Good manners and right conduct

The speech of Noynoy Aquino in Calamba, Laguna during rites commemorating the 150th birth anniversary of Jose Rizal was marred by the usual protests by leftists, who never see anything good in democratically-elected government.

To these trouble-makers, no government is good enough. It matters not who sits at the head of government. Subsisting on foreign-funding to create trouble, all that matters is creating trouble.

And because of this foreign-funding, creating trouble has become lucrative business. Just take a look at the different groups that have sprouted, all mouthing the same rehashed protests over and over again.

The tragedy is that these groups feed on the thin line separating idealism and naivete of the youth, thus making the youth a very fertile ground for recruitment. Those who do not know any better easily get swallowed up, their lives ruined in pursuit of something that was never there.

The protests that greeted Noynoy were very revealing in that they included students from UP-Los Baños, part of that system of state schools where education is being paid for by taxpayers but whose free time is geared toward bringing down the very government that allows this system.

I have never liked Noynoy Aquino and probably never will. But he is the president, and when he speaks, everybody should listen. If you do not believe in what he is talking about, you are free to protest to your heart’s content later, just as I often have.

In fact, it is not just about Noynoy Aquino. It is about courtesy and respect to whoever is speaking. I have been brought up to listen and never butt in when someone else is talking. My parents taught me — and my school later sustained — “good manners and right conduct.”

So, when I learned that the students were arrested, detained, and later charged for interrupting the speech of the president, I cannot help but say to myself “good riddance.” They asked for it and they got it. Serves them right.

I know the troublemakers, similarly-situated students, and the groups to which they all belong will be crying their hearts out about repression, of rights being trampled, and so on and so forth about all that gobbledygook as if they own the world and are the only ones with rights.

The government should press on with those charges. It should not be swayed by threats and intimidation. These troublemakers represent only a very small fraction of the populace and can count on very little sympathy and support.

I know this is a free country. Everybody has the right to speak up. But if you insist on speaking up while somebody else is speaking when there are a million public places and a million other ways for you to be heard, you are being pig-headed and deserved to be conked in the head.

I often wonder how these troublemakers would feel if those who have had enough of their antics would barge into their own homes and begin protesting with libelous placards and noisy megaphones. Would they tolerate this expression of rights?

Maybe it is time the government reconsiders its system of providing education to those who only want to bring down that very same government. And maybe it is time taxpayers themselves start demanding the right to know where their taxes are being spent.

It is stupid and ridiculous for law-abiding and peace-loving citizens who honestly pay their taxes to be held hostage by troublemakers who think they are the only ones with rights. And maybe the parents of these troublemakers should teach them good manners and right conduct.