“Rizal was a subversive”
HE had to be silenced because he was a subversive.
This was the thought conveyed by Professor Jacqueline Aquino Siapno de Araujo, wife of East Timor’s national parliament president Fernando Lasama de Araujo and interim First Lady of East Timor, on the life of national hero Jose Rizal during the Rizal Day celebration in Dagupan City.
Mrs. Araujo, a Filipina from Dagupan, said Rizal’s works, deemed subversive by Spanish rulers inspired other nationalists in Asia and other regions around the world.
“Like other thinkers who came after him (Antonio Gramski (Italy) Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Indonesia), his (Rizal’s) ideas were considered so subversive by the ruling regime, that he had to be silenced,” Mrs. Araujo, daughter of a lawyer couple from Dagupan, said.
ARAUJO
Prof. Araujo said that Rizal was a subversive, whose world of ideas resonated with other anti-colonial anarchists of his time, including from Cuba (such as Jose Marti), and whose works later profoundly influenced other Asian nationalists like Pramoedya Ananta Toer who wrote about Rizal in his novels, i.e., Bumi Manusia, Anak Semua Bangsa, Jejack Langkah, and Rumah Kaca.
Schooled in the Philippines, United States and London and teaches in universities in Spain, the U.S., Singapore and other countries, she said Rizal’s thoughts and writings were considered so dangerous against the colonial state, that he had to be physically eliminated.
RIZAL’S RELEVANCE
“(But) What would Rizal say if he saw some of our leaders and politicians now? Is this the country he envisioned? The country he gave up his life for?” she intoned addressing her audience.
Mrs. Araujo recalled that in the 1950s, the Philippines was one of the most promising and richest countries in Asia, after Japan, richer than Korea who was struggling with recovery after the Korean War.
She noted that today, the Philippines is on the same level as East Timor which is that of “LDC” or less developed country.
Concluding her speech, Mrs. Araujo asked Filipinos to reflect on these questions: “What happened to us? Are we on the path of permanent underdevelopment? What small step can each of us take to change ourselves? to improve communities? to reduce if not to eliminate injustice, inequality, poverty, domination, corruption, and wastage in our land and on this earth?”
Vacationing in Dagupan with her husband and their seven-year-old son Hadomi, Professor Araujo, said Rizal paid the highest price so that the country will be set free- his life.
The celebration, on the theme “Rizal Haligi ng Bayan” was spearheaded by the City Schools Division led by Dr. Alma Ruby Torio with City Administrator Vlad Mata delivering an inspirational talk and Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez delivering the closing remarks.
