Civil Disobedience?

I'm writing in reaction to Conrado de Quiros' commentary yesterday, Apr. 26 in the PDI, which advocated "civil disobedience" as the way to truly booting out the "pretender" from Malacanang. Here's a link to that commentary by de Quiros: Yet Again, Alternatives

de Quiros' call for civil disobedience reminded me of a story about a King who stoppped being a King when he lost all his followers. It goes like this:

Once there was a selfish king who lived and ruled in a faraway kingdom. He was very cruel with his subjects and imposed heavy taxes on them. He would order imprisonment or whiplashes for those who tried to disobey him. The citizenry, afraid and unable to do anything, suffered silently, while the king continued to rule foolishly.

One day, while the king was bathing, he called for his musicians to play him something. One of those musicians, having had little to eat, kept coughing. The king, irritated by this, ordered his guards to throw the musician in jail.

"How dare he get sick in front of me!" the king fumed. "Doesn't he know it's unlawful to cough in front of the king?" At the thought of having the insolent musician now languishing in jail, the king's mood brightened up and he called for someone else to replace the musician. A little girl was brought forth. She was a singer, and was known for her lovely voice. Unknown to the king, the musician whom he had just had thrown in jail, was the girl's father. The girl, having heard of this, refused to sing for the king. The king was so angered by this that he ordered the harshest punishment he could think of for the girl. Torture.

So the girl was thrown in one of the castle's dungeons and was told to await her punishment come nightfall. The girl, though very afraid at the thought of being tortured, kept her courage up and sang to herself to make her fears go away.

When night came, a hooded man entered the cell. He had with him the tools of his trade. Without warning, the hooded man bellowed at the girl.

"Will you not change your mind and sing for the king? I can tell the king you changed your mind and we'd have none of this torture."

Though by this time, the girl's fear truly reached its height, the girl bravely answered, "I will not sing for the king. For he has thrown my father in jail when my father's only sin was to cough in front of him. My father, who got sick, because the king would not stop increasing the taxes he's asking from us. My father, who got sick because the king would hardly pay him enough to buy us food, and his medicines."

The hooded man knew the story of the girl and her father. Though he was sympathetic to their plight, he knew that if he wavered on his job, it would be him who would be tortured for failing to obey the king. So he implored the girl:

"Will you not at least ask forgiveness from the king and tell him you're sorry?"

at which the girl answered, "I cannot ask forgiveness for it was not I who have sinned."

at this, the man was truly amazed at the courage of the girl. It broke his heart that now he must torture this girl for no other crime than that she wanted to defend her father. He stepped forward, and took one of the whips off the table when he heard the girl speak.

"But if you want, I can sing for you."

And the girl sang. Her voice was so clear, and touched the man so, that he fell down on his knees crying. He let go of the whip he was holding, and told the girl

"I cannot hurt someone who can sing beautifully such as you. I would rather endure the king's wrath than flay a girl with a voice as yours."

And so the man left the girl alone. He went back to the king and told the king his decision. The king imediately had him thrown in the same cell as the girl, and ordered that both of them would now be tortured.

As what happened the first night, another hooded man came in, now to torture them both. But like the first night, the man heard the girl sing and was so moved by her singing, that he went back to the king same as the first one, and was thrown in the same cell.

Each night, a slew of men entered the cell, to torture the girl and all who came before them who failed, and came out refusing to do his job as well. The cell got so ridiculously crowded, that the king had to order his headsmen to kill some of the prisoners to free up some room. But by this time, the story of the girl and her would-be torturers had gotten around the palace, that the headsmen who were summoned rudely told the king: Up yours! threw down their axes, and left the king in shock.

The king was now truly in a rage. He ordered all his soldiers to capture and kill everyone who disobeyed him, and warned them that anyone who disobeys him further will have his life and their family's life as well, forfeited. But the soldiers knowing that the king had no headsman left to do his executions for him, laughed at the king and paid him no heed. They went further, and released all the prisoners inside the dungeons, the girl and her father along with them, and announced that they would be going back to their former lives as farmers, fishermen, bakers, and would not work for the king anymore.

This caused an avalanched of resignation at the palace that soon, the only followers the king had left were his advisers, and his royal sycophants.

The king was unperturbed, thinking that the people would soon realize their mistake and come back crying for forgiveness. At such thought, he happilly devised devious punishment for each one who disobeyed him.

"They need me," he thought. "I am the king. Who would rule over them if they have no king? Who would protect them but I?"

So the king went to sleep peacefully, expecting that the next morning would have him taking the people's apologies and handing out punishments just like before.

When he awoke, he bellowed for his maids to help him with his clothes. Instead of the maids coming, two of his advisers went inside his room instead.

"But sir, don't you recall? Everyone left yesterday. We, your advisers, and some of your allies, are the only ones left in the palace." one of the advisers reminded the king. And as if he had some further wisdom to impart, the other one quickly added, "But don't you worry my king, once the people realizes their mistake, we'd have all your servants back, and a few heads rolling as well. And then, you can reward us, your faithful servants, with the kingdom's wealth, just as we righfully deserve."

"Yes," the first one agreed. "This is what we advise you to do. Just wait for the people to realize their mistake."

The king was glad then, and ordered the two to come and break their fast with him. At this, the two advisers told the king that no food were prepared because even the royal cook had left the palace.

"No problem then!" the king said. "I'll just go to the royal orchard and pick some fruits."

But was told, that again, the people, in all their frenzy, had picked all the fruits in the orchard, and left none for them to pick.

"I'll go to the store room then. I know we have an abundance of milk, cheese, and wheat..."

But the two advisers shaked their head sadly and told him, that those too, were taken by the people.

"But what are we going to eat?" the king demanded.

"Well sir," one of the advisers volunteered. "I saw one of your cows grazing not far off. We can still make use of her for milk, cheese, and for meat later on, if the people still persists in their madness."

"Well, very good. Why don't you go to her and milk her then?"

"But sir, I am just your adviser. I know not how to milk a cow. I can give you advise on how to divide the kingdom's wealth, on whom to punish and why, but I can't give you advise on how to milk a cow."

and the other adviser, not to be outdone, added:

"Me neither sir. I did not study to become your adviser just to milk a cow. If you want, I can prepare a report for you of all the names of the people in the kingdom who can milk this cow for you."

I know that something similar to the story happening today is unrealistic. Our society has grown much more complex that a simple refusal of a few to obey the President would result in her being thrown out of power.

But the idea is there. Take away the country's workhorse, OFWs sending in their hard earned dollars through legal channels, honest civil servants working so hard for a system set against them, police and military personnel loyal to the country brainwashed into thinking that the state is the President, even small business entrepreneurs taxed so hard by this government while big businesses flourish at evading much larger taxes, take away all of these and the "Iron Queen" would be a queen of nothing but a bunch of legal-savvy monkeys and ill-bred sycophants.

Civil disobedience by not paying taxes won't work. Taxes are so ingrained in our everyday lives its hard to avoid them, even with us not paying our AITs, we inevitably pay them. When we order a Value Meal at McDo, when we purchase one bottle of Tempra, when we buy that package of baby diapers, every purchase that we make, is taxed by this undeserving government.

I say we go further than that. I say, instead of civil disobedience, we practive civil obedience. Obedience not to this President nor to this government, but obedience to this country's laws. God knows we have enough of them to make our country much better.

Why not start with obeying traffic rules? Lord knows much of our traffic woes are of our own making. Drivers and pedestrians alike. Imagine just a day wherein we can go back and forth the office without the headache given by stalled traffic because of counterflows and pedestrians crossing where they will. Imagine just a day wherein we refuse to bribe police officers when they apprehend us. Wow, an action that just maybe, could make that policeman proud enought to wear his uniform, and promise himself that he'll stop collecting his part in that jueteng operation.

For those in goverment employ, why not start with doing your jobs with a smile? We know none of you are ever compelled to give the best service since competition does not exist in your market, but perhaps, just the knowledge that you are doing your best will be enough for some of you. Just the thought that, though those in the higher-ups pay little heed to your own needs, you're getting back at them by actually performing better than them!

There's a lot of other things we can "obediently" do to actually make our country a better place to live in. I agree, God has made our work a lot harder by allowing leaders like GMA and de Venecia to perpetuate themselves in power in our country, but just think, God does not give us mountains which He doesn't think we can climb!

We may have lousy leaders, but they can't stop us from improving our lot in our own simple way, one day at a time. With little things, I'm sure people like them will slowly be gone. Just as sure as ticks falling off when we bathe our dog, those undeserving leaders would fall one by one, when we start showing them that we are a citizenry to be respected, by having respect in ourselves and refusing to be mired in hopelesness and mediocrity.

We are only so free, as our minds allow us to be.

We are only so wealthy, as our actions allow us to be.

The Filipino is a great being. We only have to highlight all that makes him great and strike down all that makes him evil.

It all starts with ourselves.

Refuse to be the typical "undisciplined" Filipino, and be the unusual "great" Filipino.

It all takes one, to change a whole.