Challenge to our youth: Find a new solution

Randy David’s column (“America and China: A tale of two systems,” Public Lives, 7/4/21) strikes me as a challenge to our Filipino youth who are easily swayed by the communist ideology for whatever reason — youthful idealism, patriotic fervor, extreme poverty. China has become as capitalistic as its biggest rival, the United States of America, and even as imperialistic as shown by its bullying of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries in the South China Sea. It has been using its economic muscle to impose onerous and predatory loans on developing countries that leave them dispossessed of their patrimony in case of default.

It is quite perplexing, therefore, that our left-leaning youth movements are still captivated by the Chinese model of development which, as Randy David observed, only remains viable if fueled by an authoritarian and highly centralized system of government and a fiercely market-driven economic system. It is quite amusing to hear our street activists continuously denounce US imperialism when our existential problem today is in fact Chinese imperialism, a superpower encroaching on our territorial seas backed up by military might.

How I wish the talents and energies of our young activists were directed toward exploring solutions to our national problems that harness democratic and Christian values and instincts and not those driven by deep ideological conflicts, hatred, and class struggle that leave no room for enlightened dialogue and peaceful coexistence. Instead of constantly organizing mass actions and engaging in political activities to create the “revolutionary situation” that will tip the balance in favor of a new political order, would not the intelligence, creativeness, and moral courage of our youth be better put at the service of the country through productive and nonviolent ways? For instance, by being engaged in their chosen professional careers, whether in business, industry, government, or even in the political arena, our youth can channel their drive for excellence and patriotism to redressing existing structures of injustice, inequality, and discrimination, alleviating mass poverty, and helping build a better society.

Our society is fast collapsing under the weight of political corruption, socioeconomic inequality, and decades-long armed insurgencies. All these will fall on the laps of our youth, the next generation of Filipinos, so that it is critical that they discern very carefully the pathways that will save our nation from endless strife and social disorder. There are a number of alternatives to choose from, but five decades of debilitating and fruitless armed struggle modeled on a foreign ideology has not worked, and we need to look elsewhere for the solution.

DONATO SOLIVEN
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