EVERY attempt to understand, rather than blindly condemn, will be taken as a sign of being a "traitor" by those who think that patriotism should be based on hate rather than on what makes us truly Filipino: our ability to see things from the other's perspective, which the word "kapwa" essentially means.
In which ethical system is it an act of treason to pursue understanding rather than to be swallowed by the hatred of the masses?
Have we forgotten what Martin Luther King Jr. once taught the world when he received his Nobel Peace Prize in 1964?
We must win our opponent's understanding rather than continue to humiliate the opponent, because seeking to humiliate is to annihilate rather than convert
Have we forgotten what the Holy Bible said: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God"?
Have we forgotten how the Prophet Muhammad and his followers made peace with the pagans of Mecca through negotiations and a treaty?
To my fellow Filipinos, what we feel about the West Philippine Sea is the same feeling China has over its near-sea: a source of vulnerability. It was through the weakness of its sea defenses that China experienced the same kind of humiliation we experienced. But they experienced worse.
Our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, once said this about China: "China will consider herself fortunate if she succeeds in keeping herself intact and is not dismembered or partitioned among the European powers that are colonizing the continent of Asia." But China wasn't so fortunate; it was partitioned by the West among themselves. Later on, Japan copied the Western powers. China was simultaneously occupied by different Western powers. While we got passed from one colonial master to another, China served several at the same time.
For China, its South Sea is where it wants to be strong, so it could never again be subjected to the same kind of humiliation. They want to be strong in the same way we want to be strong in the face of our vulnerability.
Yet our common sea isn't only waves of pain. Through its waters flow the long peace our peoples had with each other. China is not just another country to us. China is family.
Rizal has Chinese ancestry, as well as many of our heroes, political, religious, cultural and industry leaders. We share the same blood.
Why should we throw away millennia of peace in order to pursue goals that can be reconciled if we will just be patient enough and open to sail through these waters so we can find the shore of our common needs and mutual benefits?
During the Spanish colonization era, we were fooled by the Spaniards into thinking that the Chinese inhabitants of these islands were out to conquer us. Some of our ancestors joined the Spaniards in killing thousands of Chinese.
Upon America's betrayal, another million of our ancestors were killed under Uncle Sam's "benevolent assimilation." In fighting between the Japanese and Americans during World War 2, another million Filipinos died, and our beautiful Manila was bombed. It was the Chinese-Filipino guerrilla fighters, "Wha-Chi," who volunteered to go door to door to weed out the remaining Japanese soldiers and save more Filipinos before the Americans dropped their bombs on Manila.
Should we once again be victims of another Western power pushing us to commit another one? Should we fall again to the spell of America's "It's either you're with us or against us?" that made Filipinos participate in the illegal invasions of other countries?
The Philippines, China and the rest of our fellow Asians have a glorious pre-colonial past, to rephrase what Ramon Magsaysay once said. Now, together, we must build a future worthy of that past.
We Asians should never forget that the Europeans came to our region not to bring peace, not to develop it, but to divide it among themselves, to subjugate our ancestors, and to shamelessly plunder our continent of its riches to bring material progress to their nations, which they continue to enjoy now, while a lot of us still continue to regain our dignity from centuries of Western colonization.
We must not let them do it again. They covet the same things they extracted when they colonized every Asian country, save for a few: Asian resources.
The civilizations of the Philippines and China have a long history of peaceful relations; we share the same pain of being humiliated by the Western powers; we both belong to Asia, and the South China Sea is our common heritage. Asian resources belong to Asians!
To our brothers and sisters from China, your people have a national identity that can be traced back thousands of years. Let me tell you something about the national psyche of our very young country.
The Philippine identity is a product of Western colonization. We might be the only one in Asia that didn't defeat our colonizer. We did once, but the declaration of independence our ancestors made in 1898 was quickly stolen by the United States. We are a deeply subjugated people.
Just like the Chinese, we still have unhealed national trauma from the past. We cope with this trauma by embracing the colonial masters who abused us for centuries because, unlike other Asians, we never returned to our roots but continued to live according to how we were colonized.
Great Old Civilization China, like your near-sea, our seas have been a source of our vulnerability. The West used the sea as the launch pad for their barbarism that massacred our peoples. We may have forgiven our colonizers, but we have never forgotten what it felt like to be humiliated.
The sea we call the West Philippine Sea is the space where we seek the independence we never truly won in our history, the space where we could finally enjoy the euphoria of winning after struggling with a Great Power."
The South China Sea was a sea that united the Asians, until the Westerners came and added borders to divide us," said the late ambassador Alberto Encomienda, our foremost maritime and ocean governance expert.
No more dead Asians sacrificed at the altar of Western greed. Asian Peace is peace inspired by the wisdom of our ancestors and the fulfillment of our duty to the future generations of Asians.
Asian Peace can no longer be the peace of American guns and bombs, and arrogance.
Asian Peace can no longer be the "White Man's Burden."
Asian Peace shouldn't be the fallout of a mushroom cloud over Asian cities.
Asian Peace is the civilization we lost, which we must reclaim, together, patiently, with the dignity of seeing each other as "kapwa."
Liked what you read? Please share to your friends via email and/or your social media. Also, consider sending a tip to keep this sustainable via Buy Me A Coffee or via GCash (click for QR Code).
Share this post