Musings on Joel Rocamora and his Great Book – Breaking Through
I finally picked up my own copy of Joel Rocamora’s book, Breaking Through, yesterday from a courier that had taken it all the way from California.
I did mention in my blog post celebrating People Power, Reflections on EDSA – The Need for Embedded Patriotism that he wrote a heart-rending [and seemingly tortured] introduction to the book
After a quick re-read, I quote from the first paragraph of his Introduction here. This Post is adapted from a Note I posted in the Facebook SYNTHESiST Page last night.
Introduction: Celebration, Expiation, and Exorcism
This has been a difficult, even painful, book to write. Difficult because its subject is not an impersonal political party or set of doctrines. It is the story of many of my best friends, their struggle to shape their lives in service to an ideal, to the welfare of our country and our people. I wanted to write a history of the national democratic movement that would honor its martyrs and keep faith with those, on all sides f the ideological divide, who continue to put their lives on the line. But I also wanted to critically examine the history that they lived.
He tells a few stories about the martyrs; Karen’s is disguised. He finally decided to write the book not as a history of persons – maybe because their struggle continues even in its split state – but as a story of ideas.
The book is a very interesting read. While all we read about in the newspapers are about certain bloody events – typical of Philippine media. His book shows that the personalities involved are thoughtful people, and atypical in the Philippines I think, able to act based on their rational convictions.
I quote from the final chapter of his book:
Chapter 7 … Parting Shots.
With Marcos gone, my mother insisted, why do you need to do political work?
“Because there are 30,000 child prostitutes in the Philippines,” …
… I tried to explain as best as best as I could, my answer remained a feeling in my guts. A society that allows its children to become prostitutes offends me. This gut feeling has provided the motive power for this book. It also drives my hope for the future.
… The Left also has to take responsibility for breaking way from its own autocratic past and forging a radical democratic alternative. I know that we cannot go much further than dreaming unless the Left gets its act together.
This last quoted paragraph a pointed critique on his opinion on the cause of the Left split – “I do not believe it is possible to devise strategy on the basis of social analysis that the Philippines remains essentially the same as it was in the late 1960.” and his suggestions on how to fix it,
Between the first and last chapters, he writes a thorough analysis of the Philippine social situation from the perspective of an insider of the Left.
The book’s title is “Breaking Through” yet among Joel Rocamora’s last words in the book that I quoted above is about “breaking away.”
Joel Rocamora is a key ideologue of the Liberal Party, a key thinker among the Rejectionist group Akbayan, who decided to have a strategic alliance with the party of Benigno Aquino for the 2010 elections. He has accepted a key position in the PNoy government.
The book is a well-thought explanation about his own personal process of ‘breaking away’ to ‘breaking through’ to the next logical step of ‘social action.’
Rocamora’s analysis remains relevant though I am ‘synthesisting’ a different future development strategy in this blog from his recommendations that remain Left-of-center but without Lenin’s “Party as vanguard” and what that implies with respect to discipline that the Reaffirmists’ maintain.
Indeed, for politically-mature teachers, Breaking Through can definitely be used as a text book in essay writing or a reference book in political science.
"Currently unavailable" says Amazon of Breaking Through by Joel Rocamora (21.3.11)
Note: For the blog post above, I read from a copy borrowed from a Cebu friend. Thank you, Viking, for sharing a great read!
The book is now unavailable in Amazon after three copies in late February when I published my post:
