In sum, all agree that the machine isn't working as it should.
The causes that the bad government and slow death of that country’s life are attributed to, vary depending on who studies them. Most of those who went there as functionaries or governors, those men who perhaps have a bad conscience because they have not fulfilled the duty imposed on them by the salary they received, these men shout and lay the blame for everything on the indio, perhaps to distract the public’s attention toward some other object and thus their faults will not be discovered; perhaps to convince and make their conscience believe things that by themselves cannot be believed, the way many cowards infuse themselves with valor through speechifying, the way many liars do who end up believing their own lies after repeating them countless times.
In contrast (what a parados!), those who have conscienciously fulfilled their obligations and have done everything they had to and could, within the country’s perplexing administrative labyrinth, inhibited and threatened by a capricious tyrant, who, from one mail ship to the other, can propose their removal or send them back – these blame the disorganization on the system of government, the personnel, the lack of job stability in the positions, intrigue, etc.
The friars have another system: the country’s ills are all attributed by them to the Liberal ministers, who, because they are Liberals, must be ignorant. On the other hand, the little good that there is, they attribute to themselves. Retrograde ministers, or the ministers from their convent, who by the sole fact of being such are wise, neither do good nor evil – their correct action consists of consulting them and obeying them, and this is what they communicate in lengthy telegrams that the Manila newspapers who are loyal to them publish in big letters.
As for the Liberal peninsulars who are in Filipinas, they blame the friars for the backwardness of the islands, and in their case they have more reason, since, the islands being governed as they are by the convents, the fault of the malfunctioning must fall upon the latter.
However, these Liberals forget the part they play in the dysfunction – if they were to refuse to be governed and did not serve as instruments as often happens; if they were to refuse to make concessions concerning many things that offend their convictions out of fear of losing their appointment; if they had more fortitude, more faith in their ideals, if they studied the country more and set themselves the firm objective of ending the monastic guardianship that the country is vegetating in, then the friars would not be governing Filipinas, nor would modern ideas be asphyxiated the minute they touched the beaches of Manila.
The Filipinos in general blame their country’s malaise and misery on everything above – on the friar, and on all the centuries-old elements that do not stand out for their great character, for a manifest love for the country and her inhabitants, and for a more-or-less entrepreneurial initiative in the question of reforms. The Filipinos, like the Liberals we have spoken of – and to whom they are very similar – also forget the responsibility that falls on their shoulders in their current situation, since, if the saying is true that “where the boss is in charge, the sailor isn’t,” so is the other saying that each country has the government it deserves.
The national spirit makes heard its first screams like a newborn. Before there was only the sentiment of the family or tribe; barely, just barely, that of the region. In consequence, senseless measures did not provoke strong protests from public opinion, but only among those whose relatives were more-or-less directly harmed. As far as the country is concerned, each Filipino thinks in this way: let her fend for herself, save herself, protest, fight – I will do nothing, I’m not the one who has to fix things; I’ve got enough on my hands with my interests, passions and caprices. Let others take the chestnuts out of the fire, and then we can eat them. The Filipinos seem not to know that triumph is the child of struggle, that joy is the flower of many sufferings and privations, and that all redemption presupposes martyrdom and sacrifice. They believe that by moaning and groaning, then sitting with their hands folded in their laps and letting things follow their course, they have done their duty. Others, it’s true, try to do a bit more and offer pessimistic or discouraging advice – they recommend doing nothing. There are, however, those who begin to see clearly and who do as much as they can.
The foreigners, among whom we place in the Chinese in the front line, laugh at everything that happens and take advantage of the lacks and defects of the governed and the governors, to use them. They are the happiest ones – they come over when they want, they stay as long as they please, and they leave when it’s convenient for them to do so. They are not bound by any duty toward the country, nor do they care whether the Government is more or less responsible, or the people more or less enslaved. Like the locust they strip the fields without bothering about the sower or the land. The saddest of all is that there are peninsulars and Filipinos who are like locusts in their manner of thinking and acting.
We believe that everyone is, in part, right. The parties can pass the buck to each other, the peninsulars to the Filipinos, the Filipinos to the peninsulars, the friars to the Liberals and the Liberals to the friars – we believe that even the Chinese themselves have a right to laugh at the Government and the country; it is finally a justice that we all deserve – but above all these instances of meanspiritedness, above this awful disconcertment, there is the principle that the Government in its origins is vice ridden, defective, absurd, uncommitted.
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Commentary:
We have tried different arrays of leaders, from the dictatorship of Marcos down to the Economic approach of Arroyo. In 60 years of presidential form of government we haven’t sailed towards progress. What is wrong with us? The System or form of Government is the menace in our Society. Our Constitution marks a major breach in political continuity, a means of establishing a new political order following the rejection, collapse or failure of an old order. As the title suggests, Rizal lays out an ideal vision of what an ideal government should and should not do, with the hope that it will motivate readers to work toward that end.
This blog post is dedicated to our National Hero in the celebration of his 150th Birthday.
Jose Rizal, How One Governs Filipinas (translated by Elizabeth Medina), La Solidaridad, December 15, 1890.
