What next?
Again, this is the question Filipinos are left with following this year’s “EDSA People Power Revolution” anniversary. Specifically, the question of how exactly to build upon the experience of this 1986 “revolution” has become a head-scratcher for most. It all seemed clear back then — how “freedom” would be the foundation upon which a better Philippines will be built. In hindsight, it turns out that this notion was nebulous at best as it offers no substance that go towards grasping the actual realities of building a strong nation.
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A strong nation after all, like strong people, is not built upon a foundation of indulgence. Indeed, like kids raised in a household of permissiveness and a lack of behavioural boundaries, a nation where “freedom” and not discipline guides behaviour becomes weak and fails to develop character with age.
As is quite evident now, what Filipinos regard as the most seminal evident in their recent history — this so-called “revolution” of 1986 — is now seen to be the source of everything that had gone wrong with the Philippines in the last several decades. There are no boundaries to balance the “freedom” that had become the rallying cry of today’s “activists”. We can see this sad spoilt brat behaviour in how Rappler CEO Maria Ressa (arguably one of the pre-eminent “thought leaders” of the Opposition) has manufactured an entire outrage fad around “press freedom” to bury the real issue of her firm’s violation of corporate regulation. It is like an adolescent throwing a tantrum about her “rights” after being grounded for coming home from a party at two in the morning once too many.
More importantly, you need steel and concrete stuff laid on the ground to build real nations upon. Filipinos cannot eat “freedom”. They cannot transport goods and workers over the corpses of “martyrs”. Knowledge and intellect and not “prayers” result in the development of wondrous technology that creates jobs and world-class brands. Real courage exhibited before real challenges and threats moves nations forward — not “courage” to screech about mere outrage fads concocted by hipster social climbers and iPad-tapping “influencers”. Statues of “heroes” and Catholic icons are good at inspiring the hopeless, but these symbols are useless before switched-on people who aspire to be truly independent, self-sufficient, and seek success on the back of who they are rather than on the basis of who they are told to be.
I cannot emphasize enough what a big failure the Philippine Opposition continues to be in a time of such abundant opportunity. It continues to apply an ideology aimed at whiners and losers and not one that inspires winners, innovators, and risk-takers. The Opposition is damaging an entire society at many levels in its focus on the past, its pandering to victim mentality, its resorting to alliances with communists and organised religion, and its demonisation of strength founded on substance and reality and lionisation of political correctness that panders to fragile egos.
It is ironic that the Philippine Opposition still directs its traditional slogan Tama Na, Sobra Na! (“enough is enough”) at the incumbent administration. Filipinos should actually be addressing this slogan to this Opposition instead. We should be shouting Tama Na, Sobra Na! at the Opposition and the bizarrely perverse manner with which they continue to cling on to the tired script that keeps Filipinos imprisoned in obsolete thinking and the overall political discourse stagnant and uninspiring.
If there is anything that needs to be replaced, it is the Philippine Opposition. An overhaul of the decrepit characters that propagate an obsolete and counterproductive narrative is long overdue. It’s time for Filipinos to re-baseline their historical context from one hinged on a mythology of “heroes” and “freedom” to one firmly gounded on substance and the reality of global competition. The world does not owe Filipinos success.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
It’s hard to get excited or feel any optimism for our ‘political’ well being! Over the past few decades it seems our excitement at whatever current initiatives we embrace to ‘improve’ our terribly beleaguered nation quite quickly turn into regret, and a massively divided peoples. What’s different now? Like trying to keep fixing up an old, out-of-date & defunct engine – there comes a time to scrap it and invest in something better, modern, cost effective & more efficient, basically one that actually works…
no need for excitement, just gratitude for the president god gave us this time.
Many people define the purpose of education as preparation for global competitiveness, higher education, or the workforce. They view students as “human capital” or “assets.” One seldom sees any reference in their literature or public declarations to the importance of developing full persons to assume the responsibilities of citizenship.
their kingdom come is over. their statues shall be remembered what they have done to the pilipinos.
The politics of the opposition, headed by the Aquino Cojuangco political axis, is like s stale “kanin”, that is full of molds and maggots, already. It is like “sirang plaka”. They are pandering to foreign powers, like the : U.S., European Union, International Criminal Court, etc…to oust the duly elected, Pres. Duterte, and put them in power. Does these foreign entities know, we have elections and laws ?
This was the reason, they cheated in the 2016 Presidential election; and put the phony and fake Vice President Leni Robredo, to replace Pres. Duterte. Once they remove Pres. Duterte; they are back in power.
The Philippine opposition is repeating what they had done, 30 years ago, to oust the late Pres. Marcos Sr. Ask the Roman Catholic Church to help; go to the United Nations; pander for foreign supports, etc…2018 is not 1986, anymore. Time has moved on. People has different thinking now. It is now, the Age of Information Technology.
When they were in power, did “freedom and democracy” they are again chanting helped the Filipinos ? An absolute No. We became worse. Cory Aquino, her family and political cahoots, got so extremely rich, at the expense of all of us. Graft and corruption were everywhere. Incompetence was the call of the regime. Murders, massacres and killings are rampant. The Aquinos were involved in : DAP; PDAF; Typhoon Yolanda fund scam; Laglag Bala at the International Airport; and the vicious distribution of the illegal Shabu Drugs, at Barangay Level.
The Aquino Cojuangco political axis, are trying again, to delude us; by their empty political slogans; stupid rallies; empty chant of “democracy”; “freedom”, etc…
Time to be wise. A fool can be hoodwinked and deluded , twice. We are not all fools.