“Disiplina ang kailangan” haunts us
“Pag lumabisna ang salop, ito ay kinakalos.”
This is an old saying handed down from my father who learned it from his father who taught it to him by his father. It simply means, when something goes extremely wrong, it must be met with the same extreme force.
I recall this line in an old Fernando Poe, Jr movie.
“Salop” is a measuring device used by rice sellers before the country used the metric system (kilo). It is a wooden square container usually called a “ganta” (in English) where rice is poured into and sold. This was way, way back until the 50’s when the staple commodity could still be bought in centavos yet.
Today, many sensible people who live during the Marcos pre- and post-martial law years are agreed that the dictator the Filipinos kicked out of office in 1986 deserved to be credited for this slogan that is perpetually haunting us.
Filipinos, whether you agree or not, are an undisciplined lot.
For many decades – as far back as I can remember – communists have eloquently vilified one administration after another for being “puppet of the US (tuta ng Kano).”
This is already the year of the millennials and I am just amazed that this line parroted by Leftists and their anti-government fronts has not gone out of style despite the independent foreign policy President Duterte has started espousing since he held office in June 2016.
(How can they continuously label Duterte as “tuta ng Amerika” when the government has made friendly, pivotalforeign policy moves toward China and Russia?)
Anti-Duterte groups, including the political opposition and their foreign allies, have been abusing the “maximum tolerance” policy of the Duterte administration.
Discipline, I reckon, is the key to good governance.
If forced by the enemies of the State, Duterte can wield his constitutionally-mandated powers to impose national discipline as a matter of course to protect the citizens and the State.
There is a tipping point somewhere. As the late Lee Kwan Yeo noted, “the Philippines has too much of a democracy,” or something to this effect.
Why is it that when Filipinos live and reside in a foreign land, they suddenly get transformed from being un-disciplined to a “disciplined” person?
In the US, for the example. Filipinos who commit a driving violation pay fines obediently, don’t raise hell and do not assault the arresting traffic cop.
Why is it that they pay their credit cards debt promptly, their housing and car loans, their utilities and their insurance bills with nary a complaint?
Why is it that Pinoys in the US suddenly become environmentally-conscious, aware of the correct ways to dispose waste, plastic cups, cigarette butts, candy wrappers, etc?
All Filipinos in the US are, arguably, civilly obedient (whether citizens, permanent residents or TNTs).
I will hazard an answer.
Because our government from way, way back – and its enforcement agencies – has long been laxed and negligent in implementing the law to the letter.
Don’t blame the Duterte government for all the worst things that are happening today. The problems terrorizing our present existence are the cumulative scars of our ugly colonial past that were left unsolved – or negligently dealt with – by one administration to the next up to the present.
As you can see and now observe, the democracy we live in is being literally abused and put to a test by the few who undermine government authority.
Now, don’t you think the present administration should bestricter and sterner in applying laws and statutes that will put law and order in their proper places?
Today, 46 years after declaring martial law, even as others with contrary views may despise me, I dare say Ferdinand Marcos was right all the time.
For a nation that has long been unstoppably spinning in circles, this is the best opportunity to re-live the slogan: “Sa ikauunladng bayan, disiplina ang kailangan.”
Attributed to Winston Churchill, he said this: “If you are going through hell, keep going.”
