Like many young Filipinos, I also wonder what the future is like for my generation. In the spectacle put forward by the ZTE scandal, there’s this one question I have been grappling with – why is my country poor?

First, I think this is all about our wrong concept of democracy. I believe that democracy is meant to serve the good of the people, and it is wrong to say that people must sacrifice themselves for democracy. Democracy is not an end in itself – people are. Freedom is not an end in itself – people are.

The ZTE controversy, for instance, should not have been reduced to the public sphere, to street protests and rallies. It is all about us, about what makes us really human, and politics is but one of the many aspects that makes us human. Thus, I don’t find it worthwhile to send the youth to protests against the excesses of this government. Instead of doing that, it is more prudent for us to concentrate on the positive capabilities of people, most especially our students and the youth. The youth should not become political slaves. The right to education is more than the right to complain. It is a right to be, to choose, to be fully aware of what the good life is all about. It cannot be subjected to political bargaining.

Today, almost all of our students want to go abroad. But our government’s reliance on OFW remittances is not a sound economic policy. In our highly consumerized and monetized strategies of growth, the poor have become invisible. Notwithstanding all the positive economic numbers recently, the National Statistics Coordinating Board has reported that poverty has actually grown last year. Growth has not trickled down, as a matter of fact.

We are a poor country. But we need not be rich. We only need to live a decent life. In all these years my simple philosophy is that I have to use my one and only brain to find what makes life worth living. The basic idea is that people need to help themselves. Nobody else will. The poor need new ideas. They need new insights about the common facts of their lives. Thus, those of us who are in the know have the strong moral duty to work to enhance the poor’s sense of self. Teachers, businessmen, the media, need to do real work in all the corners of our country telling the poor that they need to correct their lives. Our country needs a self-critique, none of us excluded. Only then can we hope for a better life.

I argue that we should address our problems not only by means of protest, but through a critical self-assessment. For instance, you can’t really complain about globalization if you use the Internet, or watch cable TV, or wear Nike shoes. These are products of a highly globalized world. It is one thing to complain about globalization, and another to question unjust global structures.

Thus, it is not enough to criticize. It is important to see who is also doing the criticism. Criticism, in this sense, should be inward-looking, not outward looking. Fighting the "administration" or a system is really fighting nobody. It is like trying to find a piece of needle in an island and you do not even know what the needle is for.

Small is beautiful 

I believe that it is more important for us to consider the fact that there is something good in the small things that we do, that "small is beautiful", to make a reference to EF Schumacher, and this is possible by looking at our very lives, and see how and what "can be done" about it.

No one wants to live a miserable life. The poor can lift themselves up, but we need to give them the proper tools. Sadly, it is not in politics. Perhaps, I must say that for now, the poor can’t find hope in politics. The poor are not ignorant of their situation but the atmosphere of hopelessness and abject misery permeate human life. This reminds me of The Lord of the Rings. The condition of the poor is the same with Frodo while he is being ruled by the power of the ring. The thing is Frodo had the determination while the poor have lost theirs. Now, the real battle, in Frodo’s sense, is not against the dark lord – it actually is against himself. The same should hold true for all of us.

But it bothers me a lot that the main players in the ZTE controversy come from the country’s top Catholic universities. Is there something wrong? Is it the comfort of air-conditioned rooms or the nice buildings of their campuses? Or maybe is it because the poor man has become invisible and has been reduced to mere abstractions or ideas in books, or has become a mere specimen in the exposure of students to poor communities? Do students see the poor beyond those vigils and truth forums? Have we asked them what they’re thinking about while they’re listening to the speeches of their "guest speakers"? Is this the reason why our country remains poor? No, maybe not. But perhaps the battles shouldn’t be done outside, but inside our campuses, inside our classrooms, inside our libraries.

So why invest in education? Here’s a short note. For instance, China is reaping so much growth because it ensured the priority of education during the 80’s and 90’s. Tiananmen Square is a tragic story, totally unnecessary. Students need not sacrifice their lives. So I say that here in our beloved country, students should carry books, I stand by that, not placards. It is not their war. It is our war. People need to be independent, creative and responsive to their own needs, and knowledge is the most vital part in achieving that. If people are highly independent, governments are really unnecessary. The youth need not spill blood for the sake of freedom.

Corruption is nothing new; you do not even need a theory. He who has the power will soon become corrupt. It is for this reason that we need to empower all men, not just a few good men. The politicians we have now, so many of them in fact, are former student leaders, educated in the country’s good universities. They are part of the decadent years of the 70s, fought and battled the dictatorship. Many of them now are our leaders. In the near future, these young boys and girls we have now who are in the streets will take over. What will happen to the Philippines by then?

Therefore, we must ask whose truth we are really concerned about. Is it the truth that politicians want because they want to topple GMA? Is it the truth that civil society wants because they think there is something wrong with our system? Or is it the truth that the poor and our youth really need in order to live a better life? We need some introspection. Our freedom from the bondage of poverty can only be realized if we fully believe in the capabilities of our people. It is difficult, yes, but not impossible.