Surrender your rights, but don’t drag me into it
There are those who say and insist that we accept the ban on rallies (or CPR as it’s coyly termed — calibrated preemptive response) and protests and make do with the other means and ways by which we can express our disgust and outrage against this illegitimate and corrupt government.
They say we can always write what we feel, what we think and send letters to newspapers, fax and email and text. Magkasya na lamang daw tayo sa ganitong mga porma ng pagpapayahag. This is what you call democratic space?
This?!
This is my blog space, and I don’t know who the heck reads my rants and ramblings or whether any of this makes any difference. All I know is that when I’m angry or upset, or when some spirit of mischief or glee moves me I tap-tap-tap away on the keyboard and the words flow happy, bitter, melancholy or deliriously outraged.
Clearly, these people who say that we should accept the limits the government is imposing on our political and democratic rights — the barbed wire fences the government keeps building around the so-called democratic space– have never really had their rights abused or violated.
I’m trying very hard to be fair and understand how their minds work (class background, cultural influences, education etc ek-ek), but for the life of me I still can’t help but be frustrated and infuriated.
If you lack the physical courage to oppose, the moral fibre to denounce and the intellectual ability to comprehend these boundaries the government are setting on the exercise of civil liberties and democratic rights, then utang na loob, surrender your own rights and don’t makethe rest of us commit ours to the police, the military and to Malacanang.
These people who accept this worsening state of things, this intensifying political repression don’t know how it is to day in, day-out fight for the very right to live.
Digmaan sa iba’t-ibang antas ang dala ng bawat araw para sa masang anakpawis ng bayang ito. Digmaan para makakain, mabuhay, at magtaguyod ng pamilya.
In the factories - especially in the export processing zones and enclaves - workers are forced to launch strikes in defense of their economic welfare.
For instance, cccupational health and safety standards mean jack shit for many companies, and most companies don’t even have clinics for their workers. The violations to OHS are countless, but never has a single capitalist been charged for undermining the health and safety of their workers. Collective bargaining agreements are more often than not spat upon by managements, and the DOLE aids and abets them in this.
Last September 21, seven people were seriously injured and scores were hurt when the demolition teams attempted to demolish the houses along McArthur Highway onwards to SM Marilao. The demolition crew armed with crowbars, steel mallets and other implements attacked residents who tried to stop the operations by establishing a barricade.
The residents were, are, determined to stop the demolitions being conducted by the Department of Public Works and Highways-District II, Bulacan for road widening purposes and in preparation for the anomalous and anti-poor NorthRail project.
In the provinces, farmers continue to be driven out of their homes, their small patch of land taken from them by the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Everyday is a life and death struggle against the military, the landlords, and the multinational and transnational corporations which want to tear and dig up the land for mining, or convert arable agricultural land to plantations for export cash crops.
Sabihin mo nga kung magkakasya ka sa pagsusulat kung nakikipag-usap ka pa lang, nagmamaka-awa ka na nga para sa iyong pamilya, para sa iyong dampang bahay, para sa iyong ipinundar na mga hamak na ari-arian, tinututukan ka ng baril.
O mas malala, binubuksan mo pa lang ang iyong bibig para magsalita at tumutol, binaril ka na.
Gaano karaming Pilipino ba ang nakapagbabasa ng Inquirer, o may telepono sa bahay, may computer, fax modem, internet connection o kahit celphone man lamang?
Umaabot ba sa berdugo at kriminal na gobyerno ang mga hiyaw ng galit at hinagpis na kumakawala sa dibdib ng bawat manggawang dinahas sa piketlayn, magsasakang pinalayas sa kanyang lupain, maralitang lungsod o kanayunan na ipinagtabuyan mula sa kanyang barong-barong o maliit na kahong sementong tinitirhan?
How convenient it is for these civil society voices that they don’t even have to leave the comfort of their own homes to placate their so-called social consciences to feebly denounce the govenrment’s rising tyranny! All they have to do is turn on their high-tech desktops, laptops or Palm pilot, and write a scathing letter to the editor or column or commentary and voila! - they have done their duty to society for the day.
Do they really know what the face of poverty looks like? Do they have the slightest idea how it feels to be genuinely hungry — to feel that empty ache in your belly, that hollowness that eventually develops into white wailing wall of pain?
Can they even begin to fathom the despair and desperation of not having money to buy medicine for a delirious child? The frustration of wanting to continue one’s formal education, but to be unable to fork out the funds for tuition, for the books, not even for the school uniform?
Do they know how it feels to be beaten up by truncheon-wielding security guards or police? To be kicked in the head by soldiers? To see the mangled body of a friend or loved one - a bloody and twisted mess of shattered bone, bullet-ridden flesh?
Hindi nila alam! Kaya’t napakadali sa kanilang isuko ang kanilang karapatan dahil hindi pa nila talaga kahit kailan naramdaman kung paano pagkaitan nito, o kapag ito’y nilapastangan!
Sabi nila, the pen is mightier than the sword. Tingin ko, depende kung ano ang sinusulat ng pen na yan, at kung para kanino. Kahit kailan, mas idol ko si Bonifacio kaysa kay Rizal (although of course I also admire Rizal!). Si Gat Andres na naging makata din, nakapagsulong ng rebolusyon at daan-libong Pilipino ang tumugon sa kanyang panawagan. Nang sya’y sumigaw na "Maghimagsik!", tumalima ang masa. Hanggang ngayon, mayorya ng mga Pilipino hindi pa rin nababasa ang Noli at El Fili (sayang sayang sayang).
Sana sumama na lang si Rizal kay Gat Andres.
Sinong bumabasa ng column mo? Ng blog ko? Kayo-kayo? Tayo-tayo na nagdedebate sa internet? Nagpapatalinuhan sa mga talk shows? Nag-aaway sa radyo? Mga sagot nyo sa krisis na kayo-kayo lang ang nag-isip, pero di sapul sa kailangan ng mamamayan?
Kilala nyo nga ba ang mamamayan?
Yes, the celphone is a weapon, and so is the internet, the written word emailed, faxed, snail-mailed; but they are NOT enough. I can speak, and I will not give up my right to raise my voice. To physically show my outrage by raising my fist and marching alongside other Filipinos who, more than I, have deeper, greater reason to cry out in anger and demand that this inhumane government to yield.
Wala pang kontradiksyong panlipunan na nabigyang solusyon nang pabor sa masa sa pamamagitan ng patext-text o pa-email-email lang. #
