A Challenge to the Youth (2010)

A Challenge to the Youth (2010)

By: VALRED OLSIM

It’s over. It turned out that the anticipations of a wide electronic fraud by some hired computer-hackers, of a Comelec-Smartmatic conspiracy, of violence that will result to failure of elections, and ultimately a take-over of a Gloria-controlled military, is merely paranoia. Except from the same hot spots where election-related violence seems to have already taken its root in their culture, the first automated-elections was a success (I think). And as the streamers and posters were being taken down, and the speeches of victory and defeat were being delivered; the results of the election undoubtedly imparted messages that were mostly a reflection of the society that we are living in.

While idealism, credentials, competence, and a little bit of sweet-talking may win votes, the election results has proven once again that there’s nothing that assures winning more than a “popular-family name” and of course, “money”. That is the hard cold truth. As the traditional political clans flourish with more power and money, the younger generation became tired and have grown skeptical of the ideologies of the new left. This common scenario has disgusted the younger generation and exhausted their desire to penetrate the traditional political system for change. As a result, the young intellectuals yielded to political and social apathy and sadly, resolved to pursue a “more practical goal”: Go abroad and earn money. As Randy David put it,“…the youth’s patience has grown shorter…many of them no longer identify with the nation’s saga. When they think of political leadership, they think of political predators who feed on the carcass of an impoverished and demoralized people. They have become cynical about politics and cannot see their personal growth as intertwined with that of the nation.”

Ironically, he also explained that most of the builders of our country were very much younger; Rizal was only 27 when he led the reform movement of Filipino students in Europe, Bonifacio was 29 when he founded the Katipunan, and Aguinaldo was only 28 when he was elected president of the new revolutionary government in 1897.

Today, the young promising generation is being pushed in a cell to spend most of their age, efforts, and brain cells to endeavors that are alien to the dreams of their own country. The intelligent and energetic youth are being forced to leave the country to earn a decent wage, or to be outsourced by foreign companies, while most of the incompetent and close-minded old people stay in the reins of power. In the last elections, the youth were merely seen as a campaign tool or an electorate block which can be easily swayed by the names, the power, and colors, nothing more. Our society appears to have forgotten that, “the youth is the hope of our land”. It is our society, and our acceptance to ancient power-hungry clans, that has eliminated promising-young leaders with far-better imagination and disposition. It is our society which has embraced traditional politics with open-arms – rejecting the serious effort to revolutionize this system. The message is clear: “Nothing will change, unless we recognize and accept the need for it”.