By Harvey Keh
Team RP
LAST March, I was invited as commencement speaker of the Western Mindanao State University (WMSU) in Zamboanga City, one of the biggest state universities in the Philippines. During my brief stay, I was able to sit down and talk with some student leaders. I started our discussion with a question. “Who among you here still believes and supports President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,†I asked. About a third of them raised their hands. “Who among you here wants the President to resign and step down,†I continued. About half of them raised their hands. I pressed on and asked again, “Who among you here is still undecided?†still some few raised their hands. But when I asked, “Who among you here wants change and reforms in our country and government?†All of them raised their hands.
When I got back to Manila, I held the same discussion with some student leaders from Miriam College in Quezon City and I got a similar response. What am I trying to say?
1. Yes, our country is divided on how we view President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. You have on one side, a group supporting Arroyo despite all the anomalies, allegations of corruption and scandals that have rocked her administration, while on the other, you have groups and highly-influential leaders which have called for her immediate resignation and ouster from power.
2. However, it seems that judging from my experiences in dealing with these student leaders, the people I talk to and the e-mail I get from Filipinos here and abroad, we all want to see positive and lasting change and reforms happen.
That is why I think that if we want to help in bringing our nation together towards a common vision to move our country forward, this unity should not be based on certain personalities like President Arroyo or other politicians. Rather, we need to work together towards building, strengthening and transforming our democratic institutions; that would make them more responsive to the needs of the poor and the powerless in our communities.
Isn’t it sad that we are now facing a food crisis when we were once one of the world’s top agricultural countries? This could be an indirect effect of the one-billion-peso fertilizer scam that was allegedly used to fund President Arroyo’s election. If it was used properly and for the right purpose, then we might not be facing this crisis now or if we do, the effect wouldn’t be as worse.
We at Team RP believe that a fight for change and reforms continues regardless of who becomes the president, vice president, senators, congressmen, etc. We are doing this because we believe that many of our government leaders have failed us and that its time for all of us to take control of our own future and work together for that genuine and lasting change that we all want to see in our country.
Let’s quit making excuses, being inactive, hopeless, indifferent and whiny; these all amount to nothing if we ourselves don’t participate in proactive solutions. 2010 is a big deal for all of us. We will vote for the Philippines’ next top leader in less than two years. Our decision on who will lead us to progress and prosperity is a very important one that could potentially change the course of the country’s future.
Change is now. Hope lies not in our country’s leaders and those in power but in every Filipino. Change does not happen overnight, but when we work together, it can happen in 22 months.
IamChange2010 is a joint project of the Ateneo de Manila School of Government and Team RP. It aims to get the young Filipinos to register and vote in the coming 2010 Presidential elections and educate them on various issues concerning elections. For inquiries, you may also contact Kai at +63 2 4265657.
November 29th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Change for what?
Unless we change this dysfunctional form and system of goverment, we are doomed to repeat thesame mistakes forever.
We have to change the constitution.
July 18th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Harvey Keh should not be a part of this team. He is a biased man. He sides with Robredo, Panlilio and Padaca.
Team RP is supposed to be not affiliated with political personalities, right?
Start the change from within your ranks, Team RP.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
The calls for unity and change are perhaps the most overused campaign strategy in our country not only during election but almost at all times in nearly every fora imaginable. I have to agree that unity and change are the most important things to achieve progress in our country. The big questions however is what do we change? Towards what goal shall we be united? Who will lead us to achieve this unity and change?
Unless we answer all these questions, all the clamor for change and unity will be empty and useless just like in the past. How many politicians,NGO’s, movements, political parties and other groups promised changes and called for unity. Not much happened. The poor are still poor. Our country is still lagging behind economically. Graft and corruption are still rampant. Food, health care and education are still not within the reach of the ‘poorest of the poor’.
To Team RP I wish you all the luck in the world in your endeavours!
July 9th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Just so much talk but inaction with complaints won’t get us far. It seems just right to criticize the President, but the question remains… What would you have done given the circumstances that would have been better than what the president has done to address specific actions? Probably the same or worst… So much talk… No action, which makes one to think that the Filipinos really want to remain in the same situation they have dugged themselves in… It is time to stop blaming those who happened to be in power, as it’s easy to point the finger at anyone who happens to be running the country, be it Pres. Macapagal or not… Blame outselves… We put them in government…
July 7th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
We put so much faith on the computerization of the election so that we will have a leadership that look after their constituents and the wlefare of the nation. We have to realize that a computer is just a machine. If you put garbage in it also generates garbage. I have always tried to vote intelligently but find the present set up just to difficult to vote intelligently. There are so many positions to fill and so many candidates to evaluate. At the end of the day, there is no governance as a candidate could loss in his neighborhood but still gets elected because he wins somewhere else. I do not see any reason why I should vote for 12 senators, all the councilors, all the board members, mayor and the vice mayors. I have to vote for a councilor to represent me and my neighbors for local concern. He does not do his job then he is out. He will have a difficulty cheating because he will be facing his neighbors. He could not win by cheating some distant precinct. In UK, Australia and New Zealand vote counting is done manually. Each precinct has ore than a 1000 voters and the results are know within three hours after closing of the precinct. It is because there is only one seat that you have to vote in the local election, then a year after for the state election and on the third year for the federal election.