Symon See March 2013
11113111 KASPIL1 C32 (Individual Final Output)

The Relevance or Importance of Jose Rizal to
Modern or Contemporary Philippine Nationalism

A La Sallian. What does it mean to be a La Sallian? By common description, being a La Sallian basically means that you are an enrolled undergraduate or graduate student and at the same time it could also be that you were once an active body of the university; an alumni if you will. The same goes for the Ateneans of Ateneo, and the Iskolar ng Bayan students of UP, and the Thomasians of UST, and many others more within and beyond the university belt. Over the course of time and existence of the universities, however, some kind of peculiar phenomenon that had become a certain norm over time arose from the pride and honor of its members. Every student who belongs to the top universities of the country knows what I’m talking about; it’s obviously the constant strife and competition that seems to never die down between the schools. Although it doesn’t necessarily lead to physical and even hostile threat to one another, it is evident that every living ego that resides in one university would not take it kindly when attacked verbally or non-verbally. When disputes cannot be settled within the sphere of academics, the top universities usually settle their differences in another form of competition; a more direct involvement in determining who is better than the other. And yes, what other ways remain but sports! The UAAP had become the battle grounds and, without a doubt, rivalries and tension had always been apparent between schools most especially the most celebrated La Salle vs. Ateneo rivalry among others. In this manner, the school name- being a La Sallian becomes a label; a brand. It becomes your title claiming that you will fight to be the best among the rest. Now, I didn’t want my point to stray too far from Rizal but any essay started with the main topic itself at most times becomes too tedious and plainly ordinary, thus, the momentary analogy that I believe to resemble the nationalism that our national hero strived his life for. When you think about it, the thought of defending your school pride doesn’t go too far out from what Rizal pictured to be nationalism. Jose Rizal desired to see the Filipinos to live as one and in their name claim back their mother country from foreign colonists; he fought for the Philippines not by brute force but with his wit even if it meant his life. These are the things taught to children as they grow older, brought up to recognize and praise the heroism of our national hero. But more than that, Rizal did not do everything he did because he had his own personal agenda to attain self-glory, but rather he did it because he knew it in his soul that the Philippines was worth fighting for. Going back to my initial statements on school pride, why do we ‘so called fight’ for our school? Are each student really that proud themselves that they cannot accept that they, as an individual and not as a member of a whole, are ‘lower’ in the rankings by institutions that assess the standings of schools or even by simple opinion of others? Or is it because as a La Sallian, it is unacceptable to be branded as this and that without being given the chance to prove they are wrong? Like I said earlier, it could possibly be a phenomenon that simply resonated over the years, but when one is given the opportunity to prove that as La Sallians that they are not lazy, dumb, inadequate, and mga bagsak ng ibang schools, wouldn’t that one take the chance? The same thing goes for Rizal. He didn’t want reforms because he only thought of himself as an individual that it was degrading the way Spaniards treated and viewed Filipinos being a Filipino himself; he wanted these reforms because he wanted to give the nation a chance to prove themselves that they were not indolent and, ultimately, that Filipinos were not inferior to the ruling Spaniards; that they were pretty much capable of standing toe to toe with them in whatever matters concerned in society. In this sense and comparison, we could see that school pride had become a spawn or at least a smaller version of nationalism and to avoid confusion, maybe I’ll even coin a word for it like “La Sallianism” as opposed to the term nationalism. At present day, the Philippines enjoys its overrated liberty and independence as a free country, after all, I don’t think there are any remaining countries that are under the influence of a ruling nation or something of that sort. Therefore, it is clear that there would be no incident as to need revolutions led by heroes like it was during the time of our national heroes. With that said, nationalism itself is forced to morph into different forms, and for me this La Sallianism that I’d like to call could be something like the nationalism of before since we are searching for the relevance of nationalism of then and now. If somehow, this school pride, this La Sallianism could be converted or channeled into some sort of patriotism of our country and existence as Filipinos then this becomes, in little ways than not, our modern nationalism. I mean it only makes sense that somehow, when Rizal said that “ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan”, he might not have realized that those words were actually intended for the young generation of today, more than a century after his death. To further elaborate on this statement of mine, it’s no secret that many and many Filipinos leave their mother land to pursue their careers abroad after receiving their education here while some actually go abroad to finish theirs. But what if these people never left; what if these people sought their life career here in the Philippines; then Jose Rizal’s words about the kabataan begins to make sense. When you think about it, it’ not that this country lacks the capability to produce able and excellent people from this generation, it’s just that they don’t stick around long enough to give back to their nation. Nationalism is, in truth, slowly dying. With a lack luster economy, with a glimpse of improvement in the previous year and at the present seems to be insufficient of a reason for the kabataan of this generation to make any difference to help the country in the ways that they can. Many are those who can readily forsake their home country mainly because there is more to lose than what they can gain, and I don’t blame some when doing so. If a man and his family live in hard times such as now and is given just this one opportunity to turn things around but in return leave this country behind and all its essence so that their lives can prosper, then it doesn’t get any less wise if he turns it down. So, I’ll say it again that yes, nationalism is definitely dying. With that said, what is indeed the relevance of Jose Rizal to modern nationalism? To be honest, I couldn’t give an exact and absolute answer since, obviously, the times were different back then in comparison to the way things are now. Nationalism then in the time of Rizal was about standing firm for being a Filipino under oppression and abuse from the colonizing Spaniards. Nationalism today, however, is not so much like that. People of today would usually correlate nationalism as one’s love for one’s own country. And in order to show this love for country, it would either be by trying to support localized components of society. These components I talk about may be pertaining to local versus imported goods; local brands versus imported ones; Local media as opposed to media abroad; and as a Filipino citizen here and when in foreign grounds and many more. These mentioned areas of our society only strengthens my initial statement on how modern nationalism is dying, with people of this age preferring the imported stuff than support the local ones; but after all, what’s there to lose? There is no incentive to buy local, (except for economical implications), when imported goods satisfy consumers more than they could manage to gain from local ones, or so they think when most times it is just about the prestige of having much more expensive things. As for the media, well, it’s almost self explanatory. I mean who wouldn’t prefer to watch a Hollywood blockbuster film over an indie film made by some unknown and local director? No matter what we do, somehow, people say something like society is not yet ready for the emergence of Filipino media whether it is by film or by music. It’s like, people still can’t digest them or in other words, at most times, people find them humorous just because they’re not used to such things (i.e Filipino dubbings of series, pop music, action films etc.) Lastly, as I have mentioned, the way people are and how they bring themselves up differently among fellow Filipinos in comparison to being around foreigners. It’s almost as if there is a need to impress foreigners because of the stereotypes of the world towards Asian countries, and also to the Philippines directly. It is not uncommon to disclaim being a Filipino as surely there are those who are not at all proud of being one and therefore live their lives abroad, going around acting like someone else that they’re not just because of the pressure of being judged according to race. All these points I had brought up; what am I trying to say really? Well, it all boils down to why people are like this and how nationalism seems to be on a downward spiral. Why are they, after all, like this? I think, primarily, it is because people had just simply lost the value of loving one’s own due to domestic elements in the country that had become lacking, mediocre, sub par and every other adjective that pertains to being lower than the ideal. Therefore, the ultimate relevance of Rizal to contemporary nationalism should be to serve as a revelation and a reminder that the Philippines is indeed worth saving; worth fighting for just like how Rizal and the national heroes did for the country in their time; worth loving and worth being proud of just like how Rizal never disowned being a Filipino as he travelled across the world. This is nationalism at its finest. So going back to my invented ‘La Sallianism’, when fragments and shadows of nationalism could be found in school pride then maybe everyone is very well capable of being loyal and zealous towards their country as they are with their alma mater. It’s a step by step process, and it’s going to take some time most probably. But with Jose Rizal as a symbol of hope immortalized in the history books for generations to come, it won’t really be that far off to achieve. Now it is also important to understand that Rizal’s role in our today’s nationalism is not to repudiate the very essence of foreigners and other nationalities but instead let us realize that the love for our nation is what’s going to drive our country into improving its way of life whether it be in an economic stand view or its outright reputation globally. However, what so many fail to understand is that the nationalism that Rizal entails is usually misconceived and misunderstood that people have gone to the extent of claiming that he had become our national hero because he was “made” to be one and not because people really understood his value- of why he is our national hero. Honestly, there is quite some truth in that given idea. I mean, why view him as a symbol of nationalism when there are so many things in his life that have been questionable and debatable that makes him quite complex to understand- to understand truly what he intended to happen to the Philippines during his time. He was a man with a dispersed identity through his years in a sense that his views changed so drastically according to experiences he had been through which only justifies the argument on whether he really represented nationalism. His novels which were deemed propagandas for inciting a possible revolution and his intention for reforms that were not necessarily forms of revolt; these were the actions of a man hiding behind his desk, armed with pen and ink, accompanied by his intellectual mind. Are these what people understood to be characteristics of nationalism or things pushed down the throat of the people of today so that they may know the significance of Rizal in our history books? I believe I do not have the answer to that and so does many other individuals out there who don’t as well. However, I am inclined to believe then that the relevance of our national hero to our modern day society’s so called nationalism is entirely dependent on what each individual can perceive out of the entity that is Rizal. With more than a century of distance between Rizal’s times to the present, it is difficult to pin-point a single or several relevance of Rizal based on collectively summed up information about him in order to give us an idea of what he was like in his life. Despite that, it all begins with our very own selves, whether we are able to take what we have learned from the image of what Rizal portrayed and in turn propagate it into actions that would promote nationalism and benefit the nation as a whole. Although there is a danger in letting each individual cultivate their own understanding on what nationalism must be like at present in a way that it may lead to extreme courses of actions, it is important to note that these actions should not only benefit the nation but also act in harmony with the rest of the world. With these things said, small or big, who knows what impact it could do in a matter of a hundred years, just like Rizal MOST probably didn’t know that his actions would lead to a nation’s awakening from their slumber and make him a historical figure for all times.