Veneration With Understanding

Veneration with Understanding By: Armando J. Malay

The conflict between Rizal and Del Pilar • “The wound inflicted by an enemy is painful, but more painful is the wound inflicted by a friend”

Main Argument of the hometown detractors of Rizal • “ Since Rizal did not lead the Revolution of 1896, -- even discouraged and disowned it – he could not properly be the national hero of the Philippines.”

Two Minor Themes that have been put forward by Rizal’s “made in the Philippines” critics

• That Rizal’s becoming the national hero was the result of American sponsorship • That Rizal’s Patriotic works including the writing of his 2 novels, reflected his meztizo or ilustrado background and were undertaken precisely to protect the interest of the illustrado class.

Main Conclusion which latter day detractors would foist • “Since Rizal, despite the fact that he is a false hero, continues to be venerated by Filipinos, then that veneration is misplaced and that if his countrymen only ‘understood’” • Opposite theme: Veneration of Rizal by the country, and even the world, is not only deserved but also understood.

Dissertation in Fort Santiago c/o Prof. Renato Constantino (30 Dis 1896) • “Almost always, national heroes of the world have been revolutionary leaders.” •  If you do not lead a revolution, your chance of emerging as national hero is nil or very little.

Dissertation in Fort Santiago c/o Prof. Renato Constantino (30 Dis 1896) • Fact: A man becomes a hero or a national hero, not because he leads a revolution but because he is admired for his achievements and noble qualities, and considered a model or ideal. • Mahatma Gandhi (India) • Sukarno (Indonesia)

Dissertation in Fort Santiago c/o Prof. Renato Constantino (30 Dis 1896) • Fact: A man becomes a hero or a national hero, if he accomplishes some achievements or achievements that his people admire so much that they would place him in higher regard than any other man of the country. • The field from which a national hero would spring is not limited to the field of revolution.

Dissertation in Fort Santiago c/o Prof. Renato Constantino (30 Dis 1896) • In Africa: the national hero would be, not the one who liberated the country from a colonizing master but one who invents a vaccine that would forever banish a debilitating disease.

“Quarrel” with Mr. Constantino • Constantino had set up the criterion of “revolutionary leadership” as the one that would govern the choice of a national hero. • Since Rizal is continued to be venerated by his people, then our veneration of Rizal as our national hero is misplaced, a veneration without understanding. (despite shortcoming)

• Rizal continues to be venerated with understanding because despite downgrading by foreigners before WWII and by critics of his own race after the masses continue to admire him for his achievements and noble qualities and consider him a model or ideal.

Achievements of Rizal that evoke great admiration • His sacrifices indeed giving up his life for the country. • His exemplary conduct • His leaving behind as a legacy to his people of a monumental body of writing • His profound thoughts on patriotism, culture, history, sciences. • His precepts which light the path even of those who would sneer at him as being irrelevant to our times • IN SHORT: the achievements of Rizal in all the fields he chose to put together would be more than a winning battle or starting a revolution.

• Rizal as the nearest approximation of a “whole man” • “Men and heroes are not like buttons that can be classified according to their size and color, because they did this or they did not do that. • Totality of achievements is a better criterion, and by this criterion, Rizal stands head and shoulders above all.

• Rizal is one of the practitioners of mendicant policy. •  Fact that the propagandists, in working for certain reforms, chose Spain as the arena of their struggle instead of working among their own people, educating them, helping them to realize their own condition and articulating their aspirations.

2 of 7 men at whose feet is now worshipping • Ho Chiminh (worked in Moscow) • Lenin (went to London) •  Fact: many great men and women got their baptism of fore, as it were in foreign countries, but returned him as soon as they thought they were ready. • “the national hero must work among his own people (Constantino)” • If a man could serve his country better by working from the outside, then than the one who more honor to him than the one who elects to stay in his home country where virtually can do nothing because of despotism.

Reflections of Interests of the Ilustrado class • Difference between the characters of a novel and a play: The ‘heroes’ in Rizal’s novels were not Ibarra, Fathers Damaso and Salvi, maria Clara but in contradiction, rizal gave us ‘ Elias’ who is man of the masses; father Florentino who is a Filipino priest; Juli and Sisa who sprang from the masses. • Ibarra was drawn as a weak person who came back to start a revolution to get back Maria Clara.

Contention that Rizal as the national hero created by the Americans • Rizal was already honored by the Philippine Revolutionary Government when Aguinaldo declared December 30, 1896 as a day of mourning. • As early as 1892, Rizal was already regarded as a sort of a national hero and being a honorary president of the Katipunan. • Veneration of Rizal before execution

• Andres Bonifacio vs Jose Rizal

• A national hero should be one who comes from the masses are underestimating the intelligence and the understanding of the masses. • The masses know that Rizal lived and died for all of us not just for an elite class. • Rizal has fought for the farmers of Calamba, opened a modern school for boys in Dapitan, gave medical services for free in places, established a cooperative, suffered moral and physical beatings that his family and friends suffered much abuse etc. • Masses know that Rizal did not do such things just to preserve the interests of the ilustrado class.