Taking a bullet for one’s country

It can be argued that not to concede is to be patriotic (as one losing presidential candidate puts it) but the opposite is equally true to concede is to be patriotic. It depends on who defines patriotism. Indeed, it has also been said that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. We would have to place the issue in context to clarify just what patriotism is in this case with the country teetering on the edge of chaos.

My understanding of patriotism is to put country above self.That would not only be patriotic but also heroic. To concede in an election does not mean that no wrong had been done, as alleged acts of abuses and fraud. What it is about is to give way for the early resolution – to serve a higher interest – that the country gets back on its feet after a gruelling electoral contest. The good of the country is to enable all of us to go back to work and tackle pressing problems that cannot wait to settle political disputes. These are fine distinctions that require fortitude, discipline and more importantly, humility. It takes a fine mind to fight for what one considers patriotic but it is an even finer mind who makes a sacrifice for the good of the country. I would expect a person of religion to have more trust in retribution that is beyond the ken of man.

This idea of sacrificing one’s interest for the country was best exemplified by Al Gore in the US presidential elections. He had every reason to object to the way the Supreme Court handled the case in which he disputes the results that gave victory to George W. Bush. Millions of Democrats who had voted for him were let down when he quickly conceded in the wake of the Supreme Court decision. It has been said that five justices of the Supreme Court were acting ‘as the last team of Republican elders who helped drag Governor Bush across the finish line’. Among those who dissented with the five was Justice Breyer. He said the decision may harm not just the Court, but the nation. There were other legal points which could have been used by Al Gore but he did not. That is why the eminent New York Times columnist, Thomas L. Friedman, called his concession speech equivalent to taking a bullet for the country. "The rule of law is most reinforced when – even though it may have been imposed wrongly or with bias – the recipient of the judgment accepts it, and the decision behind it as final and legitimate. Only in that way – only when we affirm our fidelity to the legal system, even though it rules against us – can the system endure, improve and learn from its mistakes. That was a fine hour for Americans and something from which we can learn or as Gore said, "This is America, and we put country before party." (CNP: or self for that matter).

It may be that this is not the time to concede and the candidates must await the results of the official canvassing by Congress but the noises coming from the opposition do not bode well for a gentleman’s or a patriot’s acceptance of defeat. In my book, knowing how to lose is tougher than knowing how to win and given the quality of our presidential candidates, noble behavior can hardly be expected. But what about the rest of us who are able to discern this flaw in what is being made to pass as our national character. Certainly, we can resist it and collectively fall behind what is in the best interest of the country. I can’t help but take the opportunity to criticize how we are educated as if life is all about winning. In the playing fields of Eton, that aristocratic school for young Britons, they learn early how to take defeat. The game is not about winning but doing the best one can and take the results on the chin. With his recent statements, the inadequacy of FPJ to be the leader of this country has been confirmed.

Filipinos can take heart in the victory of kababayan, 19 year old Patricia Evangelista, a Mass Communications sophomore of University of the Philippines. She won over 59 other studens from 37 countries in the 2004 International Public Speaking competition of the English Speaking Union (ESU) in London. In a way, she is a fine example for Filipinos that Al Gore was to Americans albeit in a different contest altogether. The board of judges_ decision was unanimous, according to contest chairman Brian Hanharan of the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC).

Here are some excerpts from the speech Blond and Blue Eyes that won her the award: "When I was little, I wanted what many Filipino children all over the country wanted.I wanted to be blond, blue-eyed, and white. I thought-if I just wished hard enough and was good enough, I’d wake up on Christmas morning with snow outside my window and freckles across my nose! More than four centuries under western domination does that to you….Today, about eight million Filipinos are scattered around the world.There are those who disapprove of Filipinos who choose to leave. I used to. Desertion, I called it….

My country is a land that has perpetually fought for the freedom to be itself. Our heroes offered their lives in the struggle against the Spanish, the Japanese, the Americans. To pack up and deny that identity is tantamount to spitting on that sacrifice. Or is it? I don’t think so, not anymore. True, there is no denying this phenomenon, aided by the fact that what was once the other side of the world is now a twelve-hour plane ride away. But this is a borderless world, where no individual can claim to be purely from where he is now. My mother is of Chinese descent, my father is a quarter Spanish, and I call myself a pure Filipino – a hybrid of sorts resulting from a combination of cultures. I come from a Third World country, one that is still trying mightily to get back on its feet after many years of dictatorship. But we shall make it, given more time. Especially now, when we have thousands of eager young minds who graduate from college every year.They have skills. They need jobs. We cannot absorb them all.

A borderless world presents a bigger opportunity, yet one that is not so much abandonment but an extension of identity . . . We are the 40,000 skilled nurses who support the UK’s National Health Service. We are the quarter-of-a-million seafarers manning most of the world’s commercial ships. We are your software engineers in Ireland, your construction workers in the Middle East, your doctors and caregivers in North America, and, your musical artists in London’s West End.

Nationalism isn’t bound by time or place. Leaving sometimes isn’t a matter of choice. It’s coming back that is. The Hobbits of the shire travelled all over Middle-Earth, but they chose to come home, richer in every sense of the word. We call people like these balikbayans – those who followed their dream, yet choose to return and share their mature talents and good fortune. A borderless world doesn’t preclude the idea of a home. I’m a Filipino, and I’ll always be one . . . It’s about giving back to the country that shaped me. And that’s going to be more important to me than seeing snow outside my windows on a bright Christmas."

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