EDITORIAL — A roaring 20!

This has to do with the State of The STAR, not the State of the Nation.

And yet, the two impact on each other. Twenty years ago, when we abruptly left another successful newspaper which we had founded, the late, valiant Betty Go Belmonte, the late, irrepressible columnist and director Arturo Borjal Jr., and this publisher, had no blueprint on what to do next.

The temptation was to go our separate ways — we had received offers to undertake something else. But Betty, as was her wont, asked us to pray over it. Art had declared: "We must stick together!"

And here we are: thanks to the two of them, and the others who joined us in this grand enterprise, a newspaper was launched, not with the destructive intent of a Katusha rocket, but on a STAR Trek to the heights. Lacking the imagination to invent something cute as a slogan, we simply plagiarized our motto, our statement of intent, from the Bible: "Truth Shall Prevail."

It has proven the winning formula. Despite hardships, missteps, disappointment and setbacks, our reporters, editors, indeed all our personnel from the newsroom to the printing shop, to the service, advertising and circulation departments, the entire STAR "family" united and strong, have brought this newspaper to the top.

At the helm are Betty’s two sons, particularly the dynamic president and CEO, Miguel G. Belmonte, and Isaac G. Belmonte, who is our editor-in-chief.

The Manila Rotary Club, the founding Rotary Club of Asia, long the arbiter of journalism excellence through its award and Hall of Fame system, recently named this daily "Newspaper of the Year." This is only one of the accolades which have come our way. Yet, public recognition and material reward were never our goal (although, admittedly, they are delightful). Our aim was to produce a newspaper that could help "form" our nation, not merely keep the nation informed. If we succeeded, it is yours to judge — not us, even on this Day of Vanity.

Yet we rejoice in achieving a Roaring 20!!!

The view from the peak of our Mount Everest is gratifying, but looking up beyond even this commanding height reminds us, boastful as we’re inclined to be, that there is much higher to go. And many more obstacles to overcome in that upward flight. Ad Astra, as the Latin maxim went, per aspera.

Our democracy – fragile and often misinterpreted as it is – remains continually under threat. Our way of life is under siege. Our citizenry affrighted and affronted by daily violence, including serial murder and assassination. We cry out that journalists die by the dozen from treacherous ambush, but it is not only media persons, but our entire population who are threatened – from activists to the inactive, radicals to the uninvolved. Our land has become a shooting gallery and this rampant, terrible, mindless blood-letting must be stopped. And stopped by the mailed fist of angry justice, not wimpish speeches, obfuscation, and platitudes.

Homicide and thuggery in the guise of rebellion must also be quelled. Crime must be punished and justice vindicated. The innocent must be protected where they live and work – in their homes and neighborhoods, on public transport, and in public plazas. But these are more than twice-told laments.

We speak about Freedom from Fear, Freedom from Hunger, and Freedom from Poverty. Yet, we woefully neglect what must be addressed: Freedom from Ignorance. It is ignorance that keeps us chained to the first three evils – and only education can sunder the shackles that bind us and weigh our spirits down – thus free us from our chains.

Only an enlightened, educated, self-confident Filipino can break the "power" of the political ballot, kick out the rascals and the too often selfish and avaricious dynasties which rule us, and bring a more idealistic, courageous, innovative and generous leadership to the fore, to guide us through the stormy seas our listing Ship of Souls must navigate.

This newspaper is published in the English language. (We also have a daily, Ang Pilipino STAR Ngayon, with a circulation of more than 250,000 in Tagalog, our national language). We nail our flag to the mast on the issue that English must be restored – as the President herself much earlier vowed – as the medium of instruction in our pubic schools – indeed, in all of our schools.

It’s wonderful for Tagalog to be used if only proficiency in English were retained – but this is unrealistic. "Nationalistic" considerations have nothing to do with the problem of our young people no longer coming up to scratch in what is acknowledged to be the language of the world: English. No wonder so many graduates are found deficient in other fields, from science to other disciplines, whether of physical or metaphysical endeavor. For when all is said and done, whether in IT, computers, or blogging, English still is predominantly the medium of usage.

It has always been famously argued that the Japanese developed themselves, in truth forged far forward in many fields, including the art of modern warfare, without a knowledge of English. This is half true, and half false. The Japanese, a hermit nation for more than two millenniums, are an offshore people who practically invented themselves including the myth – or the belief (we grant them that) – that they are the Yamato race, a race divinely descended from the Sun Goddess Amaterasu Omikami.

They derived their culture from their neighbors, unabashedly borrowing their calligraphy and Kanji ideograms (aside from homegrown Katakana and Hiragana) from China, their Buddhism specifically from the ancient capital of Chang-an (the renowned Xi’an of the buried terra-cota warriors of the Emperor Shih Huangdi, the Tiger of Chin, and the unifier of the China which bears his name and used to be encircled by his Great Wall). It was from Chang-an that the Silk Road began. Indeed, Japan’s real name is Nihon, as the Kanji characters for it specify – but the Chinese, reading from the same ideograms, called those islands "Jipen."

The Japanese, who often invaded Korea, the Shilla Kingdom, brought back from there the art of swordmaking, celadon and other skills and crafts. The warriors of Bushido, exemplified by their Samurai were a martial, pillaging race – threatened in turn by Genghis Khan and his Mongol fleet, and repulsed by Admiral Yi Sun-shin who is Korea’s national hero, who battled their attacking navy with the first ironclads.

What made the Japanese unique – we know since we fought them savagely in the last war – was their ability to absorb foreign influence, and make those imports and innovations their own. Centuries of cruelly self-imposed isolation enabled them to forge a unified culture from Hokkaido to the farthest south, way past the Inland Sea.

Whether under Mikado or Shogun, the Japanese made their own way through history, emerging from the feudalism of the daimyos to what they are today. This hunger for knowledge (while keeping foreigners themselves out, until US Commodore Perry and his cannon – always those interfering Americans – compelled them to open their ports) enabled the Japanese, under Confucian principles, to establish a legion of scholars capable of translating everything from the original tongue (German, French, English, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese) into Nihongo. Have we such scholarship?

Do we have foreign textbooks, treatises, scientific papers, charts and other material translated into our Wikang Pambansa? Tagalog as taught only prepares us to become a hermit kingdom like Japan once was centuries ago, capable of enjoying only Korean telenovelas (dubbed in Filipino), but incapable of grappling with the wider world outside our paradise isles – a happy nation (number 17) of islanders, surpassed as Number One in the happiness sweepstakes by Vanuatu.

If we’re content to be Pacific Islanders in the sun, then by all means – let the good times roll.

By now, our readers have been regaled ad nauseam about how my grandfather as a Captain and Katipunero fought the Spaniards and the Americans in turn in our own national Revolution and our great patriotic war to repel the invading Americans. Of how my father, a lawyer and politician (yes, he was proud of that calling), a Congressman then Assemblyman, went to Bataan to fight the Japanese then endured the Death March, seven months of prisoner of war (POW) camp in Capas, Tarlac, only to be released from Bilibid prison dying of malaria. Of how my grandfather was beaten to death by Japanese soldiers, or how my maternal uncle was seized by the Kempetai for his guerrilla activities, dragged off to Vigan, and after three days of torture beheaded by Samurai katana. Even my mother was in the underground, but considered her contribution too modest to mention it in her book.

Yet there are attributes the Japanese foe had which I wish we could emulate. One of them is the belief: "Death is light as a feather; duty heavier than a mountain!"

Patriotism is what our founding fathers had when Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo (both on a fatal collision course) unfurled the banners of our Revolution. What the young General Gregorio del Pilar gallantly demonstrated, when he and his handpicked rearguard battalion fought the Americans – to the last man – defending Tirad Pass to enable Aguinaldo and the Revolutionary Army to get to safety. What the leaders of our Propaganda Movement, the great Marcelo H. del Pilar (alias "Plaridel," his nom de plume and nom de guerre), the chief proponent of Tagalog, showed in his burning philippics. He died penniless in exile in Barcelona of tuberculosis.

As Chairman of the Samahang Plaridel, I’m proud to say that our association of editors, publishers, columnists and senior journalists were able to erect a monument to him (with the cooperation and help of Manila Mayor Lito Atienza) in Plaza Plaridel, which we got renamed to honor his memory. Our pantheon of heroes is full of illustrious names, as well as those known only to God. They are the men and women who did all for our freedom and our quest for the light of liberty.

Yet, we are mindful of what our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal warned: "Freedom? Why freedom, when the slaves of today may only become the tyrants of tomorrow?"

* * *

This writer thought long and hard over the writing of some of the controversial aspects of this essay – but they have to be expressed. No one can disparage the language of Balagtas, whose Florante at Laura many of us committed to boyhood memory, particularly its preamble: "Kay Celia." (Even the great Ramon Magsaysay, an Ilocano from Castillejos, Zambales, would often quote that). During student days in America, we were homesick with longing whenever we heard the strains of our Kundimans, old-fashioned, ba? Or Mutya ng Pasig. There’s nothing that touches the heart like Mother Tongue. Mine is Ilocano, coming as all my parents, grandparents did, from the same hometown in Ilocos Sur, in northernmost Ilocoslovakia.

So do the Cebuanos venerate their language, as do the Tausugs, Maranaos and the many other "tribes" in our 7,100 islands.

We speak, when all is said and done, in many tongues (vernaculars, dialects and chabacano), 87 of them in fact. Yet as a nation, our hearts beat as one. That’s where patriotism exists, where real nationalism glows, in the heart – not in the tongue.

I plead that the debate be put to rest. Our own language we speak, daily, at home, in the streets and in public intercourse. Let us return to English as our lingua franca – where we used to enjoy an edge, but everybody else, including the Singaporeans and the Indians, have overtaken and surpassed us.

Sus, there are jobs going begging for employees, from the executive suites to the call centers. Our 8 million OFWs, including the more than 30,000 now threatened in bombed out, war-wracked Lebanon, had to know English to obtain gainful employment.

Finally, we must move on to progress here at home in order that our biggest "export" will not be our own people. Everybody seems to be awaiting a passport – and a visa – to some more "promising" foreign destination, especially the English-speaking countries like the USA, Canada, Australia and, of course, Britain (the United Kingdom). Or the burning but lucrative sands of the Middle East typified by Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

Nationalism is what must impel us to bring our children home from the foreign diaspora.

Let me attempt to end as I began this tortuous editorial. We in The STAR are proud to have had a part in building – perhaps rebuilding – our nation. The first twenty years are only a chapter in our trajectory to the stars above.

When we were young college editors in our Guild, still wet behind the ears, somebody coined the ambitious motto: "A drop of ink makes millions think."

Considering this in the light of my advanced years and battle-scarred experience, I find this is still true. Even in an age where television dominates news dissemination, it’s still that drop of ink which makes people think. And it is thought which will, like the Biblical pillar of smoke in the daylight, and the pillar of flame in the night, lead our hopeful, aspiring people, at last, to the Promised Land.