Sorry. I know I'm not supposed to brag about how I procrastinate.
But I just can't help it.
It feel so... good. Haha.
*****
“The people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain are next; the sovereign is the lightest.” Mencius, Works, VII, 2: 14.1
Cesar Pobre, in his article, “The Quest for National Identity: An Imperative to Building the National Community,” tackles issues he thinks are of relevance to the slow (if not unprogressive) advance of our country in achieving its nationhood. According to him, despite all our efforts in our attempt to forge a nation for ourselves, we are yet to be called one, for Filipinos are still at loss for a unifying identity, and that we have yet to have the essence of nationhood.
Considering all the ideas and opinions Pobre has presented in his article, I both agree and disagree with him. First, I accede to the fact that, yes, we are in a sense divided amongst ourselves. Though we acknowledge the same interracial mix of blood that makes us stand out from the rest of our fellow Asians, as well as the word “Filipino” with which we call ourselves, with regards to our land of origin and the territories that bound us, I find us unified by those, and by those alone.
Yes, we have a national language, yet we prefer to talk in our own, individual dialects, thus building a wall that separates us from our fellow citizens. Yes, we have our own literature, music, and arts, yet there are only a few who truly appreciate them for what they are, as well as recognize the roles these national symbols play in strengthening our bond as a community of Filipinos. Yes, we are born and we thrive in the same cluster of 7,107 islands, yet we treat the archipelagic nature of our country as a form of disadvantage in our efforts for camaraderie, rather than work our way around and find ways to benefit our kinship.
All these may sound disappointing, even to the most passive of nationalists, yet the biggest blow to our ego as a nation is the fact that who we are - as a citizen, and as a country - is borrowed, and will never be completely ours. Colonized by three different countries, all with different ideals, beliefs, processes, and personalities, what meager persona we were able to create for ourselves as a country was completely shattered by blow after blow of alien occupation that corrupted our minds and belittled our wanton for independence, insisting that they (our colonizers) were actually the best thing that’s ever happened to us, again and again. After centuries of colonization, we were left with scraps of who we were, and we made do with what was dealt us. Hungry for our own identity, we amalgamated what scanty persona was left of our original selves (post-colonial) with the imprints the colonizers had left of themselves, and forged an identity out of it. What came out was patchwork of interracial beliefs and practices that we took as our own, and came to be known as Filipino.
It is at this point that I start to disagree with Pobre, in that I find myself questioning the motive of our ancestors when they tried to build for themselves an identity. According to him, “we Filipinos have yet to have an identity.” I beg to disagree; we do have an identity, just not completely taken from our own history, but made with the “help” of three other countries. The thirst for a self we can call our own speaks for itself. Filipinos are their own, separate people, with a personality created out of a mixture of their original pre-colonial history and the influences of the foreign occupants.
Only, what our ancestors have forged for us now is getting weaker, as time goes by. I find that we are easily swayed, and that with the progression of our former occupants, we tend to identify more with the borrowed characteristics of our personality, thus neglecting to further cultivate the original selves we have. This is why most of our critics say that we have no identity; this is where they are wrong.
I am a Filipino, though not a complete one, yet. It is still not late, though. There is still time.
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