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Mar's great shining moment
AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR By William M. Esposo
The Philippine Star 2009-09-03
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Senator Mar Roxas elevated himself to an even higher pedestal when he made the supreme sacrifice of placing country over self last Tuesday. In abandoning his 2010 presidential ambition to give way to rising star Senator Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III, Mar attained more than just the presidency.
It is said that great is the man who can win a crown but even greater is the man who can refuse one. Mar Roxas turned his back on a crown. After spending over P200 million on infomercials alone, sans any survey yet to prove the winnability of Noynoy — Mar Roxas had all the reasons to persevere in his presidential quest. Mar opted instead to hear the footsteps of God as Otto Von Bismarck would describe the quality of a great statesman.
The more perceptive political watchers felt that Mar’s presidential star lacked a defining moment of greatness which was why Mar was trailing in the SWS and Pulse Asia 2010 polls. The irony of Mar’s sacrifice last Tuesday was that he finally attained that great defining shining moment.
When your Chair Wrecker wrote that August 9 “After Cory, why not Noynoy” column, Conrad de Quiros came out the next day with a column that also promoted the idea that Senator Noynoy Aquino should run for 2010 president following the resurgence of the Yellow Fever.
After the August 9 and 10 ‘one-two-punch combination’ Noynoy texted your Chair Wrecker to comment: “You and Conrad are like a wrestling tag team pouncing on me.” What Noynoy did not realize was that the two columns of your Chair Wrecker and Conrad were only the first two pebbles that have since cascaded into a national avalanche that has reshaped the 2010 political landscape.
Last Monday, Conrad unloaded a most inspired brainchild — NoyPI. NoyPI (Noypi is a modern derivative of Pinoy) is meant to be the acronym for Noynoy for President Initiative. NoyPI is the mechanism for promoting what Conrad called the Pinoy’s “Great Yellow Hope” which is, of course, Noynoy Aquino, the only son of our two contemporary national heroes.
If you’re a Filipino who sees the dangerous drift of our nation towards a social explosion and seeks meaningful change, then NoyPI is for you. If you’re a Filipino who recognizes the need to fulfill the mission of Ninoy and Cory Aquino to attain political and economic emancipation, then NoyPI is for you.
If you’re a Filipino who wants to exit from this nightmare of the last two disastrous regimes of Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, then NoyPI is for you. If you’re a Filipino who dreams of a better life in a just, kinder, gentler society which respects the dignity of every individual, then NoyPI is for you.
If you’re a Filipino who took pride in our People Power Revolution and how it had been a shining moment for our race, then NoyPI is for you. If you’re a Filipino who desires a leadership that you can believe and trust, a leadership such as the rare selfless example Cory C. Aquino gave us — then NoyPI is for you.
The Divine Hand had opened the avenue for the Filipino nation to find the rare leader it needs to be able to end decades of exploitation and predation. The passing of Cory C. Aquino, an act of God, had opened the eyes of the Filipinos to the need for national renewal and directed the search for the new leader to focus on the only son of our two national heroes.
Many Filipinos have since realized that in our recent past, we already came up with the solution to our age-old problems — People Power, the essence of real democracy. Many Filipinos have since realized that our big mistake was to simply confine People Power to changing leaders instead of acting like stakeholders and actively participating in the steering of the ship of state.
Today, with thanks to the Divine Hand that brought us to this crossroad, we Filipinos are given the rare opportunity to regain the initiative and win back our democracy. Today, we Filipinos are in the crossroads of choosing whether we still want to travel the road of traditional patronage politics which brought us to this miserable existence or whether we will shift to the road of true democracy where we are the leaders and our elected public officials are our true public servants.
The beauty of NoyPI is that it promises no instant formula for national success but simply offers the Filipino an avenue to take charge of his own destiny. There is no instant formula. We cannot reverse overnight decades of deeply rooted counter productive mindsets that produced the failed leaders we have been electing. The truth is our failed leaders reflect our counter productive mindsets as voters.
To pin your hope on another traditional politician is to pin your hope that the devil in hell will bring you to heaven. The traditional politician is the problem, not the solution. The solution is in our hands. It is you and the other 90 million Filipinos like you.
Noynoy Aquino did not desire the presidency. Mar Roxas gave it up. How about you? What are you willing to sacrifice to secure your future and that of your children?
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