Much has been said about the need to keep the spirit of EDSA alive, the essence of remaining vigilant against attempts to whitewash the horrors of Martial Law and the importance of learning from the past.
Such discourses are staples of all forms of commemoration of that shining moment in our history that showed the world that we Filipinos know how to risk everything to fight for what is right.
We heard the same old lines during the 39th anniversary of the 1986 People Power Revolution a few days ago. Never forget. Never again. Power belongs to the people. The spirit of EDSA lives on.
There is no arguing that the glorious moment that conjures images of civilians who neutralized a dictator’s heavily armed troops with flowers and rosaries should remain in our collective memory.
To be cynical about it, such a thought gives a sense of pride to those who tend to scrap the bottom of the media barrel for the slightest trace of Filipino blood, connection or involvement in a global achiever, feat or fad.
On the idealistic side, the historic episode reminds us that at least once in our history, we demonstrated that we can set aside our differences and ambitions to stand up to corruption, cronyism and tyranny.
We keep going back to this glorious episode not only because of its historic value. We need something to comfort us at a time when outright lies and propaganda are successfully disguising morally bankrupt politicians into relatable heroes, crass rhetoric into powerful assertions, absurd ideologies into inclusive views and the abandonment of values into signs of progress or character development.
It is always easy to blame corrupt leaders and a defective bureaucracy for the problems that continue to enslave us. After all, there are notions that while the 1986 revolt was able to get rid of a dictator, it was a misnomer since power was not really transferred to the people.
Some say that power only became less concentrated and was transferred to influential mini dictators who continued the plundering of the country’s resources, exploited the poor and other vulnerable sectors and sidestepped laws to amass wealth and influence and to reward their cohorts.
Indeed, the flaws in our political system that breed greedy and inept officials, inequality and oppression have brought us to this messy state we are in. Many of our leaders have betrayed the spirit of EDSA and have degenerated into opportunists, rent seekers and enablers of wrongdoings. But that is just half of the story.
The aspirations of the millions of Filipinos who joined the 1986 uprising remain unfulfilled because of unseen dictators. They have been successful in dissuading us from acting on the ills of society and aspiring for the good of our country. These dictators have also been effective in convincing us that we will never overcome our struggles and that we need to pin our hopes on sweet talking messiahs who vow to exorcise the demons of criminality and high food costs.
These dictators do not dwell in government offices, session halls, military camps, high-rise corporate headquarters, haciendas or posh, well-guarded subdivisions. They are closer to us than we thought.
They live within us.
We are being controlled by our strong tendency to be awed by personalities. This explains why millions of voters equate governance with song and dance.
The election of celebrities with checkered pasts has emboldened other entertainers who know next to nothing about public service to try their luck in politics, perhaps believing that in the end, they would emerge victorious just like typical movie protagonists. This attitude also makes elected officials so mesmerizing in our eyes that we tend to forget that their salaries are funded by our hard-earned taxes.
Because of this dictator, we rejected a number of lesser known but more qualified individuals and placed jesters in key institutions. And the show they are putting up is far from being enjoyable, to say the least.
We are being paralyzed by our defeatist mentality that discourages us from doing our part in preserving the freedoms that our forebears fought for. Many of us seemed to have accepted the cynics’ view that we cannot do something to hold erring leaders to account or we are too weak to initiate positive change in our communities.
Previous incidents involving betrayal of public trust have strengthened this unseen dictator and have extinguished our idealism. As a result, we have become a nation of dependents who do not mind corruption as long as they are regularly getting dole outs.
We are being shackled by apathy that bars us from helping our countrymen rise from their adversaries. We allow ourselves to remain blissfully ignorant of pressing issues and choose to dabble on the shallow, the trivial and the inconsequential.
We bow to unjust policies, restrictive systems and unreasonable demands for fear of falling from the good graces of our overlords or benefactors. This dictator imprisons us within our parochial concerns and makes us indifferent to the plight of sectors who are suffering because of the whims and designs of power-tripping elites.
We are being manipulated by our refusal to accept realities that challenge our world views, demythologize our icons and debunk our cherished beliefs. This dictator impels us to compensate for our perceived powerlessness by gaslighting ourselves into believing that all is well in our nation, our communities or our institutions and by maligning and easing out those who dare confront us with uncomfortable truths.
It also directs us to stir phony outrage over imagined offenses, suppress views that are deemed to be unpopular or politically incorrect and consume information that validates our biases rather than cure our ignorance.
If we really want to safeguard the ideals of EDSA 1986, we should go beyond commemorations and statements that condemn martial law-like oppression and its new mutations.
We have to start an internal revolution. We need an uprising that will overthrow the unseen dictators within us that hinder us from striving for meaningful reforms and genuine people empowerment.
We need to get rid of our inner demons who have maimed us into personality-oriented, faithless, indifferent and complacent citizens.
The new forms of dictatorship do not emerge solely from the ills that the 1986 People Power Revolution had not cured.
Let us not overlook the unseen dictators that make us both the oppressed and the oppressor. F
