HOTSPOT
Tonyo Cruz
Alongside news of the Abra earthquake, rising prices, mass transport woes and other national issues, our journalists have reported about newcomer Senator Robin Padilla complaining about the tough time he’s having in the Senate plenary debates.
It is easy to poke fun at Padilla and his complaint, but he’s not speaking to those who think knowing and speaking in English is essential to being a national leader.
Sure, many of our people are functionally literate and have reached at least elementary or high school. I’ve seen wonderful pedicab drivers in Intramuros courageously speak in English to foreign tourists with aplomb as they tour their customers in the streets of the Walled City. Ditto for waiters and hotel workers in restaurants and resorts outside of Manila.
But that doesn’t mean everything’s okay in the communication front between government and the public the government is sworn to serve. Presidents often speak in English with a moist eye on foreign powers and foreign investors, and the elites who pull the levers of the economy. Usually, they speak in Filipino or in the vernacular only when it is convenient, to make it sound something is being done, and to avert public protests.
For me, Padilla’s complaint is valid because the Senate’s work, and indeed government’s work, must be understandable and not buried in verbal deadwood. Citizens should be able to easily understand and comprehend what’s the sense of the Senate, so to speak, because we can and should be able to intervene if necessary.
August will be here in a matter of days, and we will be treated to a month-long tokenistic ritual of paying supposed homage to Filipino and to our national languages. I say, we should abolish it and make it the rule throughout the year that government, business, education and media prioritize the use of Filipino and our national languages. That is, if we really want to understand and communicate clearly among ourselves.
There’s a long list of countries that achieved progress without the use of English as principal language of education, governance, and business.
Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and Taiwan didn’t need English to be industrialized, to prosper or to be progressive. Neither did our neighbors Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
These countries have been able to teach all subjects in their mother tongues, sometimes in a multiplicity of non-English languages. Their languages have been able to do so, and they are not less intelligent, less prosperous or less consequential because of that.
The centuries-long experiment about English has produced a bag of mixed results: Our economy is not inclusive. Our education is directed towards producing professionals directed at serving in foreign shores. Mastery of English often creates division between our people, with some implying — sometimes loudly and always wrongly — that it denotes intelligence. I’m pretty sure the Chinese, the Germans, the French, the Dutch, the Scandinavians and others would disagree with this sick pro-English colonial mentality.
One common thing about these countries and peoples is that they tend to be more democratic and their politics more inclusive and more participatory. And this is where Padilla’s complaint is important. If Padilla succeeds in convincing senators to use Filipino or the lingua franca, that would be an epic change for the Senate and for the public. Sagacity and intelligence won’t be measured by the extent of a senator’s English vocabulary, but by the substance of one’s positions on issues. And that would start by making the Senate quickly understandable by the public.
Padilla should not stop with the Senate. He should check the country’s schools, and how the government speaks and puts its business on paper. To be better and quickly understood, Padilla should advocate the widespread and official use of Filipino and the national languages. Padilla knows this. Filipino cinema (and most television programs) use Filipino, and it thus often unites Filipinos from north to south, here and abroad.
Padilla could explore signs, documents, forms, laws, and legal proceedings. These could and should be switched to Filipino and the national languages. He could support institutes and centers for Filipino and the Filipino national languages.
To be fair, even if we switch to Filipino, English could still be there, maybe in high school and college, as optional courses alongside Mandarin, French, Korean, Japanese, Italian and other foreign languages.
Those who underestimate Padilla and his complaint do so at their own peril. He doesn’t speak to the champions of a language of conquest and social exclusion. Wittingly or unwittingly, he speaks to and for the common tao.