It felt like a mini-pilgrimage for me. Taking that 1 hour walk from my hostel to a place where I would meet a statue of a personality I so admire. When I finally came face to face with him at the midway of a street called "Av. De Filipinas", I knew I was face to face with someone I truly admire.
I first came to know about Dr. Jose Rizal during a research about postcolonial independence for an undergraduate essay in Australia a few years back. Back then, being so motivated by postcolonial theories and fuelled by my frustration with the ongoing discourses about what it means to be a Malay in Singapore and the Malaysian-Indonesian feud about who should lay claim to the origins of the song, "Rasa Sayang", I (re)turned to history to find out more about our common nationalistic aspirations and cultural affinities.
Through my research I found out about Jose Rizal and his desire to unite the Malay world. He was not a warrior but he fought through his books and intellect. His words spurred on the independence movement against the Spanish which eventually reach fruition, unfortunately only after his brutal execution, in 1898. The Filipinos were the first in Southeast Asia to get a taste of independence from their colonisers and established a republic.
Today I stand in front of his monument recalling my first encounter with this brilliant man, my Southeast Asian hero. Through him, I know it is possible to create change with words. And interestingly, I am here in the capital of one of the European colonisers standing proudly looking at the monument that was erected in remembrance of this intellectual individual.
30th December marks his 118th death anniversary.
“On this battlefield man has no better weapon than his intelligence, no other force but his heart.”
― José Rizal
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