Published Work

A New Year’s Resolution for our Elders

AFTER the press conference that introduced the Movement for Good Governance (MGG) to media and other supporters, I heard from one of the MGG “elders” something that I rarely hear: an acknowledgement — a thinly veiled apology, actually — that the country is still deep in muck because his generation didn’t do a good enough job of “fixing things” here.

“In spite of the activism then, we still didn’t do enough for the Philippines,” he lamented. “Most of us gave up on the country and focused instead on making a living. That in itself is not wrong, but we just didn’t try hard enough.”

He wasn’t blaming government for the chronic ills that have paralyzed the country. He wasn’t blaming the youth for being apathetic. He wasn’t blaming globalization for pushing developed countries forward and leaving the rest of the world behind. He wasn’t mouthing off a litany of complaints. Instead, he was facing a reality that many in his generation still could not see: that the failures of this country are aggregated results of THEIR own failures.

Writing this now, I am reminded of that poetic moment when Australians lit their candles and said “We’re sorry” to the victims of state-sponsored injustices against the indigenous peoples of Australia. It was a strong, symbolic gesture that united a country and enabled them to move forward from a divided past. I am reminded, too, of how Japan and South Korea rose from the ashes of war and brought dignity and pride to their people through political will, hard work, and sheer discipline. Of course, Barack Obama’s victory as the 44th President of the United States comes to mind, too, because one generation ago even his candidacy would have been utterly impossible. I am even reminded of Brazil, Vietnam, and the Czech Republic come to mind because of their marked improvement on the economic and “global PR” fronts.

It didn’t take these countries a hundred years to turn around; it took political will and the willingness of their people to make the sacrifices that usually precede success.

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Now that the challenge of true, sustainable reform and better governance falls on the shoulders of MY generation, I’d just like to ask our elders to make one meaningful resolution for the New Year:

BACK US UP. Back us up by acknowledging your mistakes and showing us what you could have done better. Let’s face it: every decision, every action, could be done in a better way. Tell us what went wrong, what factors contributed to our current state, what decisions you would have reversed, what you would not have done at all — and so on. It is only through your collective foresight and hard-earned wisdom that will we know what paths will waste our time at best, or which ones will sabotage our efforts at worst. We CANNOT afford to make the same mistakes you made because we’re running out of time.

Back us up by supporting our efforts. Yes, “the youth is the hope of the country”—we’ve heard that at least a million times. We know that it is our time to put in the hours, our turn to step up to the plate of nation-building; it’s our turn to lead. But we cannot work in a vacuum, and we cannot move forward without the proper resources. We will need you to steer us toward the right direction, to introduce us to the right people, and to mobilize the necessary resources to get things done. Enable us, and we will help in empowering the whole country — it sounds like a good deal to me.

Back us up by giving us space to create, experiment, innovate. We need your advice and your help, but we also need some room to develop new and “out of the universe” solutions to old and chronic problems. Share the volumes of wisdom culled from your experience, but do not dictate every step that we ought to take. Trust that, as young as we are, we, too, have the capability to think things through and get the job done. Steer us, but do not stifle us. True synergy can only happen when both parties (in this case, your generation and ours) regard each other as equals.

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Statistics say that between 50 and 56 percent of the entire voting population in 2010 (depending on which figures you look at) will come from the youth. That’s a huge number, and if properly steered it can “claim the vote” for reform and good governance. But let us not forget the 44 to 50 percent of adults who are equally crucial to changing the game for the future. There are many adults in the Philippines who still have never voted in their lives; many adults who have yet to register; many adults who still do not know how to choose the right leaders for their children… many, many adults — especially those outside of the country — who have given up on the Philippines because “walang ganyan sa States.”

Youth may have already escaped you, but your time is still not up. As long as you’re around, we’re going to need your help.

Niña Terol, 28, is a key mover of Movement for Good Governance and is a writer and political communicator. If she could ask former presidents and cabinet members one question, she would ask this: “Name one key decision you had made during your term that you would have done better, and how and why. Answering ‘none’ is not an option.”