Christianity is a religion of love and justice. Yet, inequality is the main feature of the social life of the only Christian country in this part of the world. There is unequal access to basic services between the many poor and the few rich. People in the rural areas have less access to jobs, health care, education, housing, etc. than urban folks. But within urban areas, there is inequality in access to housing between the few rich and the many poor. Food and other basic necessities are more expensive in rural areas because these are first brought to the city by middlemen and only later returned and sold in places where they were produced. Ordinary workers do not get a living wage.
The inequality that prevails over every aspect of a Filipino’s life today started with our Spanish colonizers. They used the coercive power of their superior technology and weaponry to take ownership of our land and force us into subjection. Inheritors of that power, the political dynasties that have always ruled us, used the same coercive power for exactly the same purpose as that of the colonizers… to make us submissive subjects not free-thinking equals. We are still a colonized nation… by a group of our own.
This basically explains why the only Christian country in this part of the world is most corrupt and almost the poorest. On the level of individuals some past and present colonizers could have noble motives; but on the level of institutions, the subconscious sociological motive of preaching religion is to make a people accept the rigors of subjection by a rich and powerful few. Many lives are at the mercy of powerful, corrupt and selfish politicians. But never mind; there’s a religion to run to for comfort and hope.
What are Church-going rulers doing about this? Ayuda or cash gifts, nothing more. Instead of changing governance paradigms, instead of changing systems and re-orienting institutions towards the common good, political dynasties that control government force the majority to be displaced by the development of the businesses of a few. Acting like replacement colonizers, they make us serve them as submissive subjects. Unfortunately, Catholicism, the majority’s religion, continues to be a pacifier instead of liberator of people who are routinely pushed to the edges of social life.
Brute power, not the Constitution, not human or Christian principles of love and justice, rules this country. Ongoing negative events point to the country going from oligarchy (rule by a few) to kleptocracy (rule by thieves). The ruling elite are refusing to be accountable and are clearly determined to rule us in the selfish and corrupt they have always ruled. We either allow them to do this or insist that they work for the common good. In which case, we need the power of organized unity (a people’s party?) to counteract the coercive power of political dynasties.
We need to liberate ourselves from a colonial mindset that makes us meekly submit to those who have power over us. Replacement colonizers will continue to use power in their favor, unless we start thinking independently for ourselves and move as one towards the top. Like I said in a previous column, change has to go from the bottom up.