Hailing Philippine national hero Jose Rizal as “the greatest Malayan,” Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim urged President Benigno Aquino III to carry the torch of freedom passed on to him by the country’s heroes and his own parents, and lead the struggle against tyranny in the Southeast Asian region.
“As a son of a father who is a martyr of freedom and a mother who propelled the People Power Revolution that reestablished democracy in the Philippines, President Noynoy Aquino has all the moral capital to carry the torch of democracy in Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations),” he said of Mr. Aquino in a lecture at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.
“In fact this is the missing dimension in his leadership,” Anwar said.
Anwar’s speech was titled “Jose Rizal and Ninoy Aquino and their Impact on Asean Leadership.”
Rizal beyond PH
Anwar said Rizal rightly belongs to Asia. “Rizal is beyond the Philippines. He belongs to Asia. Rizal is our greatest Malayan, the pride of the Malay race,” Anwar said.
Rizal, together with another Filipino hero, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. are “figures of inspiration for struggles against tyranny in the world,” he added.
“Rizal is unique. His courage is exemplary, one who dares to speak the truth to power,” Anwar continued, noting that Rizal’s immortal prose was at the same time “subversive and threatening to the powers that be.”
By any measure, he said, “Rizal is our first cosmopolitan hero.”
“He is a citizen of the world. He is not only an Asian that is at home with world literature, he is an example par excellence of how a Malay, a Filipino, or an Asian could contribute and enrich the cumulative heritage of global human expressions,” Anwar said.
Ninoy Aquino
Undoubtedly, he said, Ninoy Aquino “inherited Rizal’s struggle for human freedom and dignity” and showed courage of “Rizalian proportion.”
“His life and his struggle embodies the spirit of his favorite song—the Impossible Dream,” Anwar said of Ninoy.
“There is a mystery in the man, why he abandoned a life of comfort to confront the assassin’s bullets; why he returned from the security of Boston to the conspiracy of Marcos’s Manila,” he said.
Anwar said it was in humankind’s nature to “rise against injustices and oppression, no matter what cost.”
“That is why to honor Rizal and Ninoy, and not to forget Cory, we have to forge solidarity to advance the cause of freedom and democracy,” he said.
Anwar said President Aquino, Ninoy and Cory’s only son, is playing a part in continuing this legacy.
He said if Rizal and Ninoy were alive today, “they will tell us that Asean must become a visionary democratic community with great cohesiveness, or even a political union.”
Universal quest
“The desire to be free is a universal and perennial human quest. Without democracy, justice is impossible. Each Asean country wants to be prosperous. It is a legitimate desire. But without freedom and justice, the prosperity is unsustainable, and at best limited to the powerful and well-connected elites,” he said.
“To my mind our leaders could do well to remember that the idea of the dignity of man, which indeed was a major theme in Rizal’s writings… has now been enshrined in the concept of fundamental human rights,” he said.
“Ninoy, too, in his journalistic essays made it clear that tyranny of men over his fellow men was an affront to our dignity,” he added.
Anwar alluded to his own struggles in his native Malaysia, as well as other states with severe restrictions on the freedom of speech.
“So at the end of the day, when we set them against the freedom calculus of Rizal and Ninoy, these (Asian) leaders come off as far below expectations, if not altogether unmitigated disasters,” he said.
“As governments that come to power not by free and fair elections but from foul and unscrupulous means, they fail miserably by any measure. Let us hope that that day will come sooner rather than later,” he said.
Asean Renaissance
Anwar, once considered the heir-apparent to ex-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, was jailed on charges of corruption and sodomy but was acquitted in 2004. Anwar had denied the charges, claiming he was a victim of political persecution.
While in prison, Anwar said he was inspired by Rizal’s novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, both stinging commentaries against oppressive Spanish colonial rule that ultimately sparked the Philippine revolution.
Anwar said Rizal’s “Mi Ultimo Adios,” never ceased to inspire him “as a student, a free man, as well as a man under incarceration.”
Rizal’s message, he said, was universal and relevant even today.
“He is the precursor of the Asian Renaissance,” he said. “Any honest student of history would acknowledge his pivotal role in the reawakening of Asia two centuries ago.