Aguilar: On communism and the NPA

THERE is a need to differentiate communistic ideology from the arm struggle of the New People’s Army (NPA) today. While the former is still relevant, the latter ceases to be in these progressive era. You see communism as an economic and political term that has so much wisdom which we can very well learn from and even adopt to a certain extent without overthrowing our existing government.

Coined by Karl Marx, communism is an ideology of establishing a classless society where there are no rich and no poor people because everyone is equal. There were countries who attempted to adopt this Utopian system but all fell short as it is almost impossible for millions of people to have a single shared vision. The varying interest of different people in a country with varying capacities as well will always result to inequality in status and pursuit of happiness. Some people may love to travel in class while others are simply contented with minimum wage lifestyle with their families.

However, it does not mean the inequality cannot be minimized. In fact, it should be the goal in governance. While we allow people to pursue their own happiness in business and culture, we can create a ground where no one gets left behind in the process. Thus I say that the idea of communism still has room in our generation.

The NPA on the other hand should reconsider their cause and their method of achieving their goal. Their goal is practically to overthrow this government and replace it with absolute communism. And they want to realize that by force through a bloody revolution, thus the arm struggle. They pry on those who were marginalized and make an army out of them promising a perfect world if they ever win in their struggle. That is where the problem is, because even if they win, it’s highly doubtful they could establish such perfect system. No one before them has yet established one.

While the whole idea of overthrowing a working government is already problematic, their own revolutionary government in the mountains are not quite the better alternative as well as we hear them extort money from businessmen in the form of revolutionary tax, burn equipment of private firms, and we also hear injustices committed by the lack of due process in their justice system. It would seem like their system is even more defective than ours. That said, they better heed the call of our president to lay down their arms and return to the folds of the law. Here, they can be of more help in forging a better government as they enjoy freedom with their families.

Our government is a work in progress. It is not perfect and it is defective. But we have a mechanism to improve it. For example, if federalism gets materialized, each region is now autonomous in running its affairs. It would then be very easy to establish laws that can promote equality, the kind that communism dreams of. We now have our freedom to set our own taxation.

For the purpose of this discussion, let’s say our region can create a law that will compel all malls for example to allocate 30% of their profit to provide lunch meals to all public elementary schools in their area all year round or perhaps subsidize the operation of public hospitals in their vicinity. Or if we can even push it a little further, we can be a socialist democracy. We can make our government co-owners of major establishments so that all our profit shares can cover the expenses of housing, education, and health.

There is so much that can be done with our present system, but it should not cost us the lives of poor people who gets easily lured by the promise of a perfect classless government that just doesn't quite work.

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