It’s nice to have a government leadership that adheres to western tradition, even the curse of history. The legacy of western civilization is very much a happy incidence in our society. In spite of its geographical location, the Philippines seems to be more in league with the countries of the western world. Our national consciousness is a veritable adjunct of American consciousness.
We love the language of a Western nation—the U.S. of America… We love the totality of the western life ways. Our educational system insures that we sustain every Filipino’s dream of becoming like an American. But that does not preclude the chance of becoming a European. The pride of having been able to go to America or to London or Paris – or in any event, to any country in the West—is an eventuality akin to having reached the courtyard of a mythical kingdom.
It’s an unimaginable feeling of exaltation and pride and whatever other sensory experience concomitant with success—a feat beyond measure.—a dream come true! And then, as a next episode, having come back to Philippine soil after having stayed for a time in the West—especially America or Europe—one feels a sense of hubris—a sense of being above the ordinary Filipino who may not even have gone out of one’s hometown or village.
We hold with unspeakable awe. A Filipino who has tattooed his very soul with Western culture—English language with a foreign accent, equipment of western art and literature and history—all the trappings of someone who has embraced the cultural identity of the man or woman of the West.
On the part of the Filipino politician who has successfully climbed to the helm of power, there is that certain pride in feeling like an expert of the history, laws and politics of the West. In the management of the affairs of government, the Filipino national leadership certainly takes pride in being conversant with the h istory of western civilizations, of the development of laws from the Roman civilization to modern Europe. He is knowledgeable of the various political theories and forms of government that have developed and evolved in the West.
Our politicians, who by the way are almost always lawyers, love to copy the political institutions that have hitherto been developed and established in the western societies in Europe and America. Of course, our country adopts the political and legal systems of the Americans through a period of colonization. Our Philippine States is an American invention. Or we might call it an American clone society.
Our national leaders, no doubt, experience a strangely gladsome feeling coupled with a sense of arrogance that they can manage our political affairs with the dexterity of the American State officials. Indeed, we cherish the fact that our President can articulate like the American and European heads of State. Or that he can competently conduct himself in the fashion and style of American or European public officials. We treasure the idea that we have a government system which is a duplicate copy of the US system.
As far as knowledge of the history and development of western civilizations is concerned, our schooled politi cians are familiar with the “rise and fall”of the Roman empire. In the style of the rulers of ancient societies, our President carries himself with the stubborn arrogance reminiscent of a ruler of yore— Emperor Nero of ancient Rome. History has taught us that one moment during his rule, Emperor Nero was fiddling in his palace while the City of Rome was burning.
Well, it must have been to the heart of President Noynoy a rare romantic delight that he could date with the Bb. Pilipinas beauty while several houses of Moro residents in Mamasapano were burned to cinders by his soldiers who have been waging “all-out war” against the Bangsamoro people! Certainly, for all the wide gap between the bachelor President and the Filipina specimen of pulchritude, his was a moment of “kilig” quite contagious its vibrations readily reached his sister Kris Baby!
The burning of the Mamasapano residents’ houses and all the other human rights abuses were farthest from his notice, concern, and care—not just during the event but since the start of the all-out offensives undertaken by the government armed forces. He could have mindlessly said, “Did I have to attend the funeral services for the Fallen 44 at the Villamor Airbase?”
And like salt rubbed on raw wounds, his own military commander charged with the conduct of government soldiers in the Moro villages, was himself enjoying the sight of the sexy Pageant beauties during the nights of the beauty contest!—he being one of the Pageant judges along with DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima! Oh yes, you will appreciate the happy difficulty with which the good General Gregorio Catapang of the AFP managed to recite a prepared question in the Question & Answer portion of the pageant! He must have been experiencing a strange “tachycardia” (fast heart rate) while reading the question. Hahaha.
True to western history and tradition, our ruler Mr. Noynoy Aquino was figuratively fiddling while Mamasapano was burning.
