Home > Op-ed | To bottom

Roots of revolution

“If you want to serve this people well, give a favorable answer to their request, and they will always serve you loyally.” — I Kings 12:7

All-Out War

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo(GMA) had declared an all-out war against the more- than-three-decade communist insurgency with the hope to finish it off within two years time or within her term. Well, one could not actually fulfill such declaration without killing a lot of people. Although her administration denies any involvement in the spate of brutal killings against militant activists and media personalities, we could not really blame people if they would point their fingers to the military establishment as the one responsible.

This suspicion was reinforced even more by President GMA’s words of commendation in her State of the Nation Address to her favorite, Gen. Palparan, whose military trail is tainted by the blood of the innocents. Moreover, the President’s apparent lack of genuine concern for the victims as well as the authorities’ slow investigation of the growing list of political killings support the popular suspicion that perhaps Malacañang is behind all these. Her lame order to investigate the more than three hundred cases of brutal killings under her administration seems to be an attempt to cover up her administration’s responsibility and divert away from her the rising tide of popular indignation.

As per observation, an all-out war declaration worsens rather than solves the insurgency problem. A people’s revolt is just a mere symptom of a deeper problem. Curing the symptom rather than the disease does not bring genuine healing and wholeness. There would always come a time when the disease would again manifest itself. This is the reason why the insurgency problem in our country still goes on, simply because the solutions given through all these years are just meant to cure the symptoms rather than the disease itself.

Hence, if we are really serious in putting an end to insurgency, we have to look deeper into the roots of people’s revolution. We have to diagnose the disease itself and cure it.

Lessons in History

The division of the ancient kingdom of Israel would teach us a significant lesson in history (I Kings 12). King Solomon’s united kingdom was hopelessly divided just after his death. His son Rehoboam succeeded him to the throne. People from the Northern tribes who were victims of King Solomon’s oppressive reign stage a rally in front of Rehoboam’s palace. They had two demands: to lower taxes and to put a stop to force labor instituted during King Solomon’s time. Rehoboam’s old advisers said to him, “If you want to serve this people well, give a favorable answer to their request, and they will always serve you loyally”(v.7). This is a piece of wisdom seasoned by experiences. Kings are meant to serve the people; the people’s interests should be the king’s interests. If such would be the case, the people would be loyal to the king.

But King Rehoboam listened instead to the advice of his younger advisers who said to him, “This is what you would tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!’ Tell them, ‘My father placed heavy burdens on you; I will make them even heavier. He beat you with whips; I’ll flog you with bullwhips!’”(vs.10-11). This was exactly what King Rehoboam did. The result was a people’s revolution that led to the division of the Kingdom of Israel. The ten tribes of the North withdrew their support to the Davidic Dynasty.

Here is a lesson in history that we must always bear in mind: if the people are being oppressed and you oppressed them even more, this would become the root cause of revolution. This is true in terms of the revolutions in history, whether it be the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution, the Cuban Revolution or the Philippine Revolution of 1896, or even the EDSA Revolution of 1986.

Toward a Solution of Insurgency

Our country’s insurgency problem cannot be solved overnight, or in two years time or even ten years, especially if the solution given is a military solution. Our country may be turned into killing fields; hundreds or even thousands of innocent lives may be sacrificed as “collateral damage”. But definitely, it would not solve the problem at all. On the contrary, it would make it worse than ever before.

Our country’s insurgency problem is rooted in landlordism and landlessness. It is rooted in the problem of appropriating the material resources of this country for the good of everyone. The implementation of a genuine land reform program should have been a good solution, but up to now it remains just a dream. Vast tracts of lands are still in the hands of a few, while many are landless.

Taxation should have been a good instrument to redistribute the resources of this country, so that those who have more in life should give more taxes and this would be redistributed to all through government services. But this ideal is never realized due to the prevalence of graft and corruption. And so, the rich are given a lot of tax incentives, while government services have much more to be desired.

Our country is supposed to be a democratic country. Democracy is simply defined as “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people”. But honestly speaking, this lofty definition of democracy remains to be a vision yet to be realized in our economic and political life. Actually, we have in our country an elitist kind of democracy, wherein the rich and powerful elite would use and manipulate our masses of people, especially during election time, to perpetuate themselves in power and to protect their economic and political interests. The spate of political killings done almost everyday speaks so well not of democracy, but of martial rule.

The solution to our insurgency problem would depend so much upon our government itself. But this would require a strong political will on the part of our leaders. Our government can actually solve the insurgency problem, not by the barrel of the gun, but by being truly a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. By being such, the root cause of people’s revolution would be adequately addressed, and the people would have no more legitimate reasons to rebel against the government. Perhaps, those in government could learn from the advice of the old advisers of King Rehoboam: “Listen to the people, and the people will respect you as a leader.” It is our hope and prayer that our leaders today would not follow the same mistake committed by King Rehoboam. #

Post your comments, reactions to this article

Home > Op-ed | Back to top