We Asians

Title

We Asians

Creator

Pelaez, Emmanuel

Language

English

Source

Panorama XIV (5) May 1962

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

WE ASIAN Emmanuel Pelaez Vice President of the Philippines Being an Asian, in the world that has evolved these past years, is more than a geographical identity: it is a state of the soul, a condition of the spirit. It is a cry of exultation over the freedom that has been won by so many peoples who had suffered cen turies of colonial servitude. It is a burning protest against the continued colonization of the few who remain unfi It is an assertion of equal and dignity. It is a dems for respect. It is a sense pride in the past glories Asia, humility in the realiza tion of its present needs, con fidence in the inevitability of its future deliverance. All this is what it means to be an Asian. For tfie present, nothing unifies Asia as cohesively as its unbridled impatience to catch up with the twentieth century. Colonial exploita tion and repression had kept us hewers of wood and draw ers of water. Our resources had been drained to feed the insatiable appetites of the in dustrialized colonizers. We share an ironic kind of equality: we are equally poor, equally backward, equally un der-developed — an Asian leader once said that the most democratic aspect of Asia was the equal distribution of po verty. While rocketships have been shot into space to girdle the globe with human cargo, Asians still move around in bull-carts. While care for the aged has an urgent problem in the advanced countries, Asiansdie young and die by the thousands of such unnecessary diseases as tuberculosis and beri-beri. We have not ba nished illiteracy. We are still captives of ignorance and su perstition. And all of these problems, all of these afflic tions are compounded and multiplied by uncontrollable birthrates. Our problems are undoub tedly awesome: just as un doubtedly, we are determined to fight them. We did not win political freedom merely to be enslaved by the tyranny of poverty. We are going to feed ourselves healthfully; clothe ourselves comfortably, 8 Panorama house ourselves in dignity, educate ourselves adequately. But none of us can do these things alone. We have to help one another. We have to cooperate and work toge ther. But first of all, we have to know each other better. It is only now that we Asians are beginning to know each other, and what we know is still pitifully small. This is not our fault, of course. There was a time, many civilizations ago, when we knew one another quite well, since our peoples were always running into each other in the marketing cen ters and along the trading seaways of our part of the world, but the age of colo nialism rang down an iron curtain around each one of us. We were isolated from one another. The Filipinos learn ed everything there was to know about George Washing ton, and never heard of In donesia’s Prince Diponegoro. The Vietnamese spoke French, but had no idea what language the Filipinos spoke. The Indians kept abreast of what was going on in London and could not care less about what went on in Manila. Now we will have to fill in the void, expose the distortions, and correct the misconcep tions of centuries. And after the peoples of Asia have come to know each other better, with knowledge will come un derstanding, and with under standing will come acknow ledgment and acceptance of the need for them to help each other in meeting their common problems of economic under-development and social stagnation. I had occasion to suggest the need for Asians to begin thinking of closer economic cooperation, perhaps leading eventually to an Asian com mon market, to meet the chal lenge and opportunities of other regional economic groupings, such as the Eu ropean common market. Ma ny of us supply raw materials to the mills of the West: again, here is an area where we can profitably cooperate and collaborate. And while we are working May 1962 9 together to promote our ma terial well-being, we should not forget the needs of the spirit. We should also foster cultural and artistic exchang es. All these cooperative en deavors require that the chan nels of communication among us must always be kept open. Easily one of the most efficient and accessible of those chan nels is the press of Asia. No matter how much we Asians help each other, how ever, our development and progress will be limited unless we make use of the techno logical resources and know how and the scientific mar vels of the West. Except for Japan and to some extent In dia, none of us is a highlyindustrialized country, and to survive all of us have to industrialize. We can do on ly with the help of the West. I am aware of course of re sidues of resentment and hos tility that have been left be hind in Asia by the colonial powers, and in many cases it is not difficult to understand why. We cannot allow the memories of the past, ho.wever, to becloud our vision of the future. We cannot build factories with hate, operate machines with bitterness, run tractors and bulldozers and graders with false pride. We need the tools and the know how and the science of the West, to employ for our own good. To deny ourselves of their aid would be suicidal. But we will deal with the West, of course, only as equals. We will not barter our sovereignty and dignity for aid or trade. Asia has been abused too long to to lerate further indignity. An other mission is to present a truer and, where we need sympathy, a more sympathetic picture of Asia to the West. The world must be told that while Asia needs help, it will not beg; while it has acquired a new awareness of its identity and dynamic strength, it wishes nothing more fervently than peace, because it is only in peace that it can. devote all its man power and resources to the formidable challenge of twen tieth-century progress. In a bower of bright bridal roses This lesson I learned from a bird: It may be the man who proposes, But the girl always has trie last word. ♦ ♦ ♦ 10 Panorama

pages

7-10

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