NOW THAT THE INCOMING Aquino administration is about to lead the country to a hopefully better and higher level, it’s the perfect time to confront what needs to be done to right the sins of commission and omission inflicted on Filipino arts and culture by the outgoing regime.

Thinking more positively, bold moves need to be taken to truly harness the heretofore under-tapped power of the arts for national transformation. It’s urgently needed to help Filipinos get over our “deathless” colonial mentality, so that we can finally come into our own identity, patrimony and sense of self-worth.

Influence

First, the “nega” moves that need to be counteracted and excised: For some years now, some unenlightened politicians and their minions have used the arts, not to enrich Filipino life, but for personal power and influence.

Not too long ago, this resulted in the misuse and diminution of the heretofore revered National Artist awards, which prompted many artists to mount outraged protests. In turn, this incensed the politicians so much that arts and culture leaders who refused to do their bidding were dismissed.

This further exacerbated the tragic consequences of political manipulation of the arts, making the current situation even more untenable and unacceptable for many artists.

Clearly, the new administration can do a lot to redeem and rehabilitate this sorry state of affairs.

But, this can only happen if the Aquino administration truly sees the light, and values our arts and culture for the heretofore untapped power engines they can be to achieve genuine national transformation.

This power has heretofore been woefully untapped, because politicians in general aren’t enlightened and don’t understand its seminal strength.

Too many of our leaders dismiss the arts as beautiful but effete and ephemeral—which is not the case at all. Really good art subliminally but strongly affects people’s view of the world, the nation and themselves, inspiring or illuminating them to more insightfully live their lives, confront key issues and attain their goals.

So, it’s important for our new leaders to acknowledge this transformative power—and know how to harness it to motivate our countrymen to come into their own.

Having thus become more aware of their identity and worth, they would be better able to finally vanquish the intimidating specter of colonial mentality that our colonizers used to subdue us—a specter which continues to diminish us in our own eyes, to this very day.

This negative view of ourselves has become so deeply rooted in our national psyche that it will take a major, shared effort to finally vanquish it.

That’s why our new arts leaders have to be insightful, determined visionaries who will use their power and influence not for themselves and their hangers-on nor to please their patrons, but to confront this major problem and inspire and motivate all Filipinos to do the same.

Influences

This is a huge undertaking, because quite a number of us, including some of our leaders, don’t even know or refuse to acknowledge that the problem even exists. We’re so focused on impressing other, “more advanced” and thus “better” nations that we don’t see that we have been warped into thinking that we are inherently less able than they are.

Since the country now cries out for drastic, seminal and transformative change, now is the time for us to collectively discover and assert out true selves, and decisively demand our freedom from others’ views of what we can or can’t be, or do.

Finally, now is the time to give the arts the importance they deserve by at long last setting up the Department of Arts and Culture.

May the new Aquino administration have enough enlightened people in it to tap the best arts leaders for this all-important task. What is at stake here is nothing less than our real freedom as a people, and our true potential as a nation.