IN REPLY TO TYRANT DUTERTE: ON THE QUESTION OF IDEOLOGY AND POLITICAL POWER

Written by: Jose Maria Sison on 2 December 2020

By Jose Maria Sison

NDFP Chief Political Consultant 

December 1,  2020

In his TV appearance in the Philippines  last night, Duterte attacked me in a simplistic and demagogic way that I am in the movement for revolutionary change merely because of ideology and personal desire for power and not because of the people’s just cause and revolutionary struggle for national and social liberation against the semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system, especially now that it is run by his extremely traitorous, brutal and corrupt regime.

Duterte is stupid or out of his mind by implying that I have an ideology while he has none.  Any individual or organization that is politically significant as friend or enemy of the people has an ideology in the plain sense of having a set of ideas. Duterte has an ideology of rabid anti-communism and fascist terrorism in the service of foreign monopoly capitalism and the local exploiting classes of big compradors, landlords and bureaucrat capitalists like himself.  

In sharp contrast, my ideology is the universal theory of the international proletariat, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, and is applied on the concrete social conditions of the Philippines. I adhere to the program of people’s democratic revolution which seeks to realize full national independence, genuine democracy, social justice, economic development through land reform and national industrialization, a patriotic and scientific culture; and international solidarity against imperialism, and for world peace.

The issue now in the Philippines is neither socialism nor communism. The Filipino people and the revolutionary forces are fighting for national liberation and democracy against foreign monopoly capitalism, domestic feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.  They need to win the new democratic revolution in order to have any hope for a socialist future.

By harping on their rabid anti-communism, Duterte and his political and military agents are covering up their servility to US and Chinese imperialism and the local reactionary forces.  Thus, they fail to destroy the revolutionary movement. The revolutionary movement is ever growing in strength because it is addressing the basic problems of the people or the root causes of the armed conflict, especially because Duterte has chosen to terminate the peace negotiations in order to use anti-communism and state terrorism to pursue his ambition of fascist dictatorship.

Since the age of 19, I have committed myself to continuing the unfinished Philippine revolution started by Andres Bonifacio in 1896.  To make this kind of commitment, one must be ready to be imprisoned, tortured or outrightly killed in the course of struggle.  One cannot last long in the struggle if one is simply motivated by a personal desire for power.  Such an ambition belongs to those who wish to climb the political and social ladder in the unjust ruling system and at the most to join the series of puppet presidents in what is a rogues’ gallery.

Some people have told me that I have had the  advantages of upper class origin, networks of influential relatives, friends and former schoolmates of high standing, some outstanding personal abilities and achievements and sociability  and that I could have become president as early as at the age of 40 to 50, especially because I have been a national news maker alongside Marcos and Aquino since I was 23 years old.  But I just laugh off the speculations because I knew even when I was only 18 years old that to become president you become corrupt in the rotten ruling system on the way up to the highest position of power.

In contrast to me, Duterte with mediocre qualities far below the level of the statesman has become president because of his extraordinary abilities as a demagogue, pretending to be honest  even if he is extremely corrupt, pretending to be brave even if he is a coward in using superior force to kill poor people, pretending to be Left and socialist even if he is a rabid anti-communist and ultra-reactionary, pretending to be against illegal drugs even if he merely wants to become supreme drug lord and pretending to be for independent  foreign policy even if he wants to serve any imperialist power from which he can personally benefit.

My current desire now is to contribute whatever I can to the patriotic and democratic struggle of the broad masses of the people  and the broad united front to end the tyrannical, traitorous, brutal, corrupt and swindling Duterte regime, oust Duterte from his throne and create the conditions for a patriotic and democratic kind of government to arise and pave the way for the resumption of peace negotiations to address the roots of the armed conflict and lay the basis for a just and lasting peace.

Also on YouTube https://youtu.be/wKi8vim2Ejo

Print Version - new window Email article

-----