AKO ANG SIMULA, AKO MISMO

AKO ANG SIMULA, AKO MISMO

Why is Scarborough Shoal being occupied by China? Why are some of our OFW's being maltreated in foreign lands? The simple reason is because we are a poor country. We are being bullied as a nation and abused as an individual because we are a poor nation and our neighbors have learned to look down upon us. When our domestic helpers are raped or are overworked by their employees without getting paid, what do they do? They rush back home if they can and simply tell their sad stories to their family. Do they have the power or the will to get justice for their grievances? They will just lament their grievances among themselves and just cry over it. When China put their permanent structures in our own Kalayaan Islands and barricaded Scarborough Shoal against us, what did we do? The most that we could do was to file a diplomatic protest to save face. And when China was irked by our insistence that Scarborough Shoal is ours, our Filipino OFWs in China were harassed and our exports were canceled. In order not to worsen the situation, one of our senators was asked to make a back channel negotiation and he was quoted as saying that the Philippines is not really interested in the shoal and there is no point in trying to make a big issue out of it. The obvious reason for this action was we opted to give up that shoal rather than lose our economic gains from China. We need to be practical about the situation. This is the malady we have placed ourselves in when we delve selfishly on our own familial interest and concerns and put aside our sense of community and trample on our patriotism. We are caught in this filthy mire of graft and corruption in our society and this has thrown our country into poverty. Those who want to make a change could hardly make a dent because it is everywhere and people involved in this crime continue to multiply in numbers. This selfish, uncaring, unconcerned attitude for the country has left our nation to this pitiful state.

How can we defeat this disease? When Ninoy gave us his example of patriotism, I thought this was the start of a real change. But I was wrong. The old habits couldn't just simply disappear. It even spread like wild fire when there was so much democracy and very little discipline and too little patriotism after the EDSA Revolution. We have to make a real change in our national psyche if we want to change the tide for this nation. Our leaders, both local and national, have to wake up and lead the way towards a better future or else, we will find ourselves forever as the sick man of Asia and of the world. Today, it is China who is bullying us. Who will be the next one to do that to us if we don't do anything about it. It has been decades that we have let Malaysia take Sabah from our national geographical map because there is nothing we can do about it. That land is historically owned by the sultan of Mindanao and rightfully belongs to our country but we were not able to recover it from Malaysia in the 1960's because we would surely lose the war against Malaysia since our supply of ammunition could only last a week-long war at that time. What more humbling assault should our country suffer in order for our people and our leaders to take a serious stand to fight for our sovereignty over our lands and redeem our lost dignity as a people who are being abused in foreign lands because of our poor state as a nation. This fight should not necessarily lead to a violent war. We just need to show ourselves as a nation of disciplined people by getting rid of graft and corruption and push for a rapid economic development that will show serious resolve to gain self-respect. How can we gain the respect of other nations if we don't have our own self-respect? We don't show our self-respect if we are shooting down our foot by stealing from our own people and let them suffer and die in poverty. We don't show our self-respect if we steal from the national purse and let the country go down the drain. If we wish to gain the respect of other nations, we need to show first our self-respect.

To gain the respect of other nations, we need to boost our economy and make the nation wealthy again. Nations have become so worldly that they naturally tend to respect and look up to countries which are wealthy. We will initially get their respect when we make our nation rich again. But what makes the nation rich. Rich nations are composed of rich firms. When firms are rich, there will be more workers. The richer the companies the bigger the salaries. And the richer the companies, the bigger the income taxes which leads to wealthier states or nations. And how do we make our companies rich?..by making our workforce more productive. That means we need to change the work attitude of our people. Let us remove the sick attitude of mediocrity “pwede na yan”, of manana habit “mamaya na lang”, and of lack of focus on work. If NOKIA is a Filipino company, 3210 which was one of the best cellphone in the 1990's would most probably remain the latest product until now because of the Filipino mediocre attitude. We have not progressed much as we should because we are more fond of discussions to come up with solutions, but we are not keen on implementing them at once. On the other hand, South Koreans have progressed tremendously fast due to this marvelous attitude of doing things as soon as possible.

We need to challenge ourselves and particularly our present leaders to put our act together and bring the whole nation into this new and better frame of mind, to this new psyche of working no longer for just his own welfare but for the welfare of the whole nation. We have long worked only for one's own selfish interest and where have this brought us to? It brought our nation to poverty till we have become the sick man of Asia. Let us do away with this “talanka mentality”, to-each-his-own mentality. Look at Japan! Japan was the poorest country in Asia after world war II in 1945 due to the devastation caused by two atomic bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But it became # 1 again in Asia in a matter of ten years because they worked really hard for their country. And before the tsunami of 2011, Japan was # 3 in the world next to China and America. Japan is just a tiny country compared to China and America. Its geographical size is a just little bigger than our country. It has very little natural resources compared to our country. But how did it achieve the status of being the third wealthiest economy in the world? It is due to its people. Its most important economic asset is its people because of their excellent productivity. We need to follow their time-tested work attitude of working for the love of country and not for selfish interest alone if we want to make this nation gain its former affluence. “Bayan muna bago ang sarili” should be our battle cry for progress and make our nation great again as we were once recognized by our Asian neighbors in the 1960's. We need to gain our dignity as a nation by putting our act together and push for fast economic development.

This may seem a tall order to persuade everyone to embrace this new work attitude of working for love of country. This is the challenge we need our leaders to take up, that they inspire and encourage all Filipinos to this new paradigm. We were once inspired by Ninoy Aquino who brought us to a peaceful revolution of EDSA. Our leaders should inspire us again with his example. If Ninoy could speak to us now, he would not ask us to sacrifice our life for the country like he did. That would be too much for us since we are not made of the same mettle like his. But he would surely challenge us to show our love of country by conscientiously fulfilling our duties to our country on a daily basis. And the call of the times is to redeem the dignity of our country by conquering poverty and bring back its lost glory of the past as one of the wealthiest nations in the Far East. The least that Ninoy could ask from us is to stop graft and corruption, and he would surely challenge us to take away our mediocre “pwede na yan” attitude, manana “mamaya na lang” habit, our talanka mentality, lack-of-focus habit, and that selfish unpatriotic attitude towards work. He would not ask to sacrifice our family like he did when he was imprisoned for 7 years and 7 months and left them permanently when he came back from the United states and gave up his life to free us from Martial Law. But he would persuasively demand from us to render our best effort to make our work more productive, more efficient, and more effective. The sacrifice he would require from us is that you begin with yourself “ako ang simula, ako mismo ang magsisimula” and not wait for the others. The sacrifice that is needed now is that I be honest even though the others are not, that I be efficient , effective and productive even if others will not.” Ako ang simula” should be our battle cry to fight poverty and bring the glory of our nation once again. I have lived long enough in this country and I saw how people acted before to make a difference for our nation in the 70‘s, 80‘s and 90‘s. Everyone was pointing fingers and blaming one another as the reason for the bad situation the country was in because no one wanted to be the first one to begin and make the change in himself during those period. This is the reason ABS-CBN have their slogan “Ako ang Simula" while GMA-7 have their ad campaign “Ako mismo” today. Pointing fingers and blaming others was the mistake we did and we should not make this mistake again. Each one has to begin with himself in spite of the others' unwilling attitude. That is the sacrifice Ninoy would vehemently demand from us.

If one would begin with himself, does he have anything to lose? If you work harder even if others do not, isn't it that it will bring improvement to your salary because employers love industrious workers? If you are honest while others are not, you may not gain their money, but should you care? You wouldn't want to obtain stolen money which degrade yourself and your family. Working harder is the better option to live a decent life with honor and dignity. It is the better option especially for the country. We can live a decent life and stand with our head up high if we work harder. Let us all join hands and rally the whole nation to make this change and bring a brighter future for ourselves, our country, and for the next generation to come.