Recruitment

I cannot understand why the disclosure by the armed forces that the communists are on a recruitment binge in some schools in Metro Manila would create such a fuss. Of course the communists are recruiting, not just now but ever since they came into being. It would be an insult to their organizational skills and drive if they did not.

Perhaps the fuss was generated by the fact that the military made the disclosure at all. For as long as forever, communist recruitment was an uncomfortable reality people preferred to ignore, the elephant in the room that could ruin the conduct of life if acknowledged.

But do not delude yourselves into thinking it is not there. How do you think the communists manage to sustain their ranks if not through recruitment, by whatever means they have to do it? Gone are the days when it was not necessary to recruit. All over the world, communism is on the decline. It has lost its appeal. Now recruitment is imperative to keep communism going.

The schools named in the military disclosure can be forgiven for promptly denying what the armed forces said. But hey, how can school officials be so naive, unless of course they are simply sitting on their fat asses. Anything and everything happen in schools. That fraternity-related deaths still manage to shock us from time to time is proof of that.

Perhaps the fuss over the military disclosure is that it was made to appear as if the communist recruitment activities in schools are part of an alleged plot to oust President Duterte. Now, whether it is part of a plot or not, I do not know. All I know is that it is naive to think the communists are not doing what the military says it is.

Of course, it is easy to confuse student activism with communist initiatives. The line separating the two is thin even if the ideology may be far more substantially separated than anyone would care to admit. And why admit a differentiation when both can feed on each other to sustain their individual goals and interests.

Besides, schools will always be a hotbed for ideas, great or small, fantastic or stupid. Schools are where the youth are. And the youth are very impressionable. They are like sponges. They absorb every new thing there is. Schools are bubbling with the idealism and open-mindedness of the youth.

Maybe it is instructive that those who were quick to deny the military disclosure were the school officials and politicians, all of whom can no longer call themselves youthful. They deny because their minds are now closed. Recruitment is a natural thing, for the communists, as for everybody else. It is where the recruits are going and for what purpose that bears watching.