[OPINION] Our lack of critical reflection is the real disease in our midst – Rappler

When medical experts warned us that this virus was especially dangerous for patients with underlying medical conditions, I was scared, given that this nation suffers from multiple comorbidities. Will our weak and overburdened healthcare system be able to contain the shock? Our socioeconomic reality also merits concern. Many of us have no social safety nets, reside in slum communities unfamiliar with social distancing, lack access to basic sanitation, and can't eat if we don't work. While some claim that the virus does not discriminate, it has proven otherwise. The virus brought here by those who can afford to travel will first kill the poor.

I am more afraid, however, that this crisis will end without fostering change in us. We may overcome this disease but remain blind to the causes of this nations social pathology. Patricia Licuanan postulated that one weakness of the Filipino character is our lack of self-analysis and reflection. More than a century ago, Rizal also reproached our weaknesses (i.e. lethargy and subservience), and such criticism is still relevant today.

Before this crisis, most of us lived our lives with little or no help from the government. We were too preoccupied with our own survival that we saw politics not as our concern. This distance made us forget the true meaning of public service. When we exercised our right to suffrage, we voted not to effect change, but rather to just fulfil our civic duty and/or receive our share of the spoils. (READ: Robredo hits 'growing culture of apathy, impunity, lies')

But now that we are locked up in our houses, we can see that governance can actually be a matter of life and death. The crisis exposed the incompetence of many elected officials, and the long-standing bureaucratic pathologies that have compromised our development. The same problems were there: rampant corruption, red tape, nepotism, patronage, incompetence, lack of coordination from government offices, selective justice, and the weaponization of the law, etc.

Nothing much has actually changed: red tape and politicization caused delays in the delivery of aid; brain drain deprived us of important professionals; our justice system was more apt at prosecuting the powerless; and our history of marginalization left our cultural minorities more vulnerable to crises. We failed to realize that this insurgency is a result of our inability to solve historical grievances and structural problems.

Adding insult to injury is how we condone oppression and become perpetrators ourselves. Nepotism floods the bureaucracy with incompetents. Corruption is sugarcoated as diskarte lang, and our participation in it as pakikisama. We tolerate mediocrity: Puwede na yan, Bahala na. Mediocrity is also disguised as contentment, fear, and subservience in the guise of respect.

It is disturbing that we have normalized oppression. It has become a potent anaesthetic that makes us indifferent to our own suffering and the suffering of others. We tolerate inefficiency, irregularities, and incompetence, and then call ourselves resilient. (READ: 'Those in power have long abused the Filipino's resiliency')

I am more afraid that this lack of critical reflection will go on. We will continue to vindicate a dictator, exonerate traitors, reinstate plunderers to power, elect warlords, recycle trapos, applaud demagogues, depend on the patronage of the same people who cause our suffering, tolerate inefficiency, embrace mediocrity, and listen to rubbish yet suppress valid dissent.

When this crisis ends, we need to treat governance as a matter of life and death. When we search for scapegoats, we have partly ourselves to blame. Rizal once said, after all, that there are no tyrants where there are no slaves. Rappler.com

Tobit P. Abao is a graduate of the AB Political Science program at Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT). He advocates for good governance, environmental protection, and youth engagement to effect social change.

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[OPINION] Our lack of critical reflection is the real disease in our midst - Rappler