A Student's Tribute To Ka Dodong

I just watched the on-line video of a tribute to President Francisco Nemenzo (PFN), the outgoing 18th president of the University of the Philippines. It is a tribute by people who have worked with Ka Dodong for over 40 years in the University. Not a single student was however interviewed to share a story how great a teacher Ka Dodong is. As a former student of Ka Dodong, I would therefore like to pay tribute to him as he retires from UP and as he leaves his post as president today, his 70th birthday.

Ka Dodong is perhaps the most influential person to my continued passion for political science. I was his student in Political Science 11 (Introduction to Political Science) in 1998, and in Political Science 190 (Practicum on ‘Citizen Participation in the Legislation Process’ when we lobbied for the passage of the Clean Air Act) the following year. He is the only professor I have given ‘the best’ commendation in the Student Evaluation for Teachers (SET). I cannot imagine myself having this obsession in the discipline of political science had he not been my professor in the introductory course. I learned from him the basics of politics with analytical astuteness and conceptual clarity. It’s really a great achievement having his signature in two of my undergraduate classcards as well as in my diploma. He is a very engaging teacher whose diction is too powerful to behold. He welcomes debates and constructive criticisms. He always succeeds in exciting the students with ideas. And he comes to class well-prepared, always with a computerized lesson plan uniquely crafted for each and every session.

I learned from Ka Dodong the values of critical thinking and intelligent activism, the basics of Marxism and especially the humanism of Marx, the significance of political theory, and the power of the ‘word of mouth’. He made me realize more that my youthful idealism must be guided by wisdom.

I am proud to say I made the right decision of supporting him when he was nominated to be UP president six years ago, leading UP into the 21st century. No regrets at all. I had then several disagreements and even confrontations with fellow activists and students over harsh and unfounded criticisms thrown at him, especially when I supported his administration’s modernization programme and when I co-convened the UP4RGEP in support of the Revitalized General Education Program.

Ka Dodong is a visionary leader who lives up to the principles of democratic governance where people have access to the corridors of power. A few years ago, I learned of the cry of the janitors and personnel in Palma Hall who were being unjustly compensated by their agency. I organized these people, sought the help of Ka Dodong, and without any hesitation Ka Dodong himself found time to meet up with them. After the meeting, these workers told me they were touched by the simple humanism of Ka Dodong who earnestly let them speak up their concerns right in the Office of the President, who sincerely listened to their call for justice, who swiftly acted on their legitimate resentments, and who made them feel as human beings whose work are truly regarded with value.

Yet, far more than his greatness and brilliance as a teacher, Ka Dodong is a very endearing human being who is unconscious of his charisma. I truly appreciate and admire his simple thoughtfulness, humility, and good sense of humour. He finds time to reply to text messages and e-mails of his former students. I was touched when I received a personal, congratulatory text message from Ka Dodong, the UP president himself, just before I marched for my graduation. He is a simple academic who continuous to live a humble and modest life. He does not resort to the outmoded values of clientelistic relations that is still sadly practised by many senior academics.

His sense of humour is also remarkable. A few months ago, he came here in KL to attend the EU-ASEAN Rectors’ Conference. Together with Joe, we welcomed Ka Dodong in the KL International Airport. He was on a backpack. (Yes, the president of the country’s premier university in a backpack! Cool!) After checking-in in his hotel we went out to eat late at night. Ka Dodong does not fancy eating in posh restaurants. He likes eating at the sidewalks, in hawkers’ stalls. We went to Jalan Elor, a busy street of Chinese food hawkers. A Chinese vendor approached us speaking in Chinese, sounded like he was convincing us to eat in his stall. Ka Dodong spoke to him in Tagalog for quite awhile. They had a Chinese-Tagalog conversation. After the conversation, I asked Ka Dodong, ‘Kinausap n’yo po ng Tagalog?’ He replied to me, ‘Oo. Pareho lang iyon. Kahit mag-Ingles ako hindi rin kami magkakaintindihan’. We burst into laughter. Ka Dodong is impressed of ‘street smart’ people. Actually, he is a street smart himself.

To Ka Dodong, thank you so much for everything. Thank you for the learning I got from you and the meaningful moments I shared with you, learning and moments that could last for a lifetime. Thanks for the kind words in your recommendations to me. Thanks for always being supportive of me – for supporting my successful flagship project, the ‘Political Discussion Series’ when I was Representative of the Department of Political Science to the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy Student Council; for attending the Anniversary Night of the UP Samahan sa Agham Pampulitika (UP SAPUL) when I was its Chair; for supporting the Department of Political Science Debating Team when I was its coach during the Centennial of the Silliman University; and for keeping your lines open to all my social and personal concerns and advocacies.

A few days before I left for KL on September 2004 to pursue my graduate studies, I visited Ka Dodong in his office to thank him for everything, and to wish him well in his future endeavours. I know that he is looking forward to this day when he can now spend more time reading, writing, travelling, and sharing precious moments with his beloved family and friends. Yet, I think that he deserves to be professor emeritus, and he should be, so that many more students will enjoy a truly wonderful and inspiring learning experience with him in a classroom – and even in a cyber classroom – from time to time.

In solidarity, I join the people gathering today paying tribute to Ka Dodong at the Abelardo Hall, University of the Philippines Diliman Campus in singing ‘The Internationale’:

Arise ye workers from your slumbers
Arise ye prisoners of want
For reason in revolt now thunders
And at last ends the age of cant.
Away with all your superstitions
Servile masses arise, arise
We'll change henceforth the old tradition
And spurn the dust to win the prize.

So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race.
So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race.

No more deluded by reaction
On tyrants only we'll make war
The soldiers too will take strike action
They'll break ranks and fight no more
And if those cannibals keep trying
To sacrifice us to their pride
They soon shall hear the bullets flying
We'll shoot the generals on our own side.

No saviour from on high delivers
No faith have we in prince or peer
Our own right hand the chains must shiver
Chains of hatred, greed and fear
E'er the thieves will out with their booty
And give to all a happier lot.
Each at the forge must do their duty
And we'll strike while the iron is hot.

I know that Ka Dodong does not want to be reminded of his birthday. But people like me whose lives he has dearly touched love to be reminded of one of our lives’ most valuable moments – the birth of a truly good human being, Francisco Nemenzo. Happy Birthday, Ka Dodong! Maraming salamat! Mabuhay ka!

Another Philippine Society Is Possible

The method of dialectical reasoning is perhaps the most neglected, yet very useful, revolutionary ideological tool of our time. It starts from the proposition that everything changes, except the necessity for change; and that a theory about social change must therefore change with changing times. What Marx wrote over a century ago still holds true today: 'the present society is no solid crystal, but an organism capable of change, and constantly engaged in the process of change'.

Over a month ago, I posted here 'The Nightmare of the Philippine Left: The History of All Dead Generations' as a wake-up call to the Philippine Left, especially to the dominant Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), that suffers not only from the living, but from the dead generations. It is so sad to think that alongside the modern evils of globalising capitalism and increasing elitism in the Philippines, the Left and the people it hopes to liberate are oppressed by the whole series of inherited evils, arising from the endurance of outmoded forms of struggle and thinking. While the CPP continues to bully and threat the groups and individuals it tags as 'counter-revolutionaries', the forces of capital are celebrating their orgies and the political elites having a laugh, and the masses in deep misery.

It is pathetic that the ongoing debate within the Philippine Left has become a discourse that could somehow signify a sense of 'insecurity' among progressive forces -- that is, 'who are the real agents of change?' A statement of concern on the threat of violence in the resolution of political difference has just been issued by the global civil society, World Social Forum (WSF), to which I am in solidarity with:

The last few years have seen a very large number of diverse groups and organisations coming together in spite of their differences to confront neo-liberal globalisation. However, we are deeply concerned that there are still some groups in the world today that attempt to deal with political differences using physical attacks and death threats. A recent example of this is the situation which has emerged in the Philippines where a number of individual intellectuals, activists (Walden Bello and Lidy Nacpil) and organisations engaged in various forms of struggle against militarism and globalised capitalism have been listed by the international department of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) as 'counter-revolutionary' and as 'agents of imperialism'. Some individuals named on this list have already been assassinated and, based on past experiences, this list constitutes a credible threat of assassination.

Therefore, those of us gathered here in the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil and others in the world, inspired by the pluralism and inclusiveness of this global process, believe that when the security of activists is at stake we cannot act as if the problem is a local one. In our efforts to consistently build an international movement for fundamental transformation we strongly reiterate that the resolving of political differences must be done through the struggle of ideas and democratic dialogue and not through the politics of individual assassination.

We call on everyone within the global justice movements to re-assert this principle and express solidarity with all those who are victims of such threats.

This statement has been signed by respected left intellectuals and activists around the world such as Alex Callinicos, Leo Panitch, Naomi Klein, Susan George, and Tariq Ali.

I could imagine the CPP labeling the WSF as another international 'counter-revolutionary' (reactionary) movement. This thinking is plain and simple dogmatism. Wake up, CPP! The world has changed! The WSF may not have the blueprint for a utopian alternative world order, but we must be united in the essential common task of resisting the inhumanity of capitalist globalisation. Mao may have been right to say that 'political power grows out of the barrel of a gun', if and only if political power is understood as coercion, fear, and terror. In the long run, however, it is ideas which are more powerful than guns. Guns may kill people. But ideas can only be killed by a better and an overwhelming one.

While I am aware of the objective and necessity of armed struggle, the CPP however has the history of using its arms a la criminals. An armed struggle, I believe, must be guided by this dictum: 'Peacefully if we can, violently if we must'. Indeed, another Philippine society is possible as much as another world is possible; but this could only be realized through a passionate struggle of organized and unified progressive movements that are founded on the principles of humanism, justice, and democracy.