‘None of our business’

To simplify life, we simply say: “It’s none of our business.”

The recent series of political assassinations and attempted killings bears testimony to the fact that violence remains imbedded in our cultural reality and confronts us with our collective failure to instill the right form of discipline at the right time and the right place and make it “our” business.

The automatic response of authorities regarding the violent killings and assassinations is to label them as “politically motivated” or “isolated incidents,” suggesting that it is not commonplace and does not happen often. Go tell that to the families who lost loved ones in the Maguindanao massacre, the 34 sabungeros who are now categorized as “MPD” or “Missing/Presumed Dead.” Tell it to the nine families who were left behind from the Degamo assassination and thousands more who lost loved ones in “isolated incidents” in the last 50 years.

What we have is a failure of “law enforcement” at home, at work, in the streets and in society. From parental law to Republic Acts and traffic rules and regulations, there is no denying that we have anarchy in terms of personal and public discipline in the Philippines. What’s worse is Sunday soldiers/politicians think discipline can be instilled through marching under the hot sun and re-imposing ROTC. Start in Kindergarten with teachable hearts.

Bureaucrats and corrupt elected officials try to discipline people by spending taxpayers’ money buying cameras, traffic sensors, computers that all become obsolete after one administration or 10 years at the most. Others spend hundreds of millions on guard rails in barely walkable pedestrian “crawlways” or elevated paths and high maintenance elevators and escalators. Ironically, most of us don’t even respect pedestrian crossings!

Law enforcement starts at home and is called discipline. In the Bible, it is called “correction,” “rebuke,”“punishment.” The intention is not to harm or hurt mentally or physically but to instill a realization of consequences. In education, the discipline is supposed to take the form of correction by teaching and training and grading, not public humiliation or physical punishment; leave that to the parent.

We all grew up shaking in fear of presenting a “red streaked” report card because we knew punishment would be the bottomline on our bottoms or pinch-worn ears. As we grew older, that learning and correction continued at work and through life. Correction and discipline were always immediate, with the intention of not allowing us to forget what exactly we did wrong when we did it.

Unfortunately, as a growing society that has been in a hurry to progress, we embraced many modern ideas, often using the wrong solution for the wrong problem. We applied modern parenting in an immature society and impoverished country. Many people promoted “nurture” but not “consequence,” accomplishment and achievement without integrity and maturity, Wealth without social responsibility and compassion. Reject the “tribe” and dominate.

One famous New York City mayor proved that discipline and prosperity can happen through strict implementation of traffic and parking laws. No one was exempted, eventually escalating his war against “diplomatic” vehicles whose drivers abused their immunity. The vehicles continued to have immunity but not the drivers. That same situation has happened in the City of Makati, where the notorious double parking was once the cause of gridlock. Now most drivers are scared of being caught in “The Kingdom of Makati.”

I recently came across an item on the Facebook page of “Visor,” the online motoring media that featured the situation of a new car owner whose car was hit by an old, dilapidated AUV driven by a ragged older driver whose license and registration were both expired.

What the “poor old driver” had was the usual plea for mercy routine. The cops asked if the new car owner wanted to press charges or not, which led to the online question to VISOR: “What to do?” The initial stream of replies was for the guy to just “forgive” because the older poor driver was “kawawa naman” or pitiful. The succeeding stream was more about legal process and inconvenience, pointing out the cost of hiring a lawyer, filing reports, etc.

As a “Kuyang” and Born-Again Christian, you would have expected me to speak on the virtues of mercy, compassion and forgiveness, but NO! Instead, I pointed out to the injured party that driving with an expired license is illegal, driving a vehicle with an expired registration is illegal, and poverty or age does not get you immunity. Worst of all, considering he already hit one vehicle, what was to stop him from “accidentally” killing another person. That comment suddenly changed the view.

That situation is no different from murderers, killers, assassins, etc. They were not born killers, they became killers because people of authority in their life either failed to correct and discipline them, hold them accountable or actually encouraged or corrupted them to abide by “the laws of the jungle” or “winners at all costs,” particularly politicians. Worst of all, someone who could have made a difference GAVE UP or could not be bothered to train them or get in their face! No one drove the principle of “CONSEQUENCE,” which is what the guilty will eventually have to deal with along with the people who did not set them on the right path early on.

All the political and religious murders and massacres in the Philippines can often be traced to national leaders aiding and abetting violent supporters, and high officials of the PNP more focused on their careers and pleasing politicians than maintaining their dignity and integrity. We collectively suffer the consequence of violence and failure of discipline because we made Discipline NONE OF OUR BUSINESS.