ako ito

liars go to hell!!!

ON IDEALISM

My freshman year was the period of great
demoralization in Mindanao State University-General
Santos City. It was the effect of oppression inside
the campus. Just a year before, several students were
suspended due to protests they have staged against the
anomalies made in the university. This kind of
experience opened my mind to certain social and
economic reality, which was the reality of an
oppressive society ruled by a small group of
“ignorant” intellectuals. Culture of fear was what the
university administration wanted to sow in the
academe. So at that time, students did not want to
mention activism or reform. Only a few rose above the
trend. Along with the others who have high level of
consciousness, I gave all effort to revive the
idealism in every student/person I got hold of.
“You’re so young and you think you can change the
world”. This comment I got from a professor I was
having a discussion with. He was right about my being
young, I was only seventeen, but I did not think I
could change the world alone. But I believe that if I
keep on doing what I was doing, I can make a
difference. Maybe not in the existing system in the
society but in the existing system of thinking of the
people I meet. We have to start somewhere and we have
to start sometime.

I became the President of the Supreme Student Council.
No one thought I could do it because I am a woman.
There is no arguing on my being a woman. But I am a
woman who has a father who taught me how to be valiant
and firm. The last thing I want is to tarnish the
legacy of the Tausugs as being brave. I did what I had
to do. At first I was frustrated because I was not
able to stop the increase of the tuition fee of a
state university whose students are suffering from
utter destitution. But I realized that MSU is a part
of a bigger picture. The academe is just a reflection
of the society, and that the increase of the tuition
fee is a symptom of a universal disease.

I did not have an ordinary college life. I had been
threatened to be expelled many times for my active
participation in the campaign against anti-student
policies inside the campus. There were even a couple
of school authorities who told me they’d press legal
charges against me. But they did not. I just graduated
this March, apparently their threats did not
materialize. I continued what I was doing…with the
possibility of being expelled not bothering me even to
the slightest. I used to say, “we will only be in
college for a few years”. We have multiple roles in
the society. While you have to be a daughter at home,
a student in class, a friend, you are also a social
being coupled with social and moral responsibilities.
It’s a shame if we spend our entire college life
merely in passing the exams and requirements needed to
graduate. You might graduate with an academic degree,
but there is always what we call a degree on “social
consciousness”. The latter being the determinant of a
man’s true worth of existence is more important.

I was not scared if I get expelled for fighting for
what I believed in. I was more scared in forgetting my
principles. My father used to remind me about the
basic teaching in Islam, “do not oppress and do not
allow yourself to be oppressed”. I put that teaching
in practice with all the energy I could muster.
Because a person without a principle is standing on
his head. But you also cannot simply say, “this is
what I believe in” and expect people to respect you
for that. What you believe in should be based on the
truth and welfare of your fellowmen.

Everytime I see something wrong in the system, I’d
hear people say ”masanay ka na”. It’s not apt to say
that we just have to get ourselves used to the sleazy
system. I used to say “di dapat kasanayan ang hindi
magandang bagay”. That’s probably the reason why we do
not advance. While we keep on insisting for a reform,
we never really take it seriously. The government has
been talking about reforms since God knows when. But
look at us. We have never been in a worse shape. This
is not just about the President of our country. This
is about an entire system that only allows corrupt and
hideous people to rule. We do not simply need a
different President, we need a different system. A
system favorable to the majority and not only to the
ruling few.

A situation of intense destitution and political
disorder is in many ways a double-edged sword. On the
one hand, it deprives the people of their right for a
decent and harmonious living. On the other hand, it
provides  a condition for Filipinos to realize that
there is a strong and urgent need to change the
system.

Selective ignorance is what we have in this country.
Many people know what is wrong but refuse to admit it
for fear of responsibility. Because by saying that
there is something wrong with the system is saying “
we have to work to change the system”. Because if one
admits the former and denies the necessity of the
latter, it evinces insouciance in the individual. Most
of the people have  a fear for change, a fear of
anything new. They got used to corruption so much that
they cannot seem to imagine life without it. Even the
one being corrupted seems to get a good deal of
satisfaction almost at the same degree with the one
who corrupts. Both work so hard for the other to
exist.

There is awful wastage if we continue this sinister
cultural scheme. We should start to draw the line.

I hate the existing system, and I convert this hatred
with the same degree of passion to change it. There is
certainly more to idealism than being spelled this way
I-D-E-A-L-I-S-M. The world is too big, I am not
floating in the illusion of being able to change it
overnight. The world is too big but I am certainly not
too lazy.

posted by: leizelna at 03:25 | link | comments

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