Independence

First of all, let me greet everybody a very happy Independence Day! … if indeed that is the right greeting for the celebration today.  Many would argue that they are not happy at all or at least that this does not trigger additional feeling of happiness as compared to other days of the year.  Or compared to other holidays.  But the mere fact that this is a holiday surely gives a respite to a hardworking population.  At least, something to be happy about.  But I'm not really sure this celebration stirs feelings of euphoria in most of the Filipino people.

Maybe because we forgot what independence means.  Or what it meant to our forefathers more than a century ago.  Or maybe we each have different understandings on its implications on our individual lives.  Some would even contend we actually don't have it yet - saying we are still bound by the shackles of poverty for a good part of the population.  Taken in that context that might be true.  But we have to look at it in other contexts as well, of which we are cited as one of the leading countries of the free world.  Always a difference of opinion.

One person's freedom is another person's yoke.  And many countries are like that.  For the bigger part of my lifetime, I have always thought of Ukraine as part of the Soviet Union.  In fact, most of the USSR's military and industrial facilities were based originally in Ukraine.  Remember the Antonov 225, the biggest aircraft in the world, which first landed in the Philippines at Mactan last November 12?  I always thought it was Russian.  But it was actually Ukrainian.  Ukraine became independent from USSR in 1990.

Now they're a country in turmoil again.  And this is because there is a part of the population who was so-called "Soviet" and thus, would want to be "independent."  That's where the dilemma becomes complicated.  Do we redraw political boundaries based on racial or cultural lines?  That's what happened to the Balkan countries.  And to Indochina as well.  Even China and the two Koreas had their maps redrawn many times in the past, as well as many African states.  When can we stop and say we are "really" independent?

In the last few weeks, I have shared my concern for Thailand, which is now at the crossroads, and may well rethink whether they're truly free or not.  They call their country the "land of the free," arguing that they were never colonized by any western power.  But remembering more than 700 years ago, they have to admit that the entire Indochinese area was part of the Angkor an Empire, with its capital in Angkor Wat in what we now call as Cambodia.  It was their uprising which started the fall of Angkor and the rise of the Kingdom of Siam.

700 years ago, the first Thai kingdom emerged.  It was called Sukhothai, meaning the ''Dawn of Happiness,'' and is still considered the most prosperous and well-governed throughout their history.  As I wrote in a previous column, this was most exemplified in a stone tablet inscription in the ruins of the old Sukhothai city, which simply said: "In the time of King Ramkhamhaeng this land of Sukhothai is thriving. There are fish in the water and rice in the fields."   Clearly, the Thai people at that time thought of themselves as totally free, in spite of the fact that they were under a king!  Independence has the connotation of having a certain degree of sufficiency and self-worth.  But at present, they're under military rule.

What is independence?  What is freedom?  Is it simply being able to do whatever you want?  Certainly not.  Whatever the situation is, almost all people on earth are bound to follow laws, rules, and regulations, be it by a democratic, popularly-elected bureaucracy, a military dictatorship, a monarchy, or a central unitary government.  We are constrained one way or another.  But we speak of the ability to do whatever we want within the confines of that law.  The only thing that really enslaves us is the lack of means to choose what to enjoy.  And that is poverty!  So for as long as we have brothers and sisters who cannot even meet their basic minimum needs for a decent life, we are not totally free.

The Thai military has given an order for their people to be happy a few days ago.  A few smart-alecks added the phrase "or else," highlighting the dictatorial tone of the order.  A far cry from King Ramkhamhaeng's time when "there are fish in the water and rice in the fields," and the people were truly happy.

As we celebrate our Independence Day today, we continue to hope and pray that time will come that the poorest of the poor among us will be uplifted to a better quality of life that empowers them to make choices in their daily life, their future, and their destiny.