From Letters to the Editor of INQ7, I am endorsing this article on a favorite subject matter. GK has claimed nation building, and GK is not being laughed at for claiming a seemingly impossible task. The reason is because GK is doing nation building by strengthening the poor, taking them out of the state of landlessness and homelessness family by family, community by community. Many in political advocacy or governance would call this process "Social Justice" applied in the most ideal manner of Filipinos caring and sharing.
GK communities are then guided towards being productive, beginning with vegetable growing and foofd self-sufficiency to mitigate the constant threat of hunger. Again, this process of transforming once mendicant families towards the realization that they can actually help themselves can be called the start of a "Self-reliance" journey.
A return to the more admired of community and social values is a deliberate effort of GK communities through the Kapitbahayan Values Program. As the key tradition of Bayanihan is re-established in a community setting, the empowerment of the poor is developed without confrontation but with cooperation. For the first time, the value and necessity of the common or collective good is constantly being promoted to offset the conditioned divisiveness embedded in our historical past.
Faith and Patriotism is the call that modern day heroes of Gawad Kalinga answer in simple day-to-day tasks and sacrifices. Ordinary Filipinos become one in a comprehensive and integrated movement to liberate the poorest of the poor from the historical enslavement of poverty and their consequential victimization by corruption. The force of a Filipino's love of God and the motherland is the sword by which the evils of poverty and corruption will be defeated.
Boy Montelibano
How we can build our nation
LACKING a clear understanding of the how and why of our national problems, we endlessly quarrel with one another over self-serving arguments.
Over the past several months, the political opposition, various civil society and cause-oriented groups, leaders of the Catholic Church and lay organizations, business associations, and the general public have all been clamoring for the "truth." Questions have been raised about legitimacy, moral/ethical ascendancy, and leadership effectiveness. But there are as many truths as there are seekers of truth. In looking for truths, we often fail to see the facts.
The fact is that our nation is undergoing not just one crisis but several, simultaneously:
• an economic crisis, of which the fiscal crisis is just a part, brought about by a weak national economy that must rely on foreign debt and capital inflows, including remittances from overseas Filipino workers, in order for it to survive;
• a poverty crisis, in which 60 percent of Filipinos consider themselves as living in subhuman conditions -- including the middle class, which now finds itself slowly drifting to or sinking below the poverty line;
• a family dislocation and social crisis, brought about by the massive emigration of Filipino workers to other countries, caused by lack of jobs and livelihood opportunities at home.
And we could continue…
Our present confusion arises from our collective failure to understand the historical fact of how we Filipinos have been systematically divided as a people, manipulated and kept perennially at odds with one another -- a continuing process called "managing nationalism."
This process has sunk so deeply below our waking awareness that we no longer notice it. The problem is that what we do not notice, we cannot tackle objectively. What cannot be held up to public scrutiny, we cannot study. What we cannot analyze, we cannot be clear about.
And so, lacking a clear understanding of the how and why of our national problems, we tolerate the overall noise and public confusion by remaining silent, even as selfish politicians push their own agenda for changing the Constitution.
Felipe Miranda of the poll group Pulse Asia observed: "Like so many national debates, this one often misses the point. A poet once acidly remarked: 'As to forms of government, let fools contend; what is best administered is best.' Nominal changes in governmental forms often fail to bring about desired changes in popular governance. Whether the Philippines goes parliamentary or presidential in its form of government, whether it remains unitary or federal in its political administration, the welfare of most Filipinos can remain abysmally ignored."
The nominal democracy that we have, run by the privileged few, is a self-perpetuating mechanism. No wonder EDSA People Power I and II were both disappointments to our people.
We are disappointed at how our country has retrogressed despite more than 60 years in a "democracy" with all its political processes, rites of suffrage, and institutions of governance. And we wonder: Why? How have we come to this mess?
Through the tools of political patronage and economic cooptation, we have been pitted against one another in the shadow play of partisan politics and personality-based leadership. We are in the mess we're in -- perennially squabbling to the point of civil conflict -- because up to now we have not politically evolved a strong sense of civic culture, a clear understanding of shared interests, and a developed sense of national sovereignty and self-reliance.
The grim reality of our present situation is that any president, or prime minister, or whatever will be the title of the one that will hold political power, who merely tries to administer this decadent dispensation without fundamentally overhauling and rectifying its pro-colonial character is bound to fail the people and become a victim of the system's built-in contradictions and antagonisms. He or she will be trapped in "damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't" situations, resulting in perennial instability, therefore perpetuating dependence on external support and intervention.
To save our country from this real and present danger, we must seriously study the nature of the forces, the processes, and the instrumentals that are behind the continuing process of "managing nationalism." These are the factors shaping the external events that are happening to us today. It determines what kind of tomorrow our children will live in.
At the same time, we must resurrect our noble, dignified, and productive Filipino values, which centuries of foreign enculturation have all but obliterated and caused us to belittle. We must adhere to three indivisible and essential values:
(1) self-reliance -- the foundation of genuine national independence
(2) social justice -- the basis of genuine national reconciliation and lasting peace, and
(3) national interest -- the motivating spirit and ultimate objective of foreign policy.
Every Filipino can individually help to build our strong nation by:
• minimizing economic dependence on foreign debt or investments, and mobilizing domestic savings to support local entrepreneurs in order to rebuild our agricultural and manufacturing sectors, recover our capability to produce the goods our people need, and generate jobs and livelihood opportunities here at home;
• removing the inequitable structures that have resulted in the widening rift among our people, leading to grave social polarization, and the social pressures that are building up to explosive potential;
• insisting that all leaders or those who aspire for leadership must faithfully demonstrate consistency between daily actions versus statements of principles and social advocacy; and
• living out the individual and collective duties and responsibilities that our Filipino citizenship calls each of us to.
Most Filipinos recognize the urgent need for fundamental change and reforms. The problem is that many proponents of change are motivated by their class distinctions, selfish agenda, and narrow vested interests -- when what is needed is precisely to go beyond these barriers. We must avoid finger-pointing and laying blame on individuals or groups, even if their actions may have played inimical roles to our national interests, sovereignty, economic independence, and political maturation into a functioning democracy.
This does not mean that we should forget or condone past mistakes committed and continue the misguided policies that have resulted in our worsening problems. We must not harbor bitterness, hatred, or vindictiveness.
But we should never forget the lessons that a deep study and clear understanding of our national history should have taught us. This is what we Filipinos should understand. This is what "leaving the past behind and moving on" should properly mean.
Finally, instead of letting ideological labels stymie us into inaction or endless debate, we must de-ideologize the process of consensus building, and practice the principles of self-reliance, social justice, and national interest. This is the path through which we Filipinos can finally reconcile with one another, armed with a clear understanding of what happened before and what lies ahead, unite in the spirit of enlightened nationalism, promote our best interests and collective welfare, and build up a strong nation -- our Filipino nation.
JULIO REY B. HIDALGO (via e-mail)
