Bong Austero's Open Letter To Our Leaders

The original is in:


http://bongaustero.blogspot.com/2006/02/open-letter-to-our-leaders.html


This blog by Bong Austero caught my attention and I wanna share it with you. This is an excellent piece of writing.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!


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Open Letter To Our Leaders

Dear Tita Cory, Senators, Congressmen, Businessmen, Media people,
Leftists, and all Bleeding Hearts Out There:

I am angry. And I know that there are many out there who are angrier
than I am for the same reason. And that reason is simple. I am sick
and tired of all you guys claiming to speak for me and many Filipinos.
I feel like screaming every time you mouth words about fighting for my
freedom and my rights, when you obviously are just thinking about
yours. You tell me that the essence of democracy is providing every
citizen the right to speak his or her mind and make his or her own
informed judgments, but you yourselves do not respect my silence and
the choices I and many others have made. In other words, your concept
of democracy is limited to having your rights and your freedoms
respected, at the expense of ours.

I am utterly flabbergasted that you still do not get it: we already
responded to your calls, and our response has been very clear - we
chose not to heed your calls to go to EDSA or to Fort Bonifacio not
because we do not love our country or our freedoms or our rights, but
precisely because we love our country even more. Because quite
frankly, we are prepared to lose our freedoms and our rights just to
move this country forward. You may think that is not correct, you can
tell me all the dire warnings about the evils of authoritarian rule,
but quite frankly all we see is your pathetic efforts to prop up your
cause. You tell me that you are simply protecting my freedoms and my
rights, but who told you to do that? I assure you that when I feel
that my rights and my freedoms are at a peril, I will stand up and
fight for them myself.

You tell us that GMA is not the right person to lead this country
because she has done immoral acts. As someone who sees immorality
being committed wantonly in many ways every day and by everyone (yes,
including the ones you do), I may have become jaded. But you have not
been able to offer me any viable alternative, while GMA has bent over
backwards many times to accommodate you while continuing to work hard
despite all the obstacles and the brickbats you have thrown her way.
From where I sit, she is the one who has been working really hard to
move this country forward while all of you have been so busy with one
and only one thing: to make sure she does not succeed. So forgive me
if I do not want to join you in your moral pissing contest. Forgive me
if I have chosen to see things from another perspective. You say she
is the problem. I say, we are the problem, more to the point, I think
you are a bigger problem than she is. Taking her out may solve part of
the problem, but that leaves us with a bigger problem: you. That is
right, YOU!

While I felt outraged that she called a Comelec official during the
elections and that she may have rigged the elections, I have since
then taken the higher moral ground and forgiven her. Yes my dear
bishops, I have done what you have told me to do since I was a child,
which you say is the Christian and moral thing to do: forgive.
Especially since she has asked for forgiveness and has tried to make
amends for it. Erap certainly has not apologized and continues to be
defiant, continuing to insult us everyday with his protestations. Cory
has not apologized for her incompetence but we have forgiven her just
the same because like GMA, she has worked hard after all.

I know you do not think that GMA's apology was not enough, or that she
was insincere, or that that apology should not be the end of it, but
please spare me the hypocrisy of telling me that you do so for the
sake of protecting the moral fibre of society. The real reason is
because you smell blood and wants to go for the kill.

Well, I have news for you. I do not like her too. I did not even vote
for her. I voted for Raul Roco. But as much as I do not like her, I do
not like you even more. I may not trust her, but guess what, I do not
trust you even more.

You know why? Because all you do is whine and sabotage this country.
You belittle every little progress we make, conveniently forgetting
that it is not just GMA who has been working so hard to achieve them.
Every single day, we keep the faith burning in our hearts that this
country will finally pull itself out of the mess and we work so hard
to do that. Every little progress is the result of our collective
effort, we who toil hard everyday in our jobs. Yet, you persist in one
and only thing: making GMA look bad in the eyes of the world and
making sure that this country continues to suffer to prove your sorry
point. In the process, you continue to destroy what we painstakinly
try to built. So please do not be surprised that I do not share your
cause. Do not be surprised that we have become contemptuous of your
antics. You have moved heaven and earth to destroy her credibility,
you have convened all kinds of fora and hearings and all you have done
is test our patience to the core. For all your effort, you have only
succeeded in dragging us further down. I say enough.

Don't get me wrong. I am not asking that we take immorality lying
down, or that we let the President get away with anything illegal. But
you have tried to prove your accusations all these time and you have
not succeeded, so it is time to let things be. Besides, you are doing
something immoral as well if not utterly unforgivable. The Magdalo
soldiers are consorting with the communists - the same people who have
been trying to kill democracy for years. Cory has been consorting with
Erap and the Marcoses.

So please wake up and take a reality check. In the absence of true and
genuine moral leadership, many of us have decided to cast our lot with
the President, even if we do not like her. A flawed leader is better
than scheming power hungry fools who can not even stand up for their
convictions in the face of an impending arrest.

Your coup attempts and the denials that you have consequently made
only underscore what we think is true: you are spineless and
unreliable people whose only defense is to cry suppression when your
ruse do not work. You are like bullies who taunt and provoke, but cry
oppression when taken to task for your cruelty.

I would have respected you if you took the consequences of your
actions like real heroes: calmly and responsibly instead of kicking
and screaming and making lame excuses. You say you are willing to die
for us, that you do all these things for the country and the Filipino,
but you are not even willing to go to jail for us.

Come on, you really think we believe that you did not want to bring
down the government when that is the one and only thing you have been
trying to do in the last many months?

We love this country and we want peace and progress. Many among us do
not give a f*&k who sits at Malacanang because we will work hard and
do our share to make things work. If you only do your jobs, the ones
that we elected you to do, things would be a lot simpler and easier
for every one.

The events during the weekend only proved one thing. You are more
dangerous and a serious threat to this country than GMA is. We have
seen what you are capable of doing - you are ready to burn this
country and reduce everything to ashes just to prove your point. If
there is something that we need protection from, it is protection from
you.