Dreams and people

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/20/2006



One headline last week really gripped my mind, it was FVR admonishing Honasan. The headline goes this way: “Ramos to Honasan, Stop dreaming, surrender.” I don’t know from where Ramos got his values formation, but I know that in all literature of cultures and civilizations to the idea of dreams as aspiration and hope, or often also called vision, is given the highest praise. It is one positive thinker who said, “Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.”

We can go a bit further back in time and higher in the plane of existence to explore what our precursors have thought of this matter. In the Bible, Proverbs 25:18 it says: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Soldier, senator, citizen Honasan had a dream and he has written down this dream in a guidebook for the recovery of the country, it is entitled “National Recovery Program”. While I will be the first to say that the program can do with a lot more progressive ideas, I will also be the first to appreciate Honasan’s effort at articulating a dream and a vision for a nation to hand on to.

What is this nation’s idea of itself and its future? That is in essence what the national dream and vision ought to be, but where there should be an exciting idea we find today only a great, painful void that has given life to every cynical and pessimistic view of the Filipino that has become the butt of the joke “Only in the Pilipines.” If there is any doubt about the wisdom from Proverbs 25:18 the state of the Philippines today would wipe that doubt away. And Fidel V. Ramos would want one of those dreams of Filipinos, embraced by young officers of the Bagong Katipuneros, to wither and die away?

It’s not surprising Ramos made such an admonition, for obviously Ramos is a man without a dream. It is reflected in a phrase our colleague Jun Castañeda often recalls from FVR’s during the 2003 Oakwood incident. That time Ramos was admonishing and gave “fatherly” advice to Trillanes and company: “…think about your social mobility”. That captures the quintessential Ramos in Philippine society which describes much of the traditional ruling class – from the time of the Spaniards to today, to climb the social ladders of power and prestige within the foreign culture super-structure imposed on us.

I can also surmise how difficult it is for Ramos to dream as his sleeping and waking hours is haunted by the nightmare of what he has done to the Philippines in the process of “social climbing” and getting the hard-earned approval of his Western superiors – in his time signing the iniquitous IPP power contracts to please his Washington superiors, privatizing our profitable national oil company to the Arab and Americans, but in this long list the most obsequious is the enlistment of US Phantom jets to fight Honasan’s dream – which must have pleased Washington no end.

During Ramos’ term he invoked a dream, too; what was it again? “Kaya natin ito!” but what was it supposed to be? Was it vision 2010, or something? We recall a few elements, like “cut flower industry” to propel the economy, or “Hongkongization” of the Philippines, and he loaned and borrowed to pursue the dream which ended in the crash of 1997. But it was never really a dream, only an illusion, always been an illusion to distract the nation from the chicanery and looting hands dipped into the Centennial Expo, PEA-Amari, AFP modernization, AFP retirement funds and other scams.

The dreamless and visionless Ramos mind infects the AFP as its spokesman’s recent words, Col. Kison shows. stirred controversy last March 14 saying it is the AFP keeping the country together, but in statement almost unnoticed he commented on the call for a change in government today saying, "There's no assurance there will be a significant change in our way of life if there's a change of government. Things could be worse…" That was said in the best spirit of the hopeless realist or even cynic; a visionary’s retort would be that things could get no worse, only better with a change now.

Pulse Asia showed that 65% of Filipinos believe Gloria’s resignation would be good for country. Col. Kison is seriously out of touch with the nation. “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet…” an other quote goes. Col. Kison is trumpeting is for the country to accept what the worse that is what we have today, forget about improving the situation. Greg Honasan, Gen. Lim and Franco, Col. Querubin and Trillanes’ group are at least trumpeting change for the better – to blow down corruption and forge an honorable society.

I asked students and colleagues what they think about a Honasan surrender. Unanimously, their faces showed that a dream would die if he surrendered. We are reminded by another social philosopher that, "A man's dreams are an index to his greatness." Honasan’s and all patriots’ dream is a nation’s dream. Kahlil Gibran said it well, “I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires.”