A cry for national unity

History has shown that the most powerful way to unite people towards a common purpose is a noble ideology borne out of shared, often painful, experiences. This was evident to me in a short film showing Americans of all walks of life enjoying the basic freedoms, with the soundtrack of America the Beautiful being played in movie theaters in New York. Watching the film, and feeling the emotions of the audience, I realized that a major cross-section of America has a similar aspiration, and shares common experiences. This makes it easier to keep the American ideal alive in people’s hearts.

What images would I put into a film meant to unite Filipinos in a common emotion? What core ideology would be equally relevant to a farmer in Mindanao, a merchant in Bontoc, a fisherman in Zambales, a nun in an urban slum, a squatter, an IT worker in Makati, a stock broker, an opera student, a professor in UP, a president of a corporation? How do we address the diversity of our nation when we do not acknowledge or respect our cultural and religious differences? What can we do to create an image that makes sense to everyone while we build a larger middle class to bridge the rich-and-poor divide?

A more subtle but important way to bond people is to make them realize that their own need is actually a shared interest and aspiration. In addition, a more effective way used by many great leaders is uniting against a common enemy. The National Socio-Economic Summit convened by our President is a cry for all Filipinos from all sectors of society to realize that we need each other, and to see that we would benefit individually much more successfully if we worked together than if we did not. We also have a real enemy, – not each other – an adversary in the form of competition beyond our borders. They are focused, and are geared up for a long-drawn global economic race.

Although the summit is a collective effort to urgently forge a common action agenda for ourselves to survive as a nation and as a people, the more important purpose is to rally every sector to get together and cooperate. Just like General Maximus in the movie The Gladiator, the battle cry is for all of us to gather in a circle, put up our shields and act in unison and with synergy to face our competitors head on.

We need to put aside any tendency or impulse to belittle the efforts of the summit. This is no longer someone else’s agenda. It is ours. I would like to quote from a message written by my father, Robert Ho, for the company’s yearly Christmas card. He says: "The mood of the world seems to be caught not only in military conflict, but in a mismatch of values and in a war of words following the deplorable ‘9/11’ incident."

It has been said, "As the essence of courage is to stake one’s life on a possibility, so the essence of faith is to believe that the possibility exists."

Let us all share the faith that the whole world will come to its senses in due course, and that peace and prosperity will prevail to be shared and enjoyed by all mankind."

As was shared by the summit leaders, "We must win this fight against poverty (President Arroyo); "We must bring our people renewed hope" (Speaker De Venecia); "We must be caring, sharing and daring ...sacrifice for the common good" (President Ramos); "Our peoples’ interests are too precious, and the stakes are just too high" (Senate President Drilon).

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