The Fundamentals Of Nation Building

The Fundamentals Of Nation Building

GLIMPSES
Jose Ma. Montelibano

How have nations built themselves? Nation building has never been a program. It is an inner urge of
people in all countries to witness progress, an intuitive desire to have more, to do more, to be more.
Nation building happened to certain peoples because the ingredients necessary for a strong nation fell
into place. Many times, revolutions or civil wars became the predicate for those evolutionary leaps.
Sometimes, calamities or economic disasters preceded great change.

How will it be in the Philippines? Some thought that the 1983 People Power Revolution would surely
trigger meaningful and sustainable change, what with all the goodwill that supported the Cory
administration. However, the great leap did not materialize. Perhaps, it was too peaceful and the tension
and intensity turned to celebration right away. The great struggle that defines nation building is not a
fiesta. It connotes hard work, discipline, perseverance.

And the elite did not surrender to the commoner. In other words, the elite continued to rule, except that it
was the pro-Cory elite replaced the pro-Marcos elite. Democratization is a leveling of the playing field.
Building a nation on the parameters of democracy requires a major reconstruction of the playing field in
the Philippines. Massive poverty means the playing field remains lopsided, and, therefore, undemocratic.
For as long as Philippine society is horribly blighted by poverty, forget nation building.

I was blessed by an email sent to me by a friend in cyberspace which contained a link to an interview
between Bill Moyers and Grace Lee Boggs.

Moyers describes Boggs as a daughter of a Chinese entrepreneur in New York City who goes to Bryn Mawr
at a very early age, gets her PhD in 1940, before the Second World War, becomes a Marxist theorist, an
activist in the Socialist movement, moves on to become an apostle, disciple of Martin Luther King, and
here at 91, having outlived all those theories and all those characters and leaders and people, is still
agitating for what she calls democracy.

Boggs said that "our emphasis on struggle has simply been in terms of confrontation and not enough
recognition of how much spiritual and moral force is involved in the people who are struggling."

The United States is not mired in poverty and corruption as badly as the Philippines, but it has its own
share of inequities and social injustice, And while the Filipino people struggle to discard the heavy weight
of a colonial history and conditioning, Americans seem unable to break free from consumerism and /or
materialism, global militarism, and a racism that many wish to deny. Rebels, then, have causes to fight for
even in the most developed of nations.

It has been a long personal crusade of mine to break the mindset which says money and resources are the
fundamental requirements of a strong nation. No strong nation has been built by money or natural
resources, only by a strong people. Carol Boggs captured this truism when she referred to the need of
spiritual and moral force in people who struggle - and Filipinos do struggle.

No one disagrees that corruption must be stamped out until it loses its dominance in daily life. No one
disagrees that violence, whether from an armed rebellion or summary executions of activists, must be
stopped to prove that our value system is above that of animals. No one disagrees, but not enough agree
strongly enough to counter corruption and violence until
government and rebels are forced to listen and follow.

And unless there are effective counter measures to contain corruption and violence, then poverty will
simply extend itself to the next bloody revolution. The poor are not the ones who cause their poverty, but
the strong and mighty who exploit their advantage - even if they have to kill to attain their personal gain.
Combating corruption and violence, then addressing the massive challenge of poverty, are spiritual and
moral moves. They represent the value system of a people and society who will not tolerate anymore the
immoral and illegal.

The story of Grace Lee Boggs in several decades of active work for change is that the US and the
Philippines have several parallels. We may have poverty but they have racism, subdued as it may be until
the next crisis. We have corruption but they have consumerism/materialism which eats away at their soul
just the same. We have the NPAs and the MILF but they have Iraq, Afghanistan, maybe Iran and North
Korea if things in the nuclear world don't turn out well.

Following the observation of Boggs that the spiritual and moral are not as noticed, and I assume not as
understood either, in the great leaps of social progress, there must be threats corroding the soul of
America. It might be divorce, or abortions, or gay marriages. It might be the elimination of God in a public
setting.

On the other hand, Filipinos have to contend with separated families when families have been the only
solid and consistent anchor of the nation. Fathers and mothers abroad who are forced apart by
circumstance cringe at the risks of their children growing up with virtual single parents who are quite
vulnerable to extramarital affairs in the extended absence of their spouses. Add to this the standard
cancers of corruption, poverty and violence.

Modern day experience and understanding, which are aided by technology and great access to history,
simply point out that societies must constantly push evolution. Rebellion raises itself to a revolution, and
revolution has become a powerful tool for evolution. Filipinos must, therefore, rebel against all that is evil
in our system, pursue rebellion and elevate it to becoming a revolution, peaceful but passionate if
possible, and then be aware of the manifestations of evolution.

The revolution must be spiritual and moral. It is the nobility of a people that is capable of raising the level
of decency and discipline of a people. Leaders are dime a dozen. What are needed are leaders who are able
and willing to raise morality and ethics, who are living models of integrity and honesty, who can quench
the thirst of Filipinos for dignity and honor. Then confrontations may happen, wars and revolutions may
occur, and when the dust settles, people would have sacrificed for principle, died for honor, and set the
stage for a rebirth at a higher level. ***