To Our Majors

This is an 'open letter' that I crafted some years ago for my students at DLSU-Manila.

To Our Political Science and Development Studies Majors...

At the heart of the science of politics are words. In algebra there are numbers and other algebraic symbols. In the social sciences, there are words and other memes.

Just like words, languages, and the ideas that they convey, government is a social construct. People create governments. The structure of modern governments is a product of the time, ideas, and actions of multitudes of peoples. They are patterns of relationships of power -- and some of these, unfortunately, are more equitable than others. Some individuals, groups, or sectors have been more influential in the design and development of their governments. However, there stands the democratic ideal that government is for everybody, including and specially those who have less in life. Anyone can, theoretically, be a part of government and everyone should benefit from its policies and actions. The magnificent political lesson is this: we can and we need to make government respond to our needs. Remember the character V (in V for Vendetta)? He quipped: People shouldn't fear their governments, governments should fear their people.

We need government or some form of government because many of our problems have taken on forms or dimensions which can not be handled merely by individuals thinking and acting separately or discreetly. These problems have become social problems. They have become “issues.” As such they require a social response -– a collective response. Such a response necessarily implies dealing with an “organization,” a “political formation,” or a “political structure”, i.e. a state or a government.

To illustrate, we may desire or need development given the current state of things in Philippine society. It can be argued that we would have to have, among others, agrarian reform. But then a comprehensive agrarian reform program would affect or involve various socio-economic groups or classes, if you will, which constitute Philippine society. Given such, a group or class could very well dominate the others and have its way. Or it is also possible that an arrangement may be forged to the virtual satisfaction of the potentially contending interests represented by these groups. At any rate, failure is a very real possibility. At worst, the threat of internal and armed conflict could not be discounted given the sensitivity and urgency of such an issue area. Now, therefore, a government has at least two choices. One, to take side with a particular class interest; or two, to facilitate the forging of, if there be any, a course of action mutually acceptable to the contending groups. The bottomline is that government would have to do something about it -– whether for or against its people’s interest.

We need to make government respond to our needs and there are various ways of effecting this. Our collective and individual experiences, capacities, skills, and resources will guide us and ultimately determine our most probable political recourse. Among others, we can tap the available legal or 'legitimate' channels to lobby for governmental action. If government is however invariably and generally unresponsive to our demands as a people, something extra-legal could take shape to the consternation of the more peace loving among us -- Satyagraha has its limits. The point is, as already noted, governments are created. Governments are made. They can be unmade.

The 1896 Philippine Revolution and 1986 Manila Uprising (better known by the pretentious label "Edsa Revolution") and the nationalist and democratic efforts directly leading to and from them have shown us certain ways of doing it.

Closer to our homes, we can involve ourselves in local government and community activities. But then, as the dynamics of our Sangguniang Kabataan and other community bodies would tend to show, it seems the youth are lacking interest, knowledge, and skills in handling local affairs. There is a need for us to reflect on this... for if we can not make our immediate communities happy and healthy, if we can not even make peace with our neighbors or help them to help themselves, how can we even begin to imagine and consider the interests of a broader community and, moreover, to identify ourselves with such?

How can we dare dream of a better national community -– of nation building and national development if we do not even know the name of our barangay and key local officials? (How many of you do know the name of your chief barangay leader?)

The Sesame Street characters once sang: "Who are the people in your neighborhoud?" Can you answer that question?

For our Dev Stud majors, the local development planning officer is supposed to be a person in your neigborhood? Is there one in your community?

More pointedly, for the Christians among us, what have you done for the least of your neigbours as the Christ queries?

To our majors, do you even know who your organization’s officers are?

As someone once said, home is where the heart is. Let me borrow from that fine line and put it this way:

Community is where the political heart is.

Please care for your nation AND your local community… your organization.

Be part of government if you can. Be part of an organization.

Be politically active as you must.

Dare to dream. Dare to imagine.

Dare to use words.

BE POLISCY.