ANWAR VICTIMIZED BY UMNO BUT NO COMPARISON TO JOSE RIZAL
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Many admire Anwar’s courageous political campaign for civil liberties, social economic justice and democracy in non- racist society.
His on going ordeal has beyond any doubt been engineered by UMNO to destroy his reputation in such way to prevent him from taking his rightful place in politics. UMNO would also kill as in the MACC cases to get rid of opponents or embarrassing witnesses as more and more cases surface.
It could happen to Anwar as it happened to Aquino. However, UMNO has wisely seen that if they assassinated Anwar they may spark off a mighty revolution not just another Bersih demo. Then Anwar would have become a true martyr and an even greater Malayan hero. This would truly change the Malayan political scene forever. Assassination of major political figures has not normally been a feature of local politics.
Legal assassination/executions has however been used by UMNO against communists and others for acts of rebellion or actions to overthrow the state by force.
Mat Indera is one such unsung Malayan hero. He is one of the many Malayans who sacrificed their lives to fight for an ideal- to liberate Malayan society from British rule and later UMNO fascism for a better Malaya.
It would have been politically be impertinent for Anwar to compare himself with Mat Indera who must stand out as Malay Communist who never recant his faith. UMNO would love this choice. But using Rizal Filipino national hero as a comparison removes him from accusation of being a communist sympathiser.
Using Jose Rizal as comparison was however stretching this a little bit. Below is a brief history of Rizal who stands out as an exemplary human being who died for his quest for his country and for Philippine independence. He was a hero in a large sense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Rizal
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Extracts from Wikipedia
José Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines.
Born June 19, 1861
Calamba City, Laguna, Philippines
Died December 30, 1896 (aged 35)
Bagumbayan, Manila, Philippines
Cause of death execution by firing squad
Monuments Rizal Park, Manila
Calamba City, Laguna
Nationality Philippines Filipino
Other names Pepe, Dimasalang, Laong Laan & P. Jacinto
Alma mater Ateneo Municipal de Manila, University of Santo Tomas, Universidad Central de Madrid, University of Paris, Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg
Organization La Solidaridad, La Liga Filipina
José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda [1] (June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896, Bagumbayan), was a Filipino polymath, patriot and the most prominent advocate for reform in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. He is regarded as the foremost Filipino patriot and is listed as one of the national heroes of the Philippines by National Heroes Committee.[2] His execution by the Spanish in 1896, a date marked annually as Rizal Day, a Philippine national holiday, was one of the causes of the Philippine Revolution.
Rizal was born to a rich family in Calamba, Laguna and was the seventh of eleven children. He attended the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, earning a Bachelor of Arts, and enrolled in medicine at the University of Santo Tomas. He continued his studies at the Universidad Central de Madrid in Madrid, Spain, earning the degree of Licentiate in Medicine. He also attended the University of Paris and earned a second doctorate at the University of Heidelberg.
Rizal was a polyglot conversant in twenty-two languages. He was a prolific poet, essayist, diarist, correspondent, and novelist whose most famous works were his two novels, Noli me Tangere and El filibusterismo. These social commentaries on Spanish rule formed the nucleus of literature that inspired peaceful reformists and armed revolutionaries alike.
As a political figure, José Rizal was the founder of La Liga Filipina, a civic organization that subsequently gave birth to the Katipunan[8] led by Andrés Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo. He was a proponent of achieving Philippine self-government peacefully through institutional reform rather than through violent revolution, although he would support “violent means” as a last resort.[9] Rizal believed that the only justification for national liberation and self-government is the restoration of the dignity of the people, saying “Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow?”[10] The general consensus among Rizal scholars is that his execution by the Spanish helped to bring about the Philippine Revolution.
Contents
[edit] The Family of Jose Rizal
Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado (1818–1897)
His parents, Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado y Alejandro (1818–1897)[11] and Teodora Alonso Realonda de Quintos,[12] were prosperous farmers who were granted lease of a hacienda and an accompanying rice farm by the Dominicans. Rizal was the seventh child of their eleven children namely (……..) :
Rizal was a 5th-generation patrilineal descendant of Domingo Lam-co (traditional Chinese: 柯儀南; simplified Chinese: 柯仪南; pinyin: Kē Yínán; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Kho Gî-lâm), a Chinese immigrant entrepreneur who sailed to the Philippines from Jinjiang, Quanzhou in the mid-17th century.[13] Lam-co married Inez de la Rosa, a Sangley of Luzon.
José Rizal also had Spanish and Japanese ancestors. His grandfather and father of Teodora was a half Spaniard engineer named Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo.[14] His maternal great-great-grandfather was Eugenio Ursua, a descendant of Japanese settlers.
In 1849, then Governor-General of the Philippines Narciso Claveria, issued a Decree by which native Filipino and immigrant families were to adopt Spanish surnames from a list of Spanish family names. Although the Chino Mestizos were allowed to hold on to their Chinese surnames, Lam-co changed his surname to the Spanish “Mercado” (market), possibly to indicate their Chinese merchant roots. José’s father Francisco[11] adopted the surname “Rizal” (originally Ricial,[15] the green of young growth or green fields), which was suggested to him by a provincial governor, or as José had described him, “a friend of the family”. However, the name change caused confusion in the business affairs of Francisco, most of which were begun under the old name. After a few years, he settled on the name “Rizal Mercado” as a compromise, but usually just used the original surname “Mercado”.
Last days (of Rizal)
Main article: Philippine Revolution
By 1896, the rebellion fomented by the Katipunan, a militant secret society, had become a full-blown revolution, proving to be a nationwide uprising which eventually led to the Declaration of Independence and the inauguration the earliest constitutional republic in Asia. To dissociate himself from the rebellion, Rizal volunteered his services as a doctor in Cuba and was given leave by the Governor-General, Ramón Blanco, to serve in Cuba to minister to victims of yellow fever. Blanco later was to present his sash and sword to the Rizal family as an apology.
Rizal had predicted that the USA was going to be a “troublesome rival” if his prophecy that the “Great American Republic, whose interests lie in the Pacific, will someday dream of possessing the Philippines” will ever come true. During his only visit to the United States in 1888, Rizal described the USA: “I visited the largest cities of America with their big buildings, electric lights, and magnificent conceptions. Undoubtedly America is a great country, but it still has many defects. There is no real civil liberty.”
He was quarantined in San Francisco’s pier as a result of the Chinese Exclusion Act and witnessed the inequality experienced by African Americans and people of color.[40] Rizal knew, that if ever the Philippines came under American rule racism would be a major concern. It was likewise important that for the revolution to succeed there must be a foreign ally that will provide the revolution (which he considered as a last resort) arms, food, ammunition and diplomacy. It is widely accepted by scholars that even prior to Rizal’s banishment to Dapitan, he was already regarded by Filipinos as a national hero. José Rizal was elected honorary president by the Katipunan without his knowledge and his name would be used by the revolutionaries in their battlecry.
About two weeks before he left Dapitan, Rizal met Dr. Pio Valenzuela an emissary from the Katipunan, to whom Rizal expressed his doubts of an insufficiently armed revolution, as well as questionable leadership . Rizal argued that the revolution cannot succeed until a leader knows the right time when to strike, sufficient arms can be assured, the pivotal support of middle class Filipinos had been won over, and a foreign ally is secured.[3] José Rizal was alarmed that a revolution was already imminent – devoid of any assurances of victory, and that the leader was Andres Bonifacio- whom he personally met as a member of La Liga Filipina. Rizal was a good reader of character, and had sensed that Bonifacio was not the right man to lead the revolution. Despite this drawback, Rizal gave his advice on how to improve their chances in winning the impending war; evidence that Rizal was supportive of a revolution, but not this particular one. José Rizal was right, for although Bonifacio was an effective organizer of the Katipunan he never bequeathed a single military victory to the Philippine Revolution.The Katipunan had to evolve into another more structured and organized liberation army. Had Rizal lived long enough, he would have seen the emergence of much more effective Filipino military leaders that could defeat the best Spanish generals – foremost of whom was Emilio Aguinaldo, whom Rizal never met; and who was only 27 years old in 1896. The general controversy about this incident is the misinterpretation that Rizal’s refusal to give his support to Andres Bonifacio is a refusal to support the Philippine Revolution. El Filibusterismo was written to prepare Filipinos for the war that he foresaw was to come and his final poem was a blessing towards its triumphant manifestation.
Rizal was arrested en route to Cuba, imprisoned in Barcelona, and sent back to Manila to stand trial. He was implicated in the revolution through his association with members of the Katipunan. During the entire passage, he was unchained, no Spaniard laid a hand on him, and had many opportunities to escape but refused to do so. While imprisoned in Fort Santiago, he issued a manifesto disavowing the current revolution in its present state and declaring that the education of Filipinos and their achievement of a national identity were prerequisites to freedom; he was to be tried before a court-martial for rebellion, sedition, and conspiracy. Rizal was convicted on all three charges and sentenced to death. Blanco, who was sympathetic to Rizal, had been forced out of office, and the friars, led by then Archbishop of Manila Bernardino Nozaleda, had ‘intercalated’ Camilo de Polavieja in his stead, as the new Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines after pressuring Queen-Regent Maria Cristina of Spain, thus sealing Rizal’s fate.
His poem, undated and believed to be written on the day before his execution, was hidden in an alcohol stove and later handed to his family with his few remaining possessions, including the final letters and his last bequests. Within hearing of the Spanish guards he reminded his sisters in English, “There is something inside it,” referring to the alcohol stove given by the Pardo de Taveras which was to be returned after his execution, thereby emphasizing the importance of the poem. This instruction was followed by another, “Look in my shoes,” in which another item was secreted. Exhumation of his remains in August 1898, under American rule, revealed he had been uncoffined, his burial not on sanctified ground granted the ‘confessed’ faithful, and whatever was in his shoes had disintegrated.[3]
In his letter to his family he wrote: “Treat our aged parents as you would wish to be treated…Love them greatly in memory of me…December 30, 1896.”[24]
In his final letter, to Blumentritt – Tomorrow at 7, I shall be shot; but I am innocent of the crime of rebellion. I am going to die with a tranquil conscience.[24] Indeed, Rizal is perhaps the first revolutionary whose death is attributed entirely to his work as a writer; and through dissent and civil disobedience enabled him to successfully destroy Spain’s moral ascendancy to rule. He also bequeathed a book personally bound by him in Dapitan to his ‘best and dearest friend.’ When Blumentritt received it in his hometown Litoměřice (Leitmeritz) he broke down and wept.
Execution
Moments before his execution by a squad of Filipino soldiers of the Spanish Army, a backup force of regular Spanish Army troops stood ready to shoot the executioners should they fail to obey orders.[41] The Spanish Army Surgeon General requested to take his pulse: it was normal. Aware of this the Sergeant commanding the backup force hushed his men to silence when they began raising “vivas” with the highly partisan crowd of Peninsular and Mestizo Spaniards. His last words were those of Jesus Christ: “consummatum est”,–it is finished.[4][42][43]
He was secretly buried in Pacò Cemetery in Manila with no identification on his grave. His sister Narcisa toured all possible gravesites and found freshly turned earth at the cemetery with guards posted at the gate. Assuming this could be the most likely spot, there never having any ground burials, she made a gift to the caretaker to mark the site “RPJ”, Rizal’s initials in reverse.
A national monument
Main article: Rizal Park
A monument, with his remains, now stands near the place where he fell, designed by the Swiss Richard Kissling of the famed William Tell sculpture.[44] The statue carries the inscription “I want to show to those who deprive people the right to love of country, that when we know how to sacrifice ourselves for our duties and convictions, death does not matter if one dies for those one loves – for his country and for others dear to him.”[24]
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A truly remarkable man who packed much in a short exemplary life. Salute!
A comparison of Spanish colonialism to Malayan rule of Sabah and Sarawak may be of great relevance for our local politicians.
Rizal asked “Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow?” ….
Tyrants we have in UMNO like Mahathir, Taib and Sabah UMNO proxies. Independence not yet.