Waiting for Moses

I agree with Enteng Romano. Sino ba ang iisang acknoledged leader ng Edsa Dos? Wala diba? Unlike Edsa 1986, where they had a clear leader, Cory Aquino, dito sa Edsa dos, wala naman akong nakitang iisang lider, kundi maraming leaders. (and I consider GMA--who joined the edsa dos bandwagon late in the game--more of a follower/beneficiary of edsa dos than a leader of that movement.)

From E-Mandirigma:

It’s almost like a script lifted from the book of Exodus.

You have a people groaning about their desperate lives and bondage to slavery and crying before God for deliverance. God responds. But when things turn for the worse (as they usually do before it gets better), the people relent and would much rather stay in their miserable but familiar state.

You have a leader with a hardened heart. When trouble strikes, he is all too willing to cut a deal. But at the first sign of relief, he reneges. He twists the facts and redefines the rules to his favor. He calls in his own magicians to dilute God’s display of miracles. Not even a blood-stained water system filled with croaking frogs, or men and animals infested with gnats could make this power-obsessed leader let go of God’s people.

And so it is for our country today.

You have a people enslaved in poverty, waiting to be liberated. God responds to their cry by exposing the evils of its leader, presenting a golden opportunity for systemic change that can break the shackles of poverty. But the people remain indifferent, afraid to shake the familiar, even when it’s miserable.

You have a president who, when boxed into a corner, is all too willing to cut any deal with anyone who could offer a way out. She agreed to apologize before the nation and exile her own husband, but soon takes a more repressive stand when the clamor for accountability simmered down to a manageable level. She agreed to dance the cha-cha with FVR and JDV at the height of the July 8 crisis, but is now trying to change the tune so she can dance her way till 2010. She agreed to submit to an impeachment process to prove her innocence, but at the same time unleashed the vast resources of her office to smother the proceedings.

She has gathered the magicians (charlatans would be more like it) of the land to counter the truth at every turn and obfuscate the core issue – did she cheat or not? She will do anything - sowing divisiveness in every sector, inflicting hardships upon the people, and I suspect, even court bloodshed – just to keep herself in power.

And in all of these, the people sit idly by. Better the misery we already know, than to risk an even greater misery a new order could bring. And so, they accept injustice and desperation as their fate as a nation.

The only thing missing in this script is Moses.

Herein lies part of the problem. We do not move because we wait for a Moses to rise amongst us to lead us to the Promised Land. In our frustrations over leaders who have failed us in the past, we have set a very high standard for the new Moses – so high, that practically every alternative leader falls short.

But the Moses of the bible is far from perfect. He was a fugitive from the law and led a quiet life of exile in Midian when he was called by God. He had no political clout, and he was 80 years old – quite old, even in those times. He did not possess any special leadership skills; he was not even eloquent. But he was called by God, and he responded, even though reluctantly. And he became one of the heroes of the faith.

The whole point is this: we must not wait for a perfect leader to rise before we start to act. The Moses we are waiting for could be you and me – insignificant, no political clout, and without any vital skills that can directly impact the cause. But if we respond to the call as we did in EDSA 1 and 2, we could be the heroes that we really are.

I sincerely believe that God is calling on each one of us at this time to be the Moses of our times. Let us be sensitive to the burning bush in front of us.