Another pitch for federalism, otherwise...

By now, all the media outlets have already finished doing their ranking of the biggest stories of the year 2011 and my vote for the top story goes to the death of world’s number one terrorist Osama bin Laden. While Time Magazine put the face of the Arab protesters as its “Man of the Year” for 2nd biggest story of the year, I’ll go for the death of Moammar Gadhafi.

With nine days to go before the Year 2011 goes to the dustbin of history, it seems that the North Korean Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il joined this illustrious group of rogues who lost their lives this year. While Osama Bin Laden shook the world by spreading his brand of terror worldwide, no despot lasted longer than Moammar Gadhafi. But Kim Jong-Il kept communism alive and dangerous throughout his life… playing the role as China’s vicious Doberman. Well, at least for the New Year 2012, we won’t be hearing their names anymore. But then what we are seeing in North Korea is a dynasty.

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If there’s a world leader that I have always admired not only for his anti-communism, but also for his Velvet Revolution, it is former President of the newly formed Czech Republic Vaclav Havel who died last Sunday at the age of 75 years. Pres. Havel toppled the Communist Regime of Czechoslovakia in December of 1989 through non-violence, something that endeared Pres. Havel in the hearts of his people and the world.

Czechoslovakia became an independent state after the Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolved. However at the start of World War II, Adolf Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia claiming that it was the Sudetenland belonging to the Sudeten Germans. After the defeat of Nazism, Czechoslovakia came under communist rule within the Iron Curtain. But in all those years it didn’t stop from being a multi-ethnic state of various cultures and peoples. They were Germans, Slovaks, Czechs, Poles and Hungarians.

When the Iron Curtain broke apart, the communist state of Czechoslovakia was toppled and Vaclav Havel became head of state. But within his heart, he knew that Czechoslovakia was difficult to govern because of its separate cultures and language. So from communism, Czechoslovakia shifted to a free-market economy and then in 1993 at the pinnacle of the Velvet Revolution, Czechoslovakia ceased to be a unified nation and broke into two via a political divorce. They are now the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Thanks to the sacrifice of that playwright turned President Vaclav Havel.

I’m writing about Pres. Vaclav Havel because he provides us a lesson in history and if the present path that Pres. Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino’s “Daang Matuwid” doesn’t change course soon and destroys the balance of power in our democracy, a political divorce from the Philippines is no longer a farfetched option. When P-Noy talked about a “Sub-State” for the MILF, many Cebuanos thought… why should the MILF get their own state when Cebu can progress faster than the entire country if only we are given the status of a state? Cebu after all, is bigger in size than Singapore and people here believe that we could do better if we are left alone.

Whether we like it or not, the Philippines only became a nation when the United States of America granted us real independence on July 4, 1946. Being a land of different cultures and languages, an ethnic group, the Tagalogs took the opportunity to promote their regional language through their political leaders, and 65 years later, they are trying to sell the Tagalog language disguised as Pilipino, which to many of us is a created language.

The Philippines is a signatory of the United Nations International Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees our freedom to speak, learn and promote our indigenous tongues. Hence forcing Filipinos to speak in Pilipino contravenes that convention. It is for this reason why Filipinos cannot unite here at home and yes, even abroad, especially in the United States.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but ask yourself, how many Filipino organizations are there in Los Angeles alone or even in the whole of California? Honestly, I have stopped counting. That is due to the fact the Filipinos abroad gather as Warays, Ilocanos, Ilonggos, Cebuanos, Bicolanos and Tagalogs.

It is for this reason why after the EDSA Revolt, I was against 49 specially chosen pro-Cory men and women tasked to make the 1987 Cory Constitution because they never cared to remove one of the stumbling blocks to our economic growth which we could have had if we shifted to a federal form of government, which shares power from the central government down to the various states. At this point, I still believe in saving the Philippines, but P-Noy must change his intransigent stand against Charter change and be a true political reformist for the sake of our nation. I say that the time is ripe to usher federalism in this country… or should we look for other options?

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.