Quezon was right

The season has come, once more, to think of Philippine independence. This time, barely weeks from a mid-term election that again showcased to the world how hellish the exercise of suffrage in our country can be. Which brings to mind the oft-quoted statement of President Manuel L. Quezon that he ‘preferred the Philippines run like hell by Filipinos rather than like heaven by Americans’.

Did he really wish hell for his own people?

When Governor General Leonard Wood came to his position (1921 to 1927), he stopped the “Filipinization” and trend to autonomy initiated by his predecessor Francis Burton Harrison. Wood’s policies were seen by Quezon and other Filipino leaders as erosion of the hard fought gains towards independence. That, in short, was the historical context. The complete statement, in reference to Governor General Wood, was: “I prefer a government run like hell by Filipinos to a government run like heaven by Americans because however bad a Filipino government might be, it can still be improved”. Unfortunately, we have given too much focus on the first part; we forgot the second part altogether.

I submit Quezon did not wish hell upon his people.

His main point was not the ephemeral consequences of what could appear as a “heaven” or a “hell”, but rather the eternal substance of the people of the Philippines exercising their God-given power to choose their own destiny.

No matter how right or nice the direction or results might be (how like heaven), if one could do nothing but follow, cannot make his own mistakes, cannot correct those same mistakes, and will always have someone or something to blame for any event or phenomenon, then that person is less than a full human being; that person will lack self-respect, lack self-esteem, lack self-reliance, lack self-responsibility and thus will never attain independence.

I submit that that was the real point of President Quezon. He wanted his people to stand on their own, fly on their own, chart their own destiny; to be independent and thus be enabled for positive interdependence. I also submit that when he uttered those words, he did not mean our people should be run by a rich, powerful and monopolistic clique whose main interest is of and for their very own perpetuation in power; but by, of and for the people themselves whose main decision criterion is “the greatest good of the greatest number”.

Perhaps a lot of us Filipinos missed that substantive point or have not realized it.

Could this explain why we are a people still mired in the continuing exercise of expending our energies in blaming Spain and America, any and all “isms”, and each other, instead of focusing our individual and group efforts on doing what needs to be done, now, together, like an orchestra, to achieve our common purposes?

Why do we not desist from canceling each other’s efforts out and why do we not persist in not tolerating poverty and corruption?

Asking is easy, one might say. But isn’t asking the right questions the first requisite for solving problems?

So what’s a right question regarding independence? How about what we mean by “the God-given power to choose one’s destiny”?

Viktor Frankl, a holocaust survivor, in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning” said: “…everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way”; also: “Even though conditions such as lack of sleep, insufficient food and various mental stresses may suggest that the inmates were bound to react in certain ways, in the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone. Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him – mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp.”

In sum, between stimulus and response, there is the divine power of choice. No matter how bad the circumstances might be, humans still have the power of choice within.

I prefer this idea to what is being popularized as “The Lucifer Effect” that explains why good people become bad under certain circumstances. In other words, that we are nothing but creatures of circumstances; that calibrated conditions will bring about calculated resulting behavior.

I submit we are much more than our circumstances. For we have the unfettered power to choose our responses.

And whether we choose good or bad, right or wrong, prosperity or poverty, self-esteem or self-deprecation, we expend the same amount of energy. “No more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty” (Napoleon Hill).

What prevents us then from choosing good and accountable government over bad and corrupt governance with impunity?

What holds us from choosing to uphold the three R’s: Respect for self; Respect for others; and Responsibility for all our actions?

Why do we even consider the view of some people that we do not have enough love for our own country and people? … that we have a national inferiority complex? … that we do not have a sense of our own history serving as source of our national pride?

We can choose to accept or reject these ideas. If we accept, then beyond reasonable doubt, we are so deficient in love of country and in national pride! If we reject these ideas and firmly hold their very opposite, then we stand strong in love of country, self-respect and self-determination.

We do not need any body to say and define who and what we are. We and our dreams are who and what we think we are, regardless of what others think and say.

“The only opinion about your dream (and you) that really counts is yours. The negative comments of others merely reflect their limitations – not yours”. (Cynthia Kersey) “It’s not what you are that holds you back. It’s what you think you’re not.” (Denis Waitley)

It is then a matter of choosing which thoughts, emotions and actions we focus on. For energy follows thought.

So what thoughts do we focus on, entertain, feed, encourage, add fuel to and keep rewinding/replaying in our mental tapes concerning our people, our government and our nation?

You guessed it. We are getting the manifestations of the energies that inexorably followed the thoughts we have loved to hold (so far) on these matters!

But we all have the power to change these manifestations.

We can choose to focus our thoughts, and thus our consequent actions, on: good governance; clean elections truly reflecting our will as a sovereign people; votes not for sale, ever; voting only for platforms reflecting the “greatest good of the greatest number”; making elected officials accountable; working towards individual and national prosperity, rejecting mendicancy and giving our fair share of contributions (taxes and volunteer work) for the national weal.

Indeed, we can choose to improve whatever shortcomings, or do away with whatever obstructions, there might be, in our government, now run by some of us. Even if the outward circumstances might appear to be like a San Quintin prison or a Nazi internment camp; although our national realities are actually much, much better; and thus easier to surmount — within our hearts and minds.

We simply have to exercise our power to choose. We are the Sovereign.

Let us not believe any one who says otherwise, especially those who claim or make appear or pretend they know better!

Let us not allow any one to choose for us. Not politicians. Not church leaders. Not soldiers or bureaucrats. Not businessmen. Not media people. Not activists. Not fundamentalists. Not artistas. Not any foreigner. Not any one else.

But every single sovereign Filipino should decide. For this is our power.

We can choose to fulfill our individual purposes. I submit our divine purpose is to accomplish our personal missions to multiply our unique talents and make our lives productive (Parable of Talents, Matthew 25:14-30) and thus grow along in wide paths on the earth (The Koran, Nuh, 71.17-20).

We can choose to acknowledge and respect each other as sparks of the divine. “The Light of God in Me recognizes and honors The Light of God in You and in that recognition is our Oneness.” (meaning of the Sanskrit word Namasté). And thus encourage support for, and cooperation with, each other

We can choose to “believe while others are doubting; commend while others are criticizing; persist while others are quitting.” (William Arthur Ward)

We can choose to live outside the “chambered nautilus of our own mental construction” and live in “faith in the wisdom of our people” (President Manuel Roxas).

We can choose to assume responsibility for our lives. “Take time to accept responsibility. Your life is exactly that – It’s your life. It is created by you. You are constantly making choices, constantly creating new experiences. And although we can be affected by circumstances which can seem to be completely out of our control, essentially, we decide the direction in which we walk.” (Nicolas Watkins)

We can choose to love and renew ourselves. “The Bible says you love your neighbor as yourself. If you don’t love yourself, you cannot love your neighbor. People treat people poorly because they have a negative self-esteem. They put down others to make themselves look good. All of this is ‘mindsets’. Some of you may be running looking for deliverance. No! You don’t need deliverance with a demon cast out of you; you need to change the thinking in your mind. We do not need anything removed from you; we need it renewed in you.” (Bishop E. Bernard Jordan)

We can choose to remake ourselves. “As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world … as in being able to remake ourselves”. (Mahatma Gandhi)

We can choose to believe in our own capacity to change our lives for the better. For we are “…as powerful and strong as (we) allow (ourselves) to be, and that the most difficult part of any endeavor is taking the first step, making the first decision.” (Robyn Davidson)

Yes, we can make the choice of taking the first steps towards improving our government, no matter how bad it might be. We can make the exercise of our suffrage heavenly the next time we have one. Quezon was right in his substantive point. We can bring about change for the better.

We can choose to realize our common dream of being a people who assume responsibility for our own independence and interdependence with others.

We can decide to say, and even shout to the world: our past is not our future!

“We have much to do together. Let us do it in wisdom and love and joy. Let us make this the human experience.” (Gary Zukav)

Yes, we can make loving each other, respecting each other and working together the exhilarating Filipino Human Experience!
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*Edwin D. Bael was Consul General of the Philippines in Los Angeles (2000 to 2002). He now works with ASK Law Group, an immigration law firm with offices in the States of California and Nevada. He serves as Member of the Board of Directors of the New Americans Immigration Museum and Learning Center and as Member of the Advisory Council of the Charles Hostler Institute of World Affairs, San Diego State U. He continues his linkages with the consular community as Emeritus Member of the Los Angeles Consular Corps and Associate Member of the San Diego Consular Corps.