The Republic of Corluviminbangsavia

Written on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 3:31 pm | by benign0

Jeg made an insightful comment on Ding’s article where he said:

The Velvet Divorce worked for the Czechs and Slovaks when they realized they couldnt force themselves into a single nation.

This was made in reference to the whole debate about the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) which begs an even bigger question:

Should the Philippines remain together as a single political unit?

The political unit currently known as “the Philippines” is an artificial country — created by colonial edict — not too different from the likes of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and a lot of African “countries” such as Rwanda which famously underwent a massively bloody “correction” exercise between its dominant Tutsi and Hutu triubes back in 1994 — tribes that were forced to live under one government and be identified under one “nationality”. Sound familiar?

Suffice to say, we have the benefit of hindsight now on how those colonial experiments ended.

In the case of the Philippines, nothing of the sort of fate that Czechoslovakia or Yugoslavia, much more Rwanda experienced, is likely to happen. What is happening seems to be taking more of the form of a slow death gnawing away at the very core of Philippine society from within like a cancer — something Jose Rizal himself observed way back in the 19th Century.

Some things simply don’t change.

David Martinez in his bestselling book A Country of Our Own (2004) went as far as calling the Philippines a “failed state” and that it is in fact a forced agglomeration of what are five real nations: Cordillera, Luzon, The Visayas, Mindanao, and Bangsamoro. “The Republic of the Philippines is dying.”, he asserts and proceeds to show why partitioning the “country” into its more natural components may be the only recourse left to open doors for its people to a future that is different from the oblivion that current trends seem to indicate we are headed.

Too hard of course, considering we as a society seem to be hopelessly incapable of evolving our way out of a paper bag, much less implement such a massive paradigm shift. One would think our world-renowned track record of mismanaging our existing assets would make us think twice about pompously considering annexing Sabah. But then thinking and considering are not favourite activities of ours either.

A better solution more aligned with approaches to change Pinoys have come to be more comfortable with would be to rename the country to Corluviminbangsavia — to be consistent with the naming convention of former members of this Artificial Nations’ Club. Then again, maybe even that could be too hard considering that we’ve been quite happy being named after a Spanish king for the last 400 years.

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About The Author: benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.COM and has once been described as "one of the most enthusiastic hecklers of the politically-passionate" by a respected journalist.

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17 Responses to “The Republic of Corluviminbangsavia”

  1. Jeg on July 28th, 2008 4:21 pm

    On the other hand though, the set-up seems to have worked in Switzerland, and to a lesser extent, Belgium and Spain. But they have a common cultural heritage in western Christianity in their favor; something the former Yugoslavia and the Philippines do not have.

    Let me just point out that I have no concrete views on this. I just want to hear all arguments, especially answers to the question ‘Why?’ that I asked in Ding Gagelonia’s post.

  2. cvj on July 28th, 2008 5:13 pm

    By definition, nations and nationalism are man-made constructs, but that’s nothing to fret over since all organizational units beyond the family are man made constructs anyway. That holds true for the 13 colonies which became the United States, the countries of Latin America and the many nations that comprise India. In the case of the nation, what matters is attitude, i.e. the presence or absence of love of country.

  3. Jeg on July 28th, 2008 6:30 pm

    The Velvet Divorce is remarkable in that the Czechs and Slovaks went through partition peacefully. The Federation of Malaya also partitioned peacefully, and gave birth to Singapore and Malaysia. (India didnt escape unscathed, cvj, as it partitioned into India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and after much bloodshed, including the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi for favoring partition.)

  4. cvj on July 28th, 2008 8:41 pm

    Jeg, you’re right but that was not my point. Benign0 makes a big deal about the Philippines being an ‘artificial country’ but, even if true, that in itself is nothing to be ashamed of since most countries in the world are similarly artificial constructs. That’s why Benedict Anderson came up with the term ‘imagined community’. Whether the Philippines remains viable as a nation is up to us present day Filipinos.

  5. J on July 29th, 2008 4:34 am

    I see nothing wrong with the Philippines being an artificial country, either. (And I have to agree with benign0 that we are indeed an artificial political unit).

    Malaysia is the best example of an artificial country. Yet it is successful. (Slight correction, there was no Federation of Malaya. There was only Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak forming Malaysia. And Singapore seceded peacefully.)

    We might have been composed of different nations before, but through our shared experience we have, in essence, become one. And while there is persistent regionalism among Filipinos, I can say that the vast majority still are not thinking of seceding– except of course for the radical Moros (most Moros I know, btw, are not in favor of secession).

    So benign0, do you think the Philippines should continue as a single political unit?

  6. cvj on July 29th, 2008 7:46 am

    J, i agree with you, but just on one point of detail, i think Singapore was expelled by the Malaysians and that LKY did not initially want to succeed which explains his demeanor when it was clear that the separation was imminent:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcTh6d11TpI

    That he eventually made Singapore (another on of those ‘artificial’ countries btw) into a success is a testimony to his force of will and love of country.

  7. benign0 on July 29th, 2008 3:31 pm

    J, I don’t have a strong opinion at all on whether the Philippines should stay together or break up into its original “nations”.

    Either way will do. For me it is the deeper nature of a society that matters and not how it is politically cut up.

    You can see this in the Chinese for example. Wherever they go and however they organise themselves politically, they are CONSISTENT in the way they live and prosper.

  8. moya on July 29th, 2008 3:53 pm

    Dont forget the Spratley’s dammit! We own those islands! If the Chinese dare take what is rightfully ours, we will retaliate with …. with …. our bloggers! Takot lang nila!

  9. benign0 on July 29th, 2008 8:03 pm

    Dont forget the Spratley’s dammit! We own those islands! If the Chinese dare take what is rightfully ours, we will retaliate with …. with …. our bloggers! Takot lang nila!

    Maybe our biggest weapon is our ability to out-reproduce everyone else in the region. :D

  10. moya on July 30th, 2008 11:24 am

    Eh ganun naman tayo diba? Hanggang salita lang. That’s why blogging is such a hit with us!

  11. benign0 on July 30th, 2008 1:41 pm

    Eh ganun naman tayo diba? Hanggang salita lang. That’s why blogging is such a hit with us!

    Hindi naman. To be fair, Pinoys are all action.

    Trouble is, there is no thinking that underpins said action. :D

  12. angela on July 31st, 2008 1:44 am

    trouble is, not enough reading and study go into the thinking that underpins said action.

  13. Philman on July 31st, 2008 1:55 am

    But no, Pinoys are overly good at thinking it through and planning. Over analized, it has been said. It’s in imlementation that we get waylaid. Just look at the mega-projects that we can’t seem to implement, election computerization, machine readable passport, etc.

    In earlier times,I think this was referred to as ningas cogon.

  14. Bencard on July 31st, 2008 2:19 am

    it seems to me that for us filipinos, to paraphrase president mlq, our love for our country ends where our love for ourselves and our families begin.

  15. Jen on July 31st, 2008 2:27 am

    Agree with Philman. We’re actually good at coming up with all sorts of ideas, studies, plans, designs, etc. But then when it comes to execution, we suddenly lose momentum. Tama ka. ningas cogon. Introvoys. Puro intro hehe…

    What’s weird is, grade school pa lang, we were taught that being ningas cogon was one of our major setbacks. But still ningas cogon pa din tayo. Weird.

  16. Our world-renowned ocho-ocho politics | Filipino Voices on July 31st, 2008 9:32 am

    […] words to bring the point across: ningas cogon, which after not a few comments in my last blog post, Mr. Philman insightfully reminded all of us of, and since bringing the discussion there back down to […]

  17. angela on July 31st, 2008 1:03 pm

    not enough reading and study, AND NO SENSE OF HISTORY go into the thinking that underpins said action. kaya tuloy hindi masagot ang tanong ni jeg about mindanao, which is a good question, but to answer which we don’t really have enough background on the situation (media only tells us about the latest encounter between grp and insurgents) which background necessarily is historical…

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