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Regime and ‘systems’ changes

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

10/31/2008

It is not enough to call for a regime change. It is essential that it is accompanied by our much needed “systems” change and at the same time. Otherwise, the regime change will come to naught and it will be an even more difficult period of continuing deterioration that will follow. I trust that the group of religious leaders that made a strong pitch for changing Gloria Arroyo has done so only because it is a sine qua non for systems change, i.e. Gloria’s removal opens the way for the other essential changes in policies, institutions and leading personalities. The systemic changes required are: Change of ruling elite from self-serving oligarchs and cronies to visionary Filipinos and people’s servants such as former President Estrada, Gen. Danilo Lim, Senator Trillanes IV and the Bagong Katipuneros and allies.

A discussion on new leadership personalities to lead the charge toward systemic change is unavoidable. The leadership’s character is defined by the thought in the minds of the leaders, that is, their ideology, whether expressed or implicit. The new leadership must have a track record that is the reverse of the prevailing but dying leadership of Gloria Arroyo, with the oligarchs and the foreign powers behind them. In other words, the new leadership, in order to be truly responsive to the needs of the nation and the times must be: Filipinist and nationalist against the globalists of the decaying order; must be altruistic in stark contrast to the present regime of political and corporate “greedies;” must be unifiers instead of divisive as the ruling class and cabal are today.

The rulers of Philippine society today have exacerbated the class divide, creating more and more impoverished Filipinos as the surveys incessantly remind us all. At the same time, the present rulers have begun to decimate the ranks of the middle class and narrowed this segment to an endangered species in Philippine society. The present rulers of the country have run it with the same attitude expressed by Warren Buffet in the US which is illustrated in a Nov. 26, 2006 article in The New York Times by Ben Stein, “Not long ago, I had the pleasure of a lengthy meeting with one of the smartest men on the planet, Warren E. Buffett… We talked of many things… one of the main subjects was taxes…

“It turned out that Mr. Buffett, with immense income from dividends and capital gains, paid far, far less as a fraction of his income than the secretaries or the clerks or anyone else in his office. ‘How can this be fair?’ He (Buffett) asked of how little he pays relative to his employees. ‘How can this be right?’ Even though I agreed with him, I warned that whenever someone tried to raise the issue, he or she was accused of fomenting class warfare. ‘There’s class warfare, all right,’ Mr. Buffett said, ‘but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

Unlike Michael Moore, the film director who’s been waging a crusade for middle class America for a just US of A., Buffett just took pleasure in “winning the class war;” but now the US elections may soon take revenge on Buffett’s class.

In the Philippines, too, the victimized classes consisting of the 3.3-million severely hunger stricken families (or around 17-million Filipino men, women and children), the other 50 million who are just plain hungry and the dwindling middle class that is beginning to be afraid of facing the impending hunger that may strike them as the global financial tsunami hits shore in the next few months, are all suffering from the horrendous inflationary effect of Gloria and the Makati Business Club’s neo-liberal, pro-oligarchs policies — ever increasing taxes, ever increasing privatized public utilities profits (power, water, energy, port services), ever increasing food prices, ever increasing corporate profits, ever shrinking peso purchasing power, ever dwindling public services, ever increasing corruption, ad nausea.

While we are reckoning the sins of Gloria’s cronies, I hasten to add this reaction to Raul Gonzalez’s charge of “sedition” against Lagdameo: “Why don’t you arrest him?”

It was encouraging to hear General Yano’s name openly mentioned in the Church leaders’ press conference. Although Yano responded later by repeating the official mantra of following the chain of command, the archbishop’s mention of his possible role for regime change triggers uncontrollable chain of events in several directions. For some it means the “handwriting on the wall” for Yano and for others the writing is for the Arroyo regime to heed and tremble at it.

Another name mentioned in the bishops’ open forum was Chief Justice Puno who a day later was reported by ANC to have said he openly supports the call of the bishops — which is another, “handwriting on the wall,” but in this case clearly calls the attention of Gloria.

Whoever leads the charge to change the corrupt and oppressive Gloria Arroyo regime now will get tremendous support from the people of this nation. On top of the heavy burden of growing hunger, poverty, taxes, job losses, peso devaluation, and a government in perpetual drift weighing down on the shoulder of every Filipino — on top of all these is the daily slap on the face and insult to the people’s dignity and intelligence from the incessant lies and arrogance of the regime and the family that usurped Malacañang. To unburden the nation and unblock the path to change, a swift move with the help of our soldiers faithful to the principles of genuine democracy would be ideal — to unblock the road towards national unity, conciliation, cleansing and reform, and return to prosperity.

If called, we will rally in the streets to support the move and defend the patriotic soldiers for change. Millions of Filipinos will cheer and join.

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