sa mga mata ng isang dayuhan… (ikalawang bahagi)

(Para sa Unang Bahagi, pakiklik lamang ito)

Mula sa Chapter 14, “Child of All Nations,” pp.  263-266, 273-276:

[Usapan nina Minke at Ter Haar, sa isang barko. Doon sila unang nagtagpo at naging magkakilala. Si Ter Haar ay isang journalist, naging subeditor ng isang pahayagan. Siya’y Olandes, ngunit isang radikal, aktibista, liberal, salungat sa sistema, sa pamamalakad ng kanyang pamahalaan sa Indies/Indonesia. Isinasalaysay rito ni Ter Haar ang mga pangyayari sa Pilipinas noon – ang pagrerebelde ng mga Pilipino, ang pagpapatalsik nila sa mga Espanyol, ang mga kaganapan noong Himagsikan ng 1896. Siya’y namangha sa nagawang ito ng mga Pilipino – nayanig daw ang Europa!]

Ter Haar: Do you know anything about the Indies’ close neighbor, the Philippines?

Minke: A little. They rebelled against the Spanish colonization, then against America. [natutuhan niya kay Khouw Ah Soe]….

Ter Haar: News from the Philippines is very scarce. It seems the [Dutch] government feels it has to restrict such reports. The government is afraid that if the Indies Natives find out a lot about what’s happening, about how far the Filipino Natives have progressed under Spanish rule, they would be ashamed…

Many Filipinos are educated, really educated. Already some are graduates. And the Indies Natives? Just a handful sit on the benches of universities in Holland. There is still not one graduate in all of the Indies. Public schools are not even three-quarters of a century old. In the Philippines, they have been going for almost three hundred years (tapos may UST, Colegio de San Juan de Letran pa tayo – mga unibersidad. Walang ganito noon sa Indies/Indonesia). In the Indies, ninety-nine percent of Natives are illiterate. In the Philippines, it is ten percent less than that.

Minke: (Napag-isip-isip siya. Such progress. The Filipino natives were closer to European science and learning, closer to understanding the power that rested with the European peoples, to knowing how to use that power, and so they rebelled… The government of the Netherlands Indies was worried that the educated Natives of the Indies would find out that the Filipino rebellion against the Spanish was led by educated Filipinos and was no mere peasant disturbance like that in Tulangan. Ang Tulangan ay isang maliit na bayan doon sa Indonesia – nagkaroon ng pag-aaklas ang mga pesante sa pamumuno ng nagngangalang Trunodongso na nakilala at nakaibigan ni Minke. Pero, maliit na rebelyon lang ito, kaya hindi matagumpay. Humanga at nainggit si Minke sa malawakang pagrerebelde na nagawa ng mga Pilipino – ang Rebolusyon ng 1896.)

Ter Haar: Before the rebellion itself took place, the port workers in the Philippines harbors refused to work… The Filipinos have already carried out strikes… But their rebellion is even more interesting (tinutukoy niya ang Rebolusyon ng 1896 ng Katipunan); it rocked all of Europe, including Holland/Netherlands, Mr. Minke. They’re all busy studying why it happened so they can make sure nothing similar occurs in their own colonies. A friend of mine knew one of the Native leaders there, someone called Dr. Jose Rizal. My friend met him in Prague. Rizal was a poet, very brilliant, and a fiery lover also. The Spanish caught him in the end. A great pity – someone as outstanding as that… Of course, there can be no doubt about his fate: The death sentence ended his life story. Someone as cultivated as that, writing poems in Spanish, just as you write in Dutch. A doctor, Mr. Minke, and you too intend to become a doctor. Perhaps that is no coincidence.

Minke: Somebody educated, a doctor, a poet… rebelling…

Ter Haar: Maybe the Dutch are cleverer than the Spanish. There has never been any rebellion by educated Natives against the Dutch here. Here, the educated Natives always follow the Dutch. The Indies is not the Philippines, Holland isn’t Spain.

Minke: And he was sentenced to death?

Ter Haar: That’s right. The Spanish military are famed for their viciousness.

Minke: (An educated person had rebelled against his own teachers – indeed there had never been anything like that in the Indies…)

Ter Haar: And then even when isolated from his comrades, Jose Rizal did not stand alone. So many, so very many people loved him, because with all his knowledge and learning, he loved his own people so much. Many prominent people, clever people in Europe pleaded with the Spanish government to pardon that brilliant educated Filipino.

Minke: What did he want to achieve with this rebellion?

Ter Haar: You don’t know? He wanted his people not to be ruled by the Spanish. He wanted them to rule themselves. A pity – that inexperienced people in the end became the victims of an alliance between Spain and America.

Minke: I don’t really understand, Mr. Ter Haar. How could they rule themselves? You mean the educated Natives would replace the Spanish and the Americans to govern their own people?

Ter Haar: Of course, that’s what they wanted. National independence.

Minke: (Nagtaka si Minke. Nag-isip-isip siya. Hindi niya ma-imagine – dahil nga sa nabuhay siya sa panahon ng kolonyalismo, sa lipunang kolonisado, at kinasusuklaman niya ang mga atrasado at makalumang practices/traditions/pamamahala ng kanyang mga ninuno — kung paano pag wala na ang mga Europeo –– paano pamamahalaan ang isang bansa? I conjured up in my imagination the kings and bupatis of Java, mad with their lust for power, making people bow down and crawl before them, give obeisance to them, do their pleasure. And no guarantee that they would be better educated than those they ordered about. Even to imagine the Filipinos governing without white people was beyond me. And here, on my own earth to think of such a thing! To make any sense of it all was impossible. Without the power of the whites, the kings of Java would soon be mobilizing every single inhabitant in the effort to annihilate each other, each trying to emerge the sole triumphant ruler. Wasn’t that our history for centuries?)

Ter Haar: What’s the matter?

Minke: And what would happen if the Native kings held power again? Imagine how the educated groups would suffer, Mr. Ter Haar.

Ter Haar: No. The Filipinos intend to govern along American and French lines: a republic – that is, if they won. In such a great awakening as that, there were of course many leaders whose thinking was European, and a modern organization also. Not like the peasants of Tulangan. There was an organization that was the engine of opposition (ang organisasyong ito ay ang KKK, gayundin ay ang Propaganda movement sa Europa).

Minke: A modern organization? (Hindi ito alam ni Minke. Tunay na mas naunang namulat ang mga Pilipino sa mga modernong bagay, unang natuto mula sa Europa, at unang nagbangon, kaysa mga Indones.)

Ter Haar: So you are not familiar with the idea of a modern organization? (He shook his head.)

Minke: (Perhaps he was pitying me, a graduate who didn’t know about modern organizations!… But truly, I didn’t understand. I stayed silent, no more questions; shame and embarrassment enveloped me now.)

Ter Haar: In the end, the more European science and learning Natives obtain, whatever their race or nation, the more it is certain they will follow in the footsteps of the Filipino Natives, trying to free themselves from European rule. The Filipino natives wanted to stand up themselves as a free nation, as Japan does now, acknowledged by all the civilized nations of the world.

[Pagkatapos nilang mag-usap, bumalik si Minke sa kanyang cabin. Nakahimbing siya. Pagkagising, naisipan niyang isulat ang diskurso sa kanya ni Ter Haar. Habang nagsusulat, mayamaya’y may dumating na isang utusan ni Ter Haar. May ipinabigay sa kanyang 2 magasin. Isa rito ay isang German magazine. Brinowse niya ito. May isang artikulong nakatawag sa kanyang pansin – artikulo tungkol sa Pilipinas. Narito ang kanyang mga nabasa na kanyang pinagmuni-munihan, at kanyang itinala o isinulat:]

          The educated Natives of the Philippines put their hopes in the Spanish liberals back in Spain, just as I had put my hopes in the Pure Dutch liberals back in the Netherlands. Yes, in Europe, the land where the peak of human achievement and brilliance was stored as in a museum. And the Natives had beautiful dreams: One day the Spanish would, in their generosity, make them members of the parliament in Spain and give them the full civil rights of subjects of Spain, and they would be able to feel they could do some good for their own people in their own land.

          One thing I learned, a basic piece of knowledge: that a small group with this dream tried to bring it to reality, inviting others to dream the same way. They set up a newspaper. A newspaper! Filipino Natives publishing their own newspaper! (La Solidaridad. Propaganda Movement. Gulat na gulat si Minke. Doon kasi sa Indies/Indonesia, pag-aari ng mga Olandes ang lahat ng pahayagan. Walang diyaryo ang mga katutubong Indones na titindig at magtatanggol sa kanilang mga karapatan.) And the educated Native Dr. Jose Rizal was one of its leading figures.

          I had never seen a picture of him. But I imagined him as someone tall and slim, with big side-whiskers, mustache, and heavy eyebrows. But that’s not so important. What was important was that the authorities in Spain cursed him and took action against him (Naman! Talagang nayanig ng ‘indiong’ ito, si Rizal, silang mga Espanyol! At maging ang iba pa nating mga propagandista, tulad nina Plaridel at Lopez-Jaena sa kanilang mga sulatin.). And I was forced to think about how things were in the Indies. There had never been anything like that Filipino group here. Never. And the indications were that there never would be. Poor Trunodongso; with machete and hoe he wanted to fight them,while even Rizal had been trampled so easily.

Still fortified by his hope in Spanish charity, he carried on with his attempts to make his dream a reality: He founded the Filipino League (o La Liga Filipina). But the Philippine colonial government continued their attacks upon him.

I know these notes won’t be of much interest to anyone, but I have no choice but to include them. Why? Because these thoughts are so much a real part of my environment, the world I inhabited. Ah, knowledge: Trunodongso would never know that there is a nearby country called the Philippines. And knowledge, the result of my reading this article, made the Philippines a part of my own world, even only as an idea…

And Rizal still dreamed of the honor and nobility of Europe. But European power was a monster that became hungrier and hungrier the more it gobbled up…

But other groups of educated Filipino Natives had long lost their faith in Spanish colonial power (ang sukdulan ay ang KKK – ang pinakamalawak at pambansang kilusan laban sa mga Espanyol). They took up arms and rebelled…

The Filipino revolution broke out. The goal was to run the Spanish out of the Philippines. In my soul’s eyes I could see the educated Filipino Natives rising up, leading their fellow countrymen in attacks against the Spanish garrisons… Even in my fantasizing I could not imagine it. They weren’t led by individuals, but by a spirit of resistance, represented by that organization of theirs (ang Katipunan nga). Represented too in its top leadership: Andres Bonifacio (Naks! Kilala rin niya si Gat Andres Bonifacio!). Seven years ago. Poor Trunodongso – he knew nothing of such leadership. Poor Minke – I had only found out a few hours ago (sa pakikipag-usap niya kay Ter Haar at sa artikulo). Tens of thousands of Native Filipinos mobilized the whole people into resistance. And they did resist, they did fight back. The whole land seethed with rebellion, marching out of the houses to take part in the fighting, to live or to die. The Spanish in the Philippines were pressed hard and then pressed even harder. And the Filipino Natives chose their first president: Emilio Aguinaldo. In 1897! The first republic in Asia.

And they built their own government on the French model! No wonder Khouw Ah Soe (ang Tsino sa part 1 ng post na ito) was so excited about the Philippines! (Imagine, isang Tsino, manghang-mangha sa Pilipinas. Ngayon, nilalait-lait na lang tayo ng isang Chip Tsao!)…

[Subalit, datapwat, ngunit…] The Filipino revolution was thrown into turmoil by traitors who loved money more than freedom for their country and their people (another piece of basic knowledge for me). The rebels, in their defeat, accepted the hand of friendship from America. The warships of America sailed to the Philippines and surrounded the Spanish armada. On land, the Filipinos worked together with the American marines…

… The Filipinos, still inexperienced in these things (akala nila, mapagkakatiwalaan ang Amerika. Tsk, tsk), were finally deceived by the Americans. In the battle of 13 August 1898 – a show battle between Spain and America – Spain was defeated, America won. The Filipino patriots were the real losers; they were freed from the Spanish, but fell into the hands of the United States, which became their new master.

— Sa mga bahaging ito ng aklat ni Pramoedya Ananta Toer, mga parteng tungkol sa Pilipinas, ako ay tunay na nagulat, namangha, humanga sa aking bayan. Ganoon pala kadakila ang papel na ginampanan ng Pilipinas noon – imagine, nayanig natin ang Europa at naging modelo tayo ng ating mga kapwa Asyano! Ewan, hindi yata ito naituro sa amin sa hayskul (o absent lang ako or hindi nakikinig?). Sa napakapapangit na bagay na bumabalot sa aking banwa sa ngayon, sa masamang atityud at nadirimlang mga damdamin ng mga kababayan ko, hindi ko akalaing may ganito pala tayo kagandang kasaysayan. Alalahanin natin ang ating nakaraan – kay giting, kay dakila.

Subalit, doon sa huling dalawang talata na sinipi ko kay G. Pram – may negatibo ring bagay tungkol sa Pilipinas. Totoo ito – ang hinggil sa mga ‘taksil sa bayan.’ Sina Bonifacio at Aguinaldo na lang – may away pulitikal na namagitan sa kanila. May mga pag-aaral ang mga historyador natin, na dapat ay si Bonifacio ang ating unang pangulo. Namatay ang Supremo ng Katipunan sa kamay ng kanyang mga kababayan mismo. Ang dahilan – away sa pulitika nila ni Aguinaldo. Tsk, tsk. Kitams, sa unang presidente pa lang, may mga pangit nang nangyari. Paano pa sa mga sumunod? Hayzzz.

Iyon lamang po. Nais ko lang ipabatid na hindi ganoon kasumpa-sumpa ang bansang Pilipinas. Minsan, sa ating kasaysayan, tayo ay hinangaan at kinilala rin naman ng daigdig. Bahala na tayo kung paano natin mauulit iyon.