The power of elitist narratives (2)
The world was taken aback by the recent aggressive actions of United States President Donald Trump in Venezuela and elsewhere. He has finally put into motion the narratives he has peddled over the years about his being the president of the most powerful country in the world.
Trump is just manifesting a more aggressive expression of the American government’s imperialistic policy ever since it became independent from its former colonizers. The US is a country built on a long history of being fragmented into states that were under the gaze of former imperialists like Great Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Ironically, after the states consolidated themselves to form the current United States of America, it also started to forge expansionist policies, and evolved into what it is now—an interventionist and imperialist power. It has become the same imperialist dragon (their former colonizers) that they wished to slay.
Then the predominant narrative for such expansionist policies was the myth of the “white man’s burden” that became the principle for the white supremacist and racist stranglehold over its former colonies, the Philippines included.
Such a powerful narrative made us believe that the Americans had benevolent motives in colonizing us. They demonstrated this in their concern for promoting an American-influenced education curriculum that many universities and other institutions of higher learning still use today. For a long time, being articulate in both spoken and written (American) English became the standard we used to gauge the “intellectual” prowess and erudition of Filipinos.
Many private schools in the country used to promote a “speak English only” rule in their classrooms as early as my high school and college years.
Remember the time when we were referred to as “little brown Americans”? We thought for a time that it was a compliment, together with the assessment that the Philippines had the largest English-speaking population in all of Southeast Asia. Accordingly, we were favored to receive a lot of foreign investment because it was not difficult to deal with English-speaking Filipino government officials.
Currently, we deal with elitist narratives that are peddled by those in power, both as political leaders and corporate moguls. For a long time, we have accepted such narratives since our Western-type education has taught us obedience more than cultivating critical thinking.
Both our two powerful colonizers—Spain and the US—have put in place institutions that peddle elitist narratives to which we subscribe even to this day. We do not question the policies of those in power because at the back of our minds is the doctrine of “those who have been elected to power are ordained to lead us.”
Such a mindset is an offshoot of the faulty premise of the Divine Right of Kings, which was revealed to us as the Regalian Doctrine. Thus, all territories conquered by Spain, England, or the US became their territorial possessions. Their kingdoms were based on the right to declare the lands their functionaries had “discovered” as properties of the king or the queen. In the case of the US, after the mock battle of Manila Bay in December 1898, we became the property of the American colonial government, which ruled us through its military governors-general.
We became a part of the US’ government territory after Spain ceded the Philippines to the former, under the Treaty of Paris signed between the two countries on Dec. 10, 1898.
Fast forward to our present. When the ruling elite peddle their own versions of the political realities we face, people tend to subscribe to them without dissecting what these narratives mean and how they play out in their daily lives.
Here in the autonomous regional Bangsamoro government, some members of the interim Parliament flaunt their newly acquired wealth in their apparel, flashy cars, and other accessories. One of them is quite popular on social media. She flaunts her everyday working wardrobe, even walking as if on a catwalk on a modeling ramp, pirouetting, and asking her male colleagues whether her latest outfit is given a “check”–probably making it her “outfit of the day.”
This is promoting an elitist narrative of entitlement and wealth associated with being a government official and with being appointees of the sitting president of the Philippines.
Sadly, there is a prevalent noncritical stance among constituents here on this inappropriate behavior, which is not seen among elected members of Parliament in other parts of the world. This expresses acceptance of the elite narrative of flaunting wealth to the public, even if a huge part of this wealth comes from their salaries and other pecuniary perks as appointed members of the interim Parliament.
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