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TO BE FREE IS TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ONE'S SELF
As a teenager I find myself through an awkward age
When I am neither man nor child, and by the way I feel, neither
animal, mineral nor vegtable. . . when my voice cascades
down from high C to B flat minor and every pimple assumes the
proportions of Taal Volcano.
I am prone to anxiety, fear frequent changes of mood, sensitive
to criticism.
I spent sleepless nights worrying about bad breath, homework and
the exquisite agonies of unrequited love.
It is the age when I feel the first stirrings of man's
primordial urge.... TO BE FREE!
To be free to pursue the pleasures of youth,
to watch TV and use the telephone for hours on end .......
FREE to settle arguments with my brothers and sisters with a
kick in the pants.
"Papa, I WANT TO BE FREE TO DO WHAT I WISH"
My father's answer was short and devastating:
"As long as I provide you with the roof over your head and the
clothes you wear, YOU ARE NOT FREE, my son. TO BE
FREE IS TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ONE SELF."
Even as I stand before you, our country the Philippines stands
before the rest of the world as the first democracy in all of
Asia --- still in it's AWKWARD AGE, a nation not quite yet a
nation,
trying to be politically independent while economically
insecure, and every bit as PRONE to
ANXIETY, FEAR, FREAQUENT CHANGE OF MOOD and SENSITIVE TO
CRITICISM as I ever am in my own AWKWARD AGE.
Here democracy first dawned over the high tide of WESTERN
COLONIALISM at the end of the last century.
Yet in 1989, we Filipinos dared to rise against the tide of
history and to declare ourselves free, the first in all of Asia
to
brake the shackels of Western colonialism.
Even in 1946 when we regained our independence, we were still
the first nation to achieve independence from the
colonial powers.
As the oldest democracy in Asia, we watch other people in our
part of the world painfully following our footsteps,
fighting and dying for the same dream. Elsewhere in Asia, a
Buddhist monk douses himself with gasoline, lights a match
and burns in the glow of a lost cause... an Indonesian student
waves his placard over the street-barricades to the vision
of a distant dream, in the teeth of machine gun bullets... a
Chinese peasant makes a daring dash for freedom to the
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border, is shot and lies dying in a ditch, and his eyes search
those of the people just across, so near they see him and
take pity on him. The Buddhist monk, the Indonesian student, the
Chinese peasant and millions of Asians look to the
Philippines for lessons learned in the struggle for democratic
freedom, and wonder, after all, as they watch us grapple
with graft and corruption, smuggling, political goons, high
prices, unemployment, murder, treason and so on into the
long and lamentable catalogue of human crime -- and wonder after
all, whether the lessons we learned are worth
learning at all. We have learned one thing: that the death of
tyranny does not automatically mean the birth of
democracy. Democracy has a mind of its own, and does not
necessarily follow a successful revolution against despotic
rule. What was started on the bleak December morn when Rizal was
led to martyrdom in Bagumbayan is still by farunfinished. You can
destroy a tyranny quickly, you must build freedom slowly. Freedom
must be renewed like soil after
yielding good crops, must be rewound like a faithful clock,
exercised like a healthy muscle. Vigilance is the price of
liberty
-- a little civil thinking every day, shouting your mouth off
against crime and corruption, voting in season, and demanding
from your representative that he be representative. Another
lesson we learned is this: Democracy in its turn does not
automatically mean prosperity. For prosperity also has a mind of
its own, and does not follow democracy around like a
faithful dog. Prosperity too must be earned... by land reform
and industrialization; by postponing consumption to build
up savings and investments, passing up the temporal joys of
English Leather for an extra clink into the piggy bank; by
patronizing our local industries; and most of all, by a policy
of protectionism that promotes economic development and
national self-reliance. To be free is to be responsible for one
self. To put our lessons hard to work is the greatest need of
all. For today, Communism is coming up like thunder, dedicated
to the proposition that prosperity and greatness canonly be
attained at the price of freedom. We owe it to ourselves and to the
rest of Asia, to prove otherwise: that
freedom and democracy can lead to economic prosperity and
national greatness. To remain free, we have no choice. For
the price of failure is great. Take the case of that boy in a
hotel in Intramuros who was asked to take care of a baby sister
who cried all day and all night because she was hungry. The
parents were out... the father looking for a job, always
looking and never finding one the mother, searching the garbage
cans for scraps and rotten bananas. The baby cried so
much that it twisted the mind of the brother who watched over
her... he reached out with his hands on the babys neck
and... killed her. My friends, when you come home at night from
your office or factory, and lay your head on your pillow
to claim the rest you earned at the end of a long day... between
the closing of your eyes and the coming of sleep...in that
twilight zone of wakefulness where thoughts and plans and
prayers dwell -- Think. Plan. And pray. Pray that our nation
shall under God prosper in freedom, and survive to greatness
through its awkward Age.
