Right and Responsibility, two words that compensate each other. I believe that before someone else can demand for his rights, he must fulfill his responsibilities first. Otherwise, dual benefit won’t exist.
The most common scenario that comes on my mind when I thought about right and responsibility is the unceasing street protest and rallies of different organizations against our government. People exert so much effort to gather on the street, raise their banners and shout their advocacy. However, authorities push them away because obviously, they cause disturbance, traffic, cancellation of classes and worse, accident and violence. In short, they interfere with the normal daily city life. I’m not against protest and rally; I just think that it should be reasonable for it to be considered sensible. There should be a deeper justification of what they’re fighting for.
Going back to the bill of rights of our 1987 constitution, the fundamental basic rights that a person has are his right to life, right to liberty, and right to property with further guarantee of equal protection of laws. In the Philippines, I have observed from the news headlines that often, the fundamental rights of a person are not given at all. Is this the reason why the Filipino’s search for their right is unceasing? Or is it because there are other forbidden rights underlying and connected to the fundamental rights? The usual reason of street protest are claiming for just compensation, employment, free and justifiable education, housing, feeding and health programs and decrease in prices of goods and services. In short, people want to experience good governance and a good leader who can implement it.
Personally, I admire those people who assert for their rights because they stand firm to what they believe in and they have the courage to publicize their advocacy. But not all protests and rallies are successful, there are times that it becomes nonsense and unreasonable; it has no direction at all; it turns to be a waste of time, money and effort. I would see people shouting angrily on the streets. Often, it results to violence. I would then think if it is really worth their effort. I personally want to ask them if they had done their part, if they had fulfilled their responsibilities. Because surely, having someone to blame won’t solve your problem especially if the root cause is you.
Like in our country, I believe that before we demand the government for good governance, let us all diligently pay our taxes first, follow simple road signs, apply proper waste disposal, protect the environment, avoid gambling and other destructive vices and follow proper procedures in securing for public documents. Those are just simple things that we constantly need to follow as citizens of this country. If the government has responsibilities to us, we also have responsibilities to our government. When we had done our part, that’s the time when we have all the right to demand for our rights apart from the fundamental rights that should be freely given to us.
Right and responsibility goes together, it’s like a weighing scale on the state of equilibrium. Not one should be heavier because the other part has the tendency to be pulled down. Equal weight should be put on both sides to achieve balance.
Searching for ones right comes with doing ones responsibility.
jan
The most common scenario that comes on my mind when I thought about right and responsibility is the unceasing street protest and rallies of different organizations against our government. People exert so much effort to gather on the street, raise their banners and shout their advocacy. However, authorities push them away because obviously, they cause disturbance, traffic, cancellation of classes and worse, accident and violence. In short, they interfere with the normal daily city life. I’m not against protest and rally; I just think that it should be reasonable for it to be considered sensible. There should be a deeper justification of what they’re fighting for.
Going back to the bill of rights of our 1987 constitution, the fundamental basic rights that a person has are his right to life, right to liberty, and right to property with further guarantee of equal protection of laws. In the Philippines, I have observed from the news headlines that often, the fundamental rights of a person are not given at all. Is this the reason why the Filipino’s search for their right is unceasing? Or is it because there are other forbidden rights underlying and connected to the fundamental rights? The usual reason of street protest are claiming for just compensation, employment, free and justifiable education, housing, feeding and health programs and decrease in prices of goods and services. In short, people want to experience good governance and a good leader who can implement it.
Personally, I admire those people who assert for their rights because they stand firm to what they believe in and they have the courage to publicize their advocacy. But not all protests and rallies are successful, there are times that it becomes nonsense and unreasonable; it has no direction at all; it turns to be a waste of time, money and effort. I would see people shouting angrily on the streets. Often, it results to violence. I would then think if it is really worth their effort. I personally want to ask them if they had done their part, if they had fulfilled their responsibilities. Because surely, having someone to blame won’t solve your problem especially if the root cause is you.
Like in our country, I believe that before we demand the government for good governance, let us all diligently pay our taxes first, follow simple road signs, apply proper waste disposal, protect the environment, avoid gambling and other destructive vices and follow proper procedures in securing for public documents. Those are just simple things that we constantly need to follow as citizens of this country. If the government has responsibilities to us, we also have responsibilities to our government. When we had done our part, that’s the time when we have all the right to demand for our rights apart from the fundamental rights that should be freely given to us.
Right and responsibility goes together, it’s like a weighing scale on the state of equilibrium. Not one should be heavier because the other part has the tendency to be pulled down. Equal weight should be put on both sides to achieve balance.
Searching for ones right comes with doing ones responsibility.
jan
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