“If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build’em up with worn-out tools;” – From IF by Rudyard Kipling
I congratulate the organizers of 1SAMBAYAN. In the current Philippine environment, it is not easy to do that. It is swimming against the current. It is a daring move. It is not usual – considering the kind of politicians we have. All of them are in the mining business – that is mine, yours is mine, and mine all mine. This one sounds very familiar since the person known to have initiated the mining business is very much alive and kicking with unabashed desire to get back to power through her children.
With a Catholic majority, it is possible that miracles can happen and the Opposition can unite against the formidable Duterte machine and succeed to defeat it.
Unity: To unite a fractured Opposition is not easy, it is difficult. The fact that it is difficult does not mean it can’t be done. During the time of Marcos, it was difficult and dangerous to move for unity in the Opposition. But it was done and the rest is history. Based on our experience, unity is not enough. It should be unity for a common program designed to better the interest of the country and our people.
There at least two precedents for a united Opposition which toppled two governments – the Marcos regime and the Erap presidency. But it was unity which proved to be colossal failures. Why? The Opposition was united to topple regimes on the bases of misdeeds of the toppled leadership. While rage is a necessary instrument for unity, it is not enough. You need a vision with a blue print that defines specific programs – not motherhood statements.
Possible candidates. The list of possible unity candidates is composed of traditional politicians and a head of a religious sect. That in itself is a mistake. A unity of politicians will never take the country anywhere to secure a better life for our people. Neither will a religious sect leader. Such choice is the road to perdition. It is the usual. The usual choices for reason of popularity or ambition will not do this country any good. It is just a cycle of the same withered banana – rotten to the core.
What to find: 1SAMBAYAN should do better than just having a list of traditional politicians and a religious sect leader. It should look for other persons who are out of the box thinkers, visionaries with a complete blue print and complete program on all areas of development and departments for national governance; disciplined with integrity, character and correct values with undying commitment to our country and our people and those who have balls in their brains and brains in their balls.
Not just any Juan, Pablo and Pedro can qualify for President. Only those with intellectual incandescence skirting the fringes of divinity deserve to be President. The reason why this country has been floundering these past few decades is – we have had a number of fools and ignoramuses as Presidents.
Wake up time: Filipino voters have been sleeping for so long either for reason of ignorance, stupidity, greed or opportunism that it is about time they think of the country and their fellow countrymen. 1SAMBAYAN should conduct an educational campaign to enlighten the voters and our people on what should they do so the right person will be elected as President of this country in the presidential election of 2022.
We all should think of what these great men have said as guide for our courses of action from this moment till the 2022 elections. US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy said in his inaugural address – “Ask not what this country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” In a similar vein, British political philosopher, said – “The only reason for the triumph of the forces of evil is that good men do nothing.”
If the country fails to elect the right President in 2022 as we defined him in the previous paragraphs, the good men who are still around should mount an honest to goodness revolution so our people can live in progress, equality, justice resulting to peace, freedom and a better life.
Other people have done it in other countries I see no reason why we can’t do it here.
