A New Year’s Resolution to be a Better Citizen

Monday, 10 January 2011 02:28

Written by Tony La Viña

We celebrate New Years with the tradition of New Year’s Resolutions: a promise made to ourselves (and sometimes, to each other) to improve ourselves in one or more traits throughout the coming months. It ties with the theme of renewal and change that greets the world when the calendar cycles back to January 1, and forward by one year

Here is where the country can make its New Year’s Resolution. It is not the President or government that makes the country’s Resolution. It is us, as Filipino citizens. Every New Year’s, people have made resolutions to be better parents or children, brothers or sisters, to live healthier or to work harder, to change bad habits and build up good ones. Has anyone made, however, a Resolution to be a better Filipino citizen?

When President Aquino spoke of needing everyone’s help, he did not speak of slaves, royal subjects, zombies, or dispassionate and disinterested people, detached from social realities. He spoke of citizens. Albert Einstein said once that “It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs.” Similarly, Theodore Roosevelt noted that “The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight.” These are the marks of a good Filipino citizen: one who is capable of formulating and believing in his own political convictions, responsibly defending them in the public arena, and contributing his own best efforts to his country’s development.

Public service does not require public office. The outpouring of sympathy and volunteerism during Ondoy last year, the bravery and responsibility of voters last May 10, and the hope and optimism last Inauguration Day must be sustained by Filipino citizens regardless of the crisis facing our country at the moment—or whether there is any large crisis facing the country at all. The most pressing problems of the Philippines are not large crises, but small, such as poverty that affects the most vulnerable households, or environmentally responsible and sustainable lifestyles.

Neither does citizenship have to be a 24/7 job for citizens. Even an hour’s worth of volunteer work every day or every other day, or simply observing the good laws and policies of the land, could be enough. Imagine if all Filipino drivers observed traffic regulations and charitably gave way to each other on the road. Would it not free up the clogged arteries of our cities?

Citizenship is not surrendering responsibility to the government, either, by turning into “yes men.” This is the mistake made in any tyranny or dictatorship. The Opposition must not stop in their responsibility to critique the Administration; only that one must critique responsibly and reasonably, without the divisive partisanship of yesteryear. Private citizens should not forego the right to peaceful assembly, to protest against policies or government actions they deem wrong, but like the Opposition, even protests have a responsibility to the country to be reasonable and constructive.

This is the resolution an entire country can make, then: to become better Filipino citizens, whether we are rich or poor, powerful or humble, city-dwellers or countryside farmers, civilian or government:

To observe good laws and policies, and use them as means to help the lives of others.

To critique and not just criticize, to provide alternative plans and solutions to our policy problems.

To contribute to the development of the nation through excellence in our daily lives, wherever we find ourselves.

To remain open-minded and respectful to the ideas of others we do not agree with, while still being able to uphold and defend our own ideas and identities.

To truly participate in governance and development, and not simply depend on others or in government.

To become leaders and changemakers everywhere we are because everyone a leader and a changemaker is what our country needs.

Finally, to have in mind the common good, and the good of the country, in our actions as Filipino citizens: with every vote, with our raised voices, with our behavior towards others and towards government.

Perhaps 2011 may be the year the Philippines can turn things around, and begin the slow but steady climb to peace and prosperity. Perhaps it is too optimistic to hope for so much in only a year, yet there is one resource that is always overflowing in the Philippines, and that is hope.

And perhaps hope is all we need to start making a change in ourselves.

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