Nationalism and People’s Empowerment

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Pahayag ng Migrante
21032014

About a week ago, I read in a post on facebook about nationalism being the cure for corruption.

 But it, too has its shortcoming. Nationalism as the ideology of governance  point to the overwhelming subjective force of reactionary politicians under the patronage system as the cornerstone of  our malformed state culture that we inherited from colonial politics of our conquerors that provided a fertile soil for pervasive corruption to thrive. There are some doubt if the nationalism of our “nationalist” politicians, if any of them has the chance to become Chief Executive, could empower the people to pursue societal change as a sustainable program to shoulder their own social reform agenda.

If in case any of them would have become president, It would be doubtful if he could outwit and outlive the politically  dominant  reactionary politicians. And above all, could US imperialism be benign enough as to allow him to proceed  thorough agrarian reform and nationalist industrialization. The president’s position in power would have been very tenuous and shaky.  Only the support of a highly politicized  and empowered masses of the population could  provide the impetus for a successful social transformation.  In any  undertaking for societal reconstruction, it will always be the organized and empowered masses who will constitute the motive forces.

But have no misconceptions! The reactionary politicians have always been mouthing empty rhetorics on people empowerment.  They introduce projects such as hog-raising or scholarship programs  and call them programs of  people empowerment that ensued from the absurdity of the reactionary politicians’ logic of deception and cajolery. of  genuine people’s empowerment does not consist in one or two—or at most, a few—individuals  having been raised into  a well-to-do standing in the community. This only engenders selfish individualism which is anathema to Nationalism.  

There can only be genuine people empowerment when the people consciously engage  in participatory and/or collective endeavor as an integral part of the over-all long-term goal of emancipating the entire  nation from the scourges of  poverty and underdevelopment. .The nationalist standpoint should always be the basis of the banner call in crystallizing the concerns and issues  necessitating collective actions.