by Emma S. Orozco
After 111 years of independence from Spanish rule, our life is still like the playing cards in this Lewis Carroll painting. We are still playing a game of chance -- on whether our freedoms are genuine or not. We are still at it, the playground of life where the strong conquers the weak, and the weak learns to manipulate life in order to survive. We are still the cards dealt with by unseen and seen hands who control the shuffling and the laying down of cards, toying with our past, our present and our future.
I do think that we are at this time, again and again, struggling to free ourselves from corrupt officials simply because our historical martyrs' lives have not been fully studied and the lessons they convey absorbed by all citizens. We have simply relegated the study of history to formal schooling, and not to its being lived and breathed on a daily basis. For example, if government employees were faced with a tempting offer to sign a paper in exchange for money, would they think first of how Rizal or Gregoria de Jesus would have reacted had it been offered to them? Would they feel any qualms of disgust over the idea that they are corruptible after all? Would they react vehemently at this show of disrespect for their own value systems? No, they would even smile at the thought that they would be earning a good sum from the proposition. One particular legal mind constantly nudges a client to sign a paper to give up the struggle for legitimate rights over a piece of land in exchange for a paltry sum so that he can get his own share of the loot. How callous, how dehumanizing indeed considering that he had pledged to honor and defend justice upon taking oath as a lawyer.
Our protests and rallies are rooted in the way the halls of formal powers are being handled at this time. We do not have exactly pristine leaders inside the government. They are seen daily scraping the barrels of people's coffers dry and empty. Worse, some of the leaders of groups that criticize this administration are themselves guilty of promoting themselves whence they are committing dynastic perpetuation of their powers.
Pragmatism is the rule of life at this time and that is just saying, to hell with all the historical lessons we have been taught in schools. To be practical, to think and act pragmatically, to grab the moment, the chance to make a quick buck, that is what is egging every corruptible individual to survive at this time. the end justifies the means. Machiavellis abound in this country. No longer are we prodded to think of time-honored values of living with the noblest images, thoughts and deeds of Rizal, Mabini, Tandang Sora, Teodora Alonzo and Bonifacio, among others.
Now what would account for a simpler life of honest and good governance? This is still the question that rankles our mind minute by minute. How do we instill genuine public service among public servants supposed to be?
It is quite simple, what comes to my mind. Everytime we see a government office, let us paste on its gate a poster: "Can you say in great honesty that you are serving well the Filipino people every day?" And should the office remove such a poster, then let us carry and tack another one the following day. In other words, without let up, let us remind them that they have been elected or appointed precisely to answer an uncategorical YES to that question.
Happy June 12th Independence Day!
John Teniel, The Playing Cards Painting the Rose Bush, Print Illustration from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
No comments:
Post a Comment