Churchill Aguilar
THE recent rift between the CPP-NPA and the DU30 administration gets me to thinking. Is communism still significant in our time? Perhaps it would be good to refresh ourselves with what the New People’s Army are really fighting for and see for ourselves if they still have something to offer us.
To simply put, the CPP-NPA is a rebel group that seeks to establish a communist government. To better understand such ideology, let me compare communism from our present democratic government.
As mandated in our Constitution, our present government is a representative democracy. As such, each citizen is given the power to decide how our government is run. This power lies in our power to vote and to run for office during elections. If we like our leaders we re-elect them, if we don’t then we elect someone else. This way, no one gets blamed for how the government is run. Democracy also gives so much room for individual choices; so long as the universal human rights are upheld people are pretty much free to do what they want to do. If we also look into the economic aspect of democracy, we see diversity of status. There are those who have more in life while there are also those who don’t have any depending on the opportunities they grabbed (level of education) and the hard work they put into securing their finances. After all in a democratic society, to each is his own. Kung kugihan ka musapi-an ka, pero kung tapulan ka mahimo ka gayud nga kabus ug uyamot.
On the social aspect of democracy, people’s beliefs and culture are respected however different they may be from each other. Thus exists the different religions and sub cultures. In a way democracy and the democratic government is by far the most ideal system of governance.
Yet if we look closely in our Philippine setting, the democratic system has been severely corrupted by vested interests of those smart enough to manipulate the system. It has ceased to uphold the welfare of the greater majority. And I say this with certainty because more and more got poorer the moment we became a democratic nation after the Americans colonized us. Yes, people may be given the power to choose and to run for office but since we are not yet politically mature, the powers were easily stolen from us with just a few hundreds of pesos or for some areas intimidation. After elections, we are also not as vigilant in checking how our elected officials spend our taxes. This leads me to believe that the democratic system only works in an intelligent population, something that is not yet true for us.
The injustices caused by our system led to the birth of the rebel faction called the CPP-NPA. Their faction wishes to install a communist government characterized by a classless society. And by classless we mean no poor or no rich people because everyone gets pretty much what others get. And how does this work? Pretty simple, everything is owned by the government, including all businesses and so all services are given free such as water, electricity and hospitalization. Everyone receives their daily rations. The welfare indeed of all gets upheld but it has a cost. In order for such to materialize, few of our rights need to be curtailed such as for example the right not to work if and when we get lazy. So is this better than democracy? This remains debatable. Up to now, and for some reason, all communist countries are very poor and their governments are still characterized by corruption.
I personally think that the CPP-NPA has lost its significance the moment it engaged in extortion where they forcibly get money from rich Filipino businessmen in the name of revolutionary taxes, and if they (businessmen) don’t pay, their buses or their establishments get burned down. They (CPP-NPA) obviously did not gain the sympathy of the greater majority, something essential for any system of government to effectively work.
But is the spirit of communism still significant? Yes, absolutely. We cannot just let the rich exploit the poor. Our system needs to move from democracy to a certain level of socialism, just the right balance of individual freedom and public welfare. The government needs to take hold of major corporations so that it can provide its people free social services, at least those that provide every Filipino a dignified life. The government needs to establish more restrictions in the market so that wealth can be distributed to the people.
But rebellion through arms conflict is no longer the way to go. Gone are the days where we waste lives to gain freedom. The battleground is no longer in the mountains and the weapons are no longer guns. Our battle ground is in Congress and our weapon is Charter change.
