praise for the 31-year-high economic growth rate last year as well as the dole-outs to the poor amid food and fuel price surges.
How much of the cost of those projects and programs went to the pockets of powerful people will have to be left to speculation.
The latest stink is coming from the Northrail project, which has allegedly been derailed, according to coffee shop talk, by the demand for a higher project cost because the commissions have reached exorbitant levels.
The enumeration of the projects during the President's State of the Nation Address will be like the enumeration of the justifications made for her pushing through with her trip to Washington, 59 junketing congressmen in tow, as typhoon "Frank" was unleashing its fury across the country.
Sen. Richard Gordon was the only lawmaker with the decency to beg off from the trip, pointing out that he was needed at the Philippine National Red Cross.
Speaker Prospero Nograles also deserves some points for candor, when he admitted that he planned to watch the title fight between Manny Pacquiao and David Diaz in Las Vegas. But Nograles' rhetoric about reform, when he wrested control of the House of Representatives, is turning out to be just as everyone feared – nothing but hot air.
As in the Mafia, those who know how to show blind obedience to the boss and observe the rule of omerta are richly rewarded.
We are seeing this at work in the recent appointments to key positions in government.
How do we put a stop to all this? We have tried revolution, and then thought everything would fall into place without us having to work for change.
Now we are trying fatalism, leaving the task of making crooks account for their crimes to their Maker.
We deserve the government that we get.
SKETCHES By Ana Marie Pamintuan
Monday, July 14, 2008
Before Uncle Sam imposed a tutorial on our country on the ways of democracy, our founding fathers were already inspired by ideals of freedom, equality and fraternity that fueled a revolution in another country.
France celebrates the start of that revolution today, Bastille Day. It marks the day in 1789 when French citizens stormed the Bastille prison in Paris in protest over the abuses of King Louis XVI. The storming of the Bastille heralded the end of absolute monarchy in France, the birth of a sovereign nation and, three years later, the creation of the First Republic.
The French Revolution, as we all know, suffered from its own excesses. One of its leaders, Pierre Vergniaud, famously warned that, like Saturn, the revolution could devour all its children and engender tyranny and its attendant calamities.
How well we know the lessons of popular revolts.
But back in the 19th century, our peasant revolutionary leader Andres Bonifacio was unfazed by the excesses of the French. After teaching himself to read and write because he was too poor to afford formal schooling, Bonifacio learned the ways of violent revolution and the ideals of liberté, egalité, fraternité.
National hero Jose Rizal refused to endorse armed revolt, believing instead in the liberating power of education and preferring Philippine autonomy under the Spanish crown.
Bonifacio, on the other hand, was no pacifist. Though he might not have known it, his actions were more in keeping with Thomas Jefferson's theory that "the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
At the height of the "Hello, Garci" vote-rigging scandal in 2005, certain Western expatriates told me that the blood was what could have been missing from our two people power revolts, although the assassination of Ninoy Aquino fueled the first one.
If we want drastic changes, the expats said, we either put the guilty – or at least the guiltiest – in prison, or else eliminate them for good from this Earth, the way the Russians ended the reign of the czars, or the way the French ended their monarchy.
Such sentiments are surfacing again as people wonder if the crooks, liars, poll cheats and human rights violators who have ruled this country for the past seven years can ever be held accountable for their misdeeds.
* * *
As most people who have staged a revolution eventually find out, it takes more than regime change to bring about the expected positive effects from a mass uprising.
There is no guarantee that the replacement will be any better than the one that was replaced. The Arroyo administration is now increasingly being compared, in terms of rapacity in corruption and abuse of state power, not with the Estrada administration but with the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.
When the nine years of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are over, every weakness of the Filipino would have been exploited and the typical citizen would have nothing in mind but personal gain, with no sense of belonging to a larger whole or one nation. Almost every institution would have been corrupted by a gangster-like way of running the government. The Great Filipino Dream would be to leave his own country, land of regret and lost opportunities.
In other countries, a whiff of scandal would be enough to trigger the resignation of top government officials or executives of even the largest private corporations.
In our country, the tested response is simply to brazen it out, until the story is pushed away from the headlines by the next scandal.
Sticks and stones may hurt their bones, but words – angry messages on placards, or speeches in the halls of Congress – will not hurt the gangsters.
Words on carefully prepared lawsuits, backed by painstaking spadework, could hurt the crooks. But enemies of the administration are too lazy, or in too much of a hurry, or just plain incompetent.
* * *
At the end of the month we will be treated to an enumeration of all the projects and programs undertaken by the administration. We will hear self-praise for the 31-year-high economic growth rate last year as well as the dole-outs to the poor amid food and fuel price surges.
How much of the cost of those projects and programs went to the pockets of powerful people will have to be left to speculation.
The latest stink is coming from the Northrail project, which has allegedly been derailed, according to coffee shop talk, by the demand for a higher project cost because the commissions have reached exorbitant levels.
The enumeration of the projects during the President's State of the Nation Address will be like the enumeration of the justifications made for her pushing through with her trip to Washington, 59 junketing congressmen in tow, as typhoon "Frank" was unleashing its fury across the country.
Sen. Richard Gordon was the only lawmaker with the decency to beg off from the trip, pointing out that he was needed at the Philippine National Red Cross.
Speaker Prospero Nograles also deserves some points for candor, when he admitted that he planned to watch the title fight between Manny Pacquiao and David Diaz in Las Vegas. But Nograles' rhetoric about reform, when he wrested control of the House of Representatives, is turning out to be just as everyone feared – nothing but hot air.
As in the Mafia, those who know how to show blind obedience to the boss and observe the rule of omerta are richly rewarded.
We are seeing this at work in the recent appointments to key positions in government.
How do we put a stop to all this? We have tried revolution, and then thought everything would fall into place without us having to work for change.
Now we are trying fatalism, leaving the task of making crooks account for their crimes to their Maker.
We deserve the government that we get.