Opposition January 25, 2007
THAT was a very nice picture that appeared on our front page last Saturday, during the sixth anniversary of Edsa People Power II. It featured Patsy Abad today and (in the inset) yesterday, or specifically six years ago. Patsy is the daughter of Butch and Dina Abad. The inset shows her as a kid during the inauguration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo: She is standing on the stage beside Arroyo, holding a Bible. Everybody else, including Arroyo, has their hands on their hearts, vowing eternal fealty to God, country and People Power.
The picture in the foreground shows Abad as she is now. She is 17 and has grown much, much bigger, and certainly much, much taller, than Arroyo who dwarfed her in the earlier picture. But she has grown in more ways than one. She is no longer at the Edsa Shrine, she is at University of the Philippines in Diliman, marching in front of its Hall of Shame. And she is no longer holding the Bible, she is holding a placard that says “Itakwil ang mga taksil sa diwa ng Edsa 2!” (Down with the betrayers of the spirit of Edsa II!) A reference to the person beside her six years ago, the person who went on to trash People Power. Holding the Bible and holding that placard have one thing in common: It’s holding on to the truth.
The significance of that picture to me—quite apart from the fact that there’s hope for this country yet, particularly to come from the young—is that it encapsulates the essence of a word that has been bandied about in this country, without people stopping to wonder what it means. That word is “opposition.” What does opposition, or more formidably, Opposition with a capital “O,” really mean?
Well, it means many things to many people. But there is really only one true or real opposition, or Opposition, in this country, one that is sanctioned by history. That—as Patsy Abad articulates with the dazzling simplicity of the uncluttered mind—is opposing the beneficiary of Edsa II for betraying Edsa II.
I say this in light of the growing debate about an emerging “Third Force,” which Erap’s people who have set themselves up as the “Opposition,” namely the characters in UNO, seem unhappy about. I myself am unhappy about it only in that it calls itself “the Third Force.” You talk of “Third Force” and you conjure images of Rogelio de la Rosa and Raul Manglapus and all the other candidates that rose to challenge the Liberal Party and Nacionalista Party candidates before martial law, and who -- unlike Bernardo Carpio who managed to push back the two mountains that were trying to crush him -- were cut to pieces ere they began. You talk of Third Force, and you talk of token, or "saling pusa," or, as that Bicol word puts it so well with all its connotations of nuisance, “sawong-sawong.”
You talk of “Third Force” and you grant that there is already an Opposition in this country represented by the people associated with Joseph Estrada. I know Estrada has the financial resources, but he does not have the moral one. Indeed, the vastness of the first is matched only by the paucity of the second. That is not an opposition, that is a restoration. That is not a step forward, that is a step backward.
In fact, they are the one and only reason an Edsa III or People Power III has not taken off in this country, notwithstanding that everyone knows that Arroyo conspired with that snake, Garci, to steal the apple from Eden; or completely secularly and viciously, to kidnap a public school teacher-cum-poll watcher who wanted to testify on the cheating. People Power requires as its most essential element the contention of Good and Evil, the undiluted venom of the Evil matched only by the pure magnificence of the Good. The Evil sparking outrage in the mind, and the Good, or the glimpse of it, driving people out into the streets.
You have Evil, however unparalleled, without Good, however dimly espied, and you produce only cynicism. You have a people burning in anger but unable, or unwilling, to do a thing about it. Which is what we have now. Which is why despite survey after survey showing that Arroyo is the most detested person in this country, we have spectacle after spectacle of attempts to rouse the citizens falling on deaf ears. There is no Good flailing unceasingly at people, enough to tear them away from the siren’s call of the NBA and storm the gates of Hell, or Malacañang.
What we need today is not a Third Force, what we need is a real Opposition. What we need is a force that rejects, refutes, or indeed, opposes, all that Arroyo stands for. What we need is a project that moves the country forward and not merely grinds it to a halt.
That, too, is why I am unhappy about the “Third Force” that is currently being forged by the Liberal Party, Nacionalista Party, Aksyon Demokratiko and other small political groups. I have no problem with its smallness: Great oaks come from small seeds. What I have a problem with is its identity. It is more defined by what it is not than by what it is. The “Third Force is not for Arroyo or for Estrada, it is not for the Administration or the Opposition. That is a location, that is not an affirmation. That is a geography, that is not an identity.
You want an identity, take it from Patsy Abad, take it from the desperate souls sending out their lamentations to the heavens from the pit of this land: Enough of the betrayers of the dreams of Edsa People Power II. Let their heads roll. It is opposing Arroyo not because she thwarted Estrada but because she thwarted People Power. Not because she cut short Estrada’s term but because she cut People Power in the fullness of its flower. Not because she substituted herself for Estrada but because she substituted personal ambition for national aspiration, scraggly greed for epic heroism, boundless spite for boundless gratitude.
That is real Opposition. All the rest is just masturbation.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=45475
The picture in the foreground shows Abad as she is now. She is 17 and has grown much, much bigger, and certainly much, much taller, than Arroyo who dwarfed her in the earlier picture. But she has grown in more ways than one. She is no longer at the Edsa Shrine, she is at University of the Philippines in Diliman, marching in front of its Hall of Shame. And she is no longer holding the Bible, she is holding a placard that says “Itakwil ang mga taksil sa diwa ng Edsa 2!” (Down with the betrayers of the spirit of Edsa II!) A reference to the person beside her six years ago, the person who went on to trash People Power. Holding the Bible and holding that placard have one thing in common: It’s holding on to the truth.
The significance of that picture to me—quite apart from the fact that there’s hope for this country yet, particularly to come from the young—is that it encapsulates the essence of a word that has been bandied about in this country, without people stopping to wonder what it means. That word is “opposition.” What does opposition, or more formidably, Opposition with a capital “O,” really mean?
Well, it means many things to many people. But there is really only one true or real opposition, or Opposition, in this country, one that is sanctioned by history. That—as Patsy Abad articulates with the dazzling simplicity of the uncluttered mind—is opposing the beneficiary of Edsa II for betraying Edsa II.
I say this in light of the growing debate about an emerging “Third Force,” which Erap’s people who have set themselves up as the “Opposition,” namely the characters in UNO, seem unhappy about. I myself am unhappy about it only in that it calls itself “the Third Force.” You talk of “Third Force” and you conjure images of Rogelio de la Rosa and Raul Manglapus and all the other candidates that rose to challenge the Liberal Party and Nacionalista Party candidates before martial law, and who -- unlike Bernardo Carpio who managed to push back the two mountains that were trying to crush him -- were cut to pieces ere they began. You talk of Third Force, and you talk of token, or "saling pusa," or, as that Bicol word puts it so well with all its connotations of nuisance, “sawong-sawong.”
You talk of “Third Force” and you grant that there is already an Opposition in this country represented by the people associated with Joseph Estrada. I know Estrada has the financial resources, but he does not have the moral one. Indeed, the vastness of the first is matched only by the paucity of the second. That is not an opposition, that is a restoration. That is not a step forward, that is a step backward.
In fact, they are the one and only reason an Edsa III or People Power III has not taken off in this country, notwithstanding that everyone knows that Arroyo conspired with that snake, Garci, to steal the apple from Eden; or completely secularly and viciously, to kidnap a public school teacher-cum-poll watcher who wanted to testify on the cheating. People Power requires as its most essential element the contention of Good and Evil, the undiluted venom of the Evil matched only by the pure magnificence of the Good. The Evil sparking outrage in the mind, and the Good, or the glimpse of it, driving people out into the streets.
You have Evil, however unparalleled, without Good, however dimly espied, and you produce only cynicism. You have a people burning in anger but unable, or unwilling, to do a thing about it. Which is what we have now. Which is why despite survey after survey showing that Arroyo is the most detested person in this country, we have spectacle after spectacle of attempts to rouse the citizens falling on deaf ears. There is no Good flailing unceasingly at people, enough to tear them away from the siren’s call of the NBA and storm the gates of Hell, or Malacañang.
What we need today is not a Third Force, what we need is a real Opposition. What we need is a force that rejects, refutes, or indeed, opposes, all that Arroyo stands for. What we need is a project that moves the country forward and not merely grinds it to a halt.
That, too, is why I am unhappy about the “Third Force” that is currently being forged by the Liberal Party, Nacionalista Party, Aksyon Demokratiko and other small political groups. I have no problem with its smallness: Great oaks come from small seeds. What I have a problem with is its identity. It is more defined by what it is not than by what it is. The “Third Force is not for Arroyo or for Estrada, it is not for the Administration or the Opposition. That is a location, that is not an affirmation. That is a geography, that is not an identity.
You want an identity, take it from Patsy Abad, take it from the desperate souls sending out their lamentations to the heavens from the pit of this land: Enough of the betrayers of the dreams of Edsa People Power II. Let their heads roll. It is opposing Arroyo not because she thwarted Estrada but because she thwarted People Power. Not because she cut short Estrada’s term but because she cut People Power in the fullness of its flower. Not because she substituted herself for Estrada but because she substituted personal ambition for national aspiration, scraggly greed for epic heroism, boundless spite for boundless gratitude.
That is real Opposition. All the rest is just masturbation.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=45475
posted by dqfan06 @ 2:56 AM
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