Rommel F. Bonus
“Philosophers
have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change
it.” - Karl Marx
On conflict of interests, on the paradigm of
the oppressed and of the tyrant, are always been debatable between the orthodox
and the post-Marxist in the concept of dualistic contradiction in the
dialectics of Marx, the fundamental thought of its philosophy. Of the
fundamentalist is of the prime idea of two classes’ mere existence against the impurities of the neo; the claim that
there are always been neutrals. The first claim is of course from Marx’s
metaphysical insight, his socio-economic analysis based on the nature of
reality that Stalin and Lenin first called dialectical
materialism (Marx didn’t mention the term; he only used the term
“historical materialism”). The post’s claim may be traced to the ancient
Greece’s “idiots”, those who don’t have any political participation. Albeit,
Jose Maria Sison, the founder of the great party who was called by his comrades
as “a true Marxist” classified social classes in the Philippines not merely
Bourgeoisie and Proletariats as Marx himself referred to the two classes in the
French and English social structure dominantly arose during the industrial revolution,
but with another classes as Petty bourgeoisie referring to the people in
intelligentsia such as students and professionals alike. He even has
semi-proletarians, and even lumpen-proletarians who are those that are not
employed, those are the criminals, thieves, and gangsters.
People criticize Joey Ayala’s Magkabilaan as
the “dialectical materialism song”. On his blog, Joey wrote “Some people still refer to the title song as
my “dialectical materialism” song!” and claim that he was really inspired
by the biblical Ecclesiastes and his experience seeing social contradictions on
his hometown Davao. One of the lines on the said song was “May kaliwa’t may kanan sa ating lipunan, patuloy ang pagtutunggali
patuloy ang paglalaban. Pumanig ka, ‘wag nang ipagpaliban pa. Ang ‘di
makapagpasya ay maiipit sa gitna” (There is left and right in our society, the
struggle and war is ongoing. You should not postpone deciding now, for those
who will not, will be caught in between).
There are allegations about the cold war we
know that we actually encountered during high school days, written in our
ever-fallacies books, that the term communist versus democracy is not the right
words describing cold war and, well, our
own ideological struggle, because in context of the Left, communism is
democracy. You can see it by names of the communist nations, always using
“democratic”. National Democratic Front uses Pambansa-Demokratikong Pagbabago (National Democratic Movement). It
is therefore a conclusion for such allegations that communism is not
contradiction to democracy and vice-versa.
Rumors spread across the internet,
specifically Facebook and other mass media that there is a possibility that
JoMa Sison will be home in the Philippines after his exile in Netherlands when
the his former student in San Beda and presidential bet Rodrigo Duterte, or
Grace Poe wins the election. However, Sison argued that the party does not support
any political candidate, and that - it is their firm principle not to believe in
election system. This 29th of
March, 2016, New People’s Army – Communist Party of the Philippines – National
Democratic Front celebrates its 47th anniversary by making a tribute
to their comrade Gregorio “Ka Roger”
Rosal who said in his days “Hindi eleksyon,
kundi rebolusyon” (Revolution, not election).
On the other side Sison was so upset on his
former student, because Duterte after admitting that he is a leftist issued an
anti-worker statement on Kilusang Mayo Uno, a prominent progressive labor
center. On the official first day of campaign period for 2016 elections,
Duterte said, “I will establish economic zones. Mag-imbita ako… Dito kayo
magtrabaho. Wag kayong magmamadali. Tapos kayong mga KMU, medyo pigilan na muna
ninyo ang mga labor unions. Ako na ang nakikiusap sa inyo. Magkasama tayo sa
ideolohiya. Wag ninyong gawin iyan. Kasi sisirain mo ang administrasyon ko.
Kapag ginawa ninyo iyan, patayin ko kayong lahat. Ang solusyon dito, patayan
na. Eh pag-usapan mo, ayaw. Do not do it now, iyung
active labor front. Kasi kapag ginawa ninyo, nagsasara. (I will invite …
here you can work. Don’t rush. And you, KMU, restrain your labor unions a bit.
It is I who is requesting you. We’re comrades in ideology. Don’t do that.
Because you would destroy my administration. If you do that, I will kill you
all. The solution here is killing. If we talk about it, you refuse. Do not do
it, those active labor fronts.) Do not do it. Give the Philippines respect for
about 10 years.”
Duterte even boast to say “I share with your ideology” before
threatening to kill them. “Is he joking
or did he just declare war?” is KMU’s response to Duterte’s statement.
Miriam Defensor-Santiago was criticized in the
internet as a “Communist” after stating her want to junk Enhance Defense
Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), the alliance between the United States of America
and Philippines. She says that 17 years of colonial relationship with the US
must end. The Left however views it as radical step.
On a 2014 lecture, Noam Chomsky argued that
you can never have a capitalist democracy. Capitalist’s libertarian principle
from the classical Adam Smith is radically far away from the genuine democracy.
All they want (the capitalist) is freedom, and their concept of freedom is
freedom to exploit and own laborers. And eventually, historically speaking,
their freedom became power and hegemony. Quoting Marx, he claimed the
prediction that with this matter, if a capitalist democracy continues to exist
for several years or decades it will eventually self-destruct. A phrase “Marx
was Right!” is actually humoristic for me considering the left-party. The
manifestation of the prediction of Marx, as was interpreted in the Philippine
society, although not full attainment of nationalization of the means of
production, is little by little mobilizing the masses to a greater cause of
closing the gap between the classes, and is a real proof of the destruction of
capitalist system, and will always be a sign of inevitableness for people to
realize the true justice.
Philippine society, at its most definite
comprehensiveness, has an infamous familiarity to decline. Rereading Jose
Corazon de Jesus’ Bayan Ko, “At sa kanyang yumi at ganda dayuhan ay
nahalina, bayan ko binihag ka nalugmok sa dusa” (How her Charm so kind and
tender, Drove the Strangers to enslave her; Native land, they forced their
Will, And made you suffer Still). De Jesus lived during the American colonial
times, and may still be in wonder of the Hispanic but the truth of his poem
that was considered as the second national anthem when sung by Freddie Aguilar,
is still and even more applicable today. We still experience imperialistic
dominance through intervention instead of mediation. The only person you can
ask that will counter-react to this is, of course, Pnoy, his dilawan team, and the presidential bet
Mar Roxas who served as the apologist of the administration on the last two
presidential debates.
It is in the time of Spanish colonization that
we resist tyranny. But like Cuba, after the Spanish-American war, was
intervened by US-Imperialism. The only difference is that Cuba, lead by Fidel
Castro, Raul Castro (now the president of Cuba) and an Argentinean
revolutionary Che Guevara, resist and revolt until they attain the true
national democracy and independence of the US intervention, the imperialist
nation which according to Nelson Mandela, always acts for their own interest.
And so until today, we are a dependent nation, our socio-politics and economy
has been in hegemony of United States of America and the bourgeoisie may it be
culturally, military (bases and foreign policies), in education (as for K-12
towards neo-liberalism) and in our natural resources (as for mining).
The nation as a semi-feudal can be traced from
the Hispanic encomienda, up to the
landlords of our days.
Amado Guerrero on his Philippine Society and Revolution wrote:
Philippine society today is semi-colonial and semi-feudal.
This status is determined by U.S.
imperialism,
feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism which now
ruthlessly exploit the broad
masses of the Filipino
people. These three historical evils are the basic problems that afflict Philippine
society.
He addresses that the root of the social
problems came from imperialistic and feudalistic US. One of the concerns of US
is foreign policy. Their acts always serve their interests. For instance, free
trade is manifested thru unlimited and untaxed imported goods from them, and
limited exports from us. Our notion of free trade is the relationship between
the serf and the lord on a feudal system.
Lualhati Bautista, a Filipina novelist, on her
novel Gapo wrote a statement with her
famous anguish tone of writing, “Mababait
at mapagmahal ang kano, pero una’t higit sa lahat, sa sarili. May karapatan ka
sa dangal at katarungan, basta h’wag mapeperhuwisyo ang mga negosyo nila’t
pansariling interes” (Americans are good and compassionate people, but
first and for most for themselves. You have your right of dignity and justice,
albeit never try to harm their business and self interest).
Our culture of colonial mentality plays a
great role on us being a “semi-colonial”
nation. The hegemony of the bourgeois takes deeper roots on our day-to-day
lives making the gap between the classes even more far away from one another,
without the consciousness of the masses contributing to the cultural hegemony. As
long as we fanaticize other’s culture rather than value our heritage, we will
always find ourselves patronizing their products – contributing to the
prosperity of their economy, while here we are digging our own grave, killing
our own identity. Our government is always, on the side of the joint venture
mining companies who destroy our mountains, kills hundreds of Lumads who choose to resist the ongoing
destruction to protect the land which according to this people was inherited
from their ancestors.
Even to these days, Cojuanco-Aquino still has
the control and monopolizes vast land in Tarlac that belongs to our peasant and
farmers. Videos on FB show how these modern landlords burn famers’ hut and
bulldoze the crops through large vehicles and un-uniformed police authorities. On
issues like this, you can’t expect justice; always remember that our own
president is an ‘aciendero himself.
Even in my community, even if some people say
I influence people enough to impart the ideology of the people, it always been
a struggle, for I always find difficulties engaging myself to people who are so
obsessed with mentality of a colony. They appreciate more of the Korean Pop and
Justin Bieber, and don’t even know the name Joey Ayala or Gary Granada, or even
worst calling their songs “makaluma”
(oldies).
Not until the nationalization of the means of
production began, the gap between the classes closed, have the liberation of
ideas from the cultural hegemony of the bourgeoisie, stopped the contractualization and
promote a better working conditions of our working class, stopped
the monopolized control of vast lands of the feudal landlords, free from the
dominance of the US-Imperialism, establish a socialist constitution that shall
embody the true justice may it be retributive and distributive phase, not until
then, we can never attain the real independence.
__________________________________________________________________________
Sources:
Philippine Society and Revolution, Amado Guerrero
Rappler
Philippine Daily Inquirer
