What is fuzzy about this rhetoric is why we are arguing for these when we do have and can do these now:
- We are already governing ourselves in our barangays, municipalities, districts, provinces and region.
- We have access to different sources of funds to improve our lives.
- We are already enjoying Islamic aspects in our daily lives – birth, marriage, wealth distribution, madrasah, halal food are just some of these. We can further explore and advocate Islam to benchmark our governance.
Because we fail to comprehend what we truly need (not want) as a people, we fail to chart what future to pursue.
Because our shared future is scattered, we are in a quagmire, embolden by angst, exclusion, division and violence against our own.
We WANT independence. This is the PROBLEM. We don’t NEED it.
A WANT is something we can LIVE WITHOUT. A NEED is FOR SURVIVAL.
We can live without independence. We don’t need it to survive.
To survive, we need something other than independence.
Other, non-traditional rhetoric and beyond angst to convince people to support independence.
Rhetoric for independence can start with historical grievances and current dire situation. To move more people, you need rhetoric about the future – logical, sensible so as to appeal to the mind, empathic so as to appeal to the heart, urgent so as to move to action.
Rhetoric for independence based on past glories will be short-lived. Once the incompetence of past rulers and their extravagant lives come to fore, the support shall have dwindled to half.
Rhetoric for independence that argues for a future as a copycat of the past will hold little water. Past governance is ripe with lessons on positive shift of governance from indigenous (raja-system) to an imported (sultanate) system, acceptance of outside leadership (Shariful Hashim, Amirul Umara), territorial expansion (from Buansa outward), political concessions and compromises (Sabah to British, Zamboanga and Siasi to Spaniards, Basilan to French, Bongao to Germans), and ultimately to American Rule (Bates treaty, Dansalan Declaration).
Therefore, to believe in a fixed past and to stay in the past set-up is a betrayal of the observable evolution of governance in a progressive manner. No nation has remain fixed, everyone evolved.
Rhetoric for independence based on current dire situation will hold water for a time. Who do not want to govern themselves? Who do not want to improve their lot? Who do not want their future define by their distinct identity?
However, we do have some semblance of what the future will be today.
We are already governing ourselves in our barangays, municipalities, districts, provinces and region.
We have access to different sources of funds to improve our lives.
We are already enjoying Islamic aspects in our daily lives – birth, marriage, wealth distribution, madrasah, halal food are just some of these. We can further explore and advocate Islam to benchmark our governance.
Therefore, the rhetoric for independence should build trust and confidence that governance will different than today or even better. The future requires detailed articulation as if it is already in place.
Independence is not just being free from colonial rule (There will be neo-colonials to face).
What use is being free when your stomach is empty? When we continue living in dire situation, unsecured.
In the end, independence is about human security and development. It is not a panacea for all the problems. This is a farce. It is the last option for development.
Pre-occupation with independence have deter many amongst us from seizing other opportunity presenting itself at our doorstep.
We are so focused on looking at the horizon that we fail to appreciate what is at hand.
We have foregone what we have today for idealism so remote and removed from reality; I pray our angst and our hope is not wasted into the abyss.
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