Mabini Hall - Access to Justice

Back to colonial mentality and national development. Since the founding of the Republic, we Filipinos have been blaming our colonial past for the state of the nation. The Spanish for the siesta, the mañana habit and the culture of patronage; the Japanese for the rape and pillage and for outstripping us in growth since; and the Americans for the undue influence and consumerism. The whole thing is like an MMDA truck tied to our necks while we try to cross an EDSA overpass.Recently, Italy signed a deal to pay Libya $5 billion over 25 years to compensate it for mistreatment during colonial times. It must be a historical first. It acknowledges the mistakes of the colonizer, quantifies the damage done and gives the colonized an even chance from this day forward.

Why don’t we lodge a formal complaint against our former colonizers? Imagine getting compensation for more than 300 years of mistreatment. And the other two colonial powers are the number one and two economies in the world today. Uncle Sam handled us for 50 years and at the rate of Libya, we should be getting $10 billion at least. Japan for the horrendous three war years may pay the same amount. Think of what we can do with the money.

The payment to us will once and for all exorcise the accident of history and rid us of our colonial mentality and place us on the path to progress. Really now. The problem lies not with the past, not with lack of money, and definitely not with the colonizers. If at all, to wait for compensation before we get our act together is a fallacy in the first order.

More than anything, we suffer from a culture of dependency—from citizens waiting for government dole-outs to bureaucrats waiting for foreign assistance, from the employee waiting for the bosses to clans dependent on the working members. It is not a culture of empowerment. To ask for compensation is maybe another symptom.

Or we can just ask for a token P1 payment to get it over with. Justice will be served if the colonizers admit to their liability by its payment. This will also avoid antagonizing our allies not to mention the arduous negotiations that go with it. It will give us the moral high ground. Our magnanimity might even trigger their voluntary offer to settle or to increase assistance. Non-military, please, and definitely not expiring munitions.

Better yet, why not unilaterally condone any compensation be it for the full damage or symbolic payment. Let’s forgive the wrongs done to us whether real or apparent. This is the only surefire way we can start forgiving ourselves and stop blaming others for our situation.

Elsewhere, our culture is described as damaged. This has been debunked. (See previous article on “Damaging Culture” at mabinihall.com.) Corruption and inefficiency continue to hound us. All the badges of a failed system are present. Look around to find a ray of hope in our institutions and despair may not be far. We are infected by the ‘lack of’ mentality; we are sick with the fever of tardiness and delays; we are swarmed by the bugs of dependency and helplessness. It is time we exterminate colonial mentality. It is time we build a self-reliant Republic.