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ICT shall build the Filipino Nation, create an ‘imagined community’ Printable Version PRINTABLE VERSION
by LLOYDLUNA.com, Philippines May 6, 2004
  Opinions
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The strength of any nation lies on the foundation of its people’s understanding and cooperation. Without a legitimate unity and sense of a ‘imagined community (or state of belongingness to a nation), any given race will give up its ghost and perish.

I may not be definite that some billions of people around the world would be agreeable with me but then again I dare: You wanna bet?

The Philippines, an archipelago of 7, 107 islands, has been globally noted in so many ways more than its actual island count. I, for one, am a witness and advocate of its ‘national identity’ building that is still in progress until now. With my involvement and determination to give my share for my country and its people, I caught in the middle of a big question mark asking, “What is the missing link that the Philippine Republic needs to have for it to be on track?” and ended into a single absolute solution that history is unveiling—the Information Societies through Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs).

Countless of write-ups have been made and yet, millions of Filipinos still don’t get the relevance of ICT in establishing a strong ‘nation-state’. I believe they were too technical that our people don’t really intend to understand them. So, for me, what would make them embrace the idea may be triggered by history manifesting that “our past handicapped us in ‘imagining a community’ and that no force after all have been exerted to organize people in a scale bigger than one’s clan.

Circa 1600, the Philippines had only 900,000 population compared to 32M of Japan, 135M of India, 150M of China, 4M of Java and 3M of Burma. Of this population were no less than 80 different tribes and nation. There were Ilocano, Ifugao, Pampangeño, Tagalog, Bikolano, Ilongo, Maranao to new few nations in the country. And never did we have a ‘sense of imagined community’ during those times. Why never?

We were conquered. Spanish came and ruled out with “divide-and-conquer” principle that these natives never had the chance to work as one Filipino nation. Along with it was a failure for us to feel and acknowledge ‘national identity’ for three hell-like centuries because of indoctrinated sense of belongingness to a “flock” with Spanish friars as “shepherds”.

Thereafter, we were occupied again. This time the United States colonialism handicapped our nation-building by introducing to our ‘innocent minds’ the state of belongingness to material world and ‘miseducating’ us with individualistic world view as if there was no Filipino nation. In effect, more than 4M Filipinos left the country for US in two waves: in 1950s and 1970s.

Communist community followed then. In this was a sense of belongingness to Jose Maria Sison’s ‘imagined community’, with delusion of a communist Fifth Internationale, whose leadership he thought is within his grasp after the capture in 1992 of the Peruvian Shining Path Maoist leader.

Marcos’ regime with a sense of belongingness to cronies; Aquino’s administration with no much contribution in imagining a nation prompted by natural calamities that slapped the country; Ramos’ focus on economy without first preparing its one-people, one-nation flagship and Estrada’s sense of community with ‘imagined community of mistresses’.

Did we have a sense of belongingness to a nation? Unfortunately, never!

In effect, there is no Filipino Identity until now and that we are still searching for a link that would bind us together. With political instability, poverty, economic downfalls, social injustice, graft and corruption and many more at hand, we really cannot do much to move forward. Much less, I say until we acknowledge the historical perspective of these divides, we will not realize the pains and sufferings that our children or our children’s children may have.

We thought it was EDSA 1 that united us. It was not. We thought it was EDSA 2. Sadly, it still was not. There was EDSA 3 and who knows EDSA 4 will follow. We thought it was the Olympic Games. Still, it was not!

I see great answer in the framework of “information societies” through Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) as the binding mechanism for divided nation-state.

While I personally see ICT as threat (if abused), I am more positive for it being an opportunity within which proper education and promotion of ICT in the Philippines will make a difference this time. With the youth in forefront and country’s leaders backing the sector, I believe the Filipinos can build a nation in an ‘imagined community’.

ICT in the Philippines, ranked 39th Internet economy in Asia, is at its boomerang from year 1900s where in 1995, Asia Pacific excluding Japan and Australia had about 36.4M Internet users. And with 4,670,824 telephone lines installed; 2,100,000 GSM phones sold and some 32,000,000 text messages sent everyday (making it the text capital of the World), the Philippines embraces without saying an ‘imagined community in the net’.





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LLOYDLUNA.com


Lloyd A. Luna graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in 2004. In 2001, he established the Network of Campus Journalists of the Philippines (NCJP). Fuelled by a passion for journalism, he was recognized by the Catholic Mass Media Awards in 2002 and now writes for the three biggest national daily newspapers in the country (The Manila BULLETIN, The Philippine Daily INQUIRER and the Manila TIMES). At 21, he was awarded the Presidential Leadership Medal, the highest award given by the President of the Republic of the Philippines. He also works now as the Presidential Technical Assistant in the Office of the President in Malaca
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