Don't heed Kennedy; Ask what your country can do for you

“Ask not,” said John F. Kennedy, the man whose presidency was cut short by a lunacy, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Kennedy was, of course, goading no one else but the Americans. The complete version of that scintillating phrase goes: “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” He was in no way speaking to a Filipino audience because he was not in the Philippines; nor did he have a Filipino ancestry; nor was his skin brown or his nose flat.

The Filipinos, therefore, are under no obligation to heed Kennedy’s invitation. By all means, they can ask their government what it can do for them. They must not, however, feel as though they are mendicant, for they are not.

The reason why they can, without guilt, press their government to do whatever it can is that those who are running it said they would do whatever they can.

In 1998, the populist Joseph Estrada was popularly elected as president by the masa who felt they have long been slighted by the elitist government. And, true to form, Erap, as he is fondly called, declared on his Inauguration Day he would ensure that “what wealth will be generated will be more equitably shared. What sacrifices are demanded will be more evenly carried.”

“This much I promise,” Erap continued, “for every stone of sacrifice you carry, I will carry twice the weight.”

“The slogan of the administration might be ‘Erap para sa mahirap,’” said the political writer Manuel L. Quezon III, “but as more and more would complain, the real guiding principle of the administration seemed to be the gambler’s view that the winner takes all.”

But Erap, it turned out, was a sham. He not only did not give the cake, he ate it himself.

In his oath, Erap said, “I, Joseph Ejercito Estrada, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully abide and conscientiously fulfill my duties as President of the Philippines, preserve, and defend its Constitution, execute its laws, do justice to every man and consecrate myself to the service of the Nation. So help me God.”

“Except for his name,” said Joker Arroyo, who acted as one of the prosecutors during the Impeachment Trial of Erap, “he violated every word of his oath.”

Perhaps what allowed Erap to steal was that those who voted for him heeded Kennedy. They ask not what the country can do for them. Indeed, they ask not what Erap can do for them. They ask what they can do for the country. Indeed, they ask what they can do for Erap.

And so when they did do everything for the country, indeed for Erap, they suddenly realized to their chagrin their government was run not by an American, but by a Filipino.

Now, with GMA promising Filipinos, in her ninth SONA, that she would work even harder in the remaining days of her term, Filipinos must ask her what else she can do for them because they can be assured that GMA will deliver.

She is, after all, a person who, if she wants something done, does it now, does it hard. She doesn’t pussyfoot. And she doesn’t say bad words in public.