30 december 1896 blev José Rizal henrettet efter en tvivlsom retsag gående på, at han skulle have anstiftet oprør lokalt mod det spanske imperium. Tvivlsomt fordi han propaganderede for det modsatte, bl.a. udfra den betragtning at et oprør ikke kunne vindes med de til rådighed stående midler overfor et regulært politi og militær, og der hverken ved retsagen eller sidenhen er kommet noget frem, der bare antyder han blot skulle have båret det synspunkt som et dække for andre aktiviteter.
30. december er philippinsk nationaldag, Rizal Day, kaldet.
Venstreekstremister er sidenhen ankommet på den konklussion, under dække af at arbejde “historisk/akademisk”, at Rizal blot var en figur som “amerikanerne” lod udnævne til nationalhelt som led i kolonialt “brød & skuespil”. Det er naturligvis forkert allerede fordi han var velkendt og vellidt mens han levede. Personer som Bennedict Anderson og Ian Buruma er proponenter for en sådan udlægning b.a.. YEN MAKABENTA tager i Manila Times i anledning af årets Rizal Day fat i den historie og skriver bl.a.:
In his fine book, A Nation Aborted: Rizal, American hegemony and Philippine Nationalism (Ateneo University Press, 2008), Floro C. Quibuyen discusses at length the fruits of his research on the issue.
First Philippine Republic started Rizal Day
His first entry is reassuring:
“Rizal Day was actually started not by the Americans but by the Filipinos. The first commemoration was held on 30 December 1898, when General Aguinaldo, on behalf of the revolutionary government at Malolos, Bulacan, officially declared that day as a national day of mourning in solemn observance of the second anniversary of Rizal’s execution.…
Quibuyen cites the work of an Englishwoman to show how veneration of Rizal had spread as far as the Visayas. The lady is Mrs. Campbell Dauncey, who wrote an account of her visit to the archipelago, an Englishwoman in the Philippines….
…
In a letter dated Dec. 31, 1904, she wrote an interesting account of Rizal Day in the town of Iloilo. In this brief epistle, she strikes at the heart of the political problem then facing the American regime.
She wrote:
“I think you may be amused to hear about a Filipino fiesta, which took place yesterday, called Rizal Day – the anniversary of the death of the national hero, a Filipino of the name of Doctor Rizal. He was the William Tell of the Philippines, except that his existence was a reality, not a myth, for he died only eight years ago.”Further on, she reported:
“I have met people who were present at the execution of Rizal, and they tell me that the crowds were vast, and relate how Rizal faced a line of soldiers bravely and was shot. Rizal had a nice, clever face of a refined Filipino type, if one can trust the portraits on the Conant bank notes, and the Filipinos simply adore his memory.”It’s striking from this account that Philippine bank notes carried the portrait of Rizal barely two years after the Revolution was declared over, and the American civil government installed.
Dauncey made one final comment on Rizal Day when she said that Filipinos would seize on the anniversary “to give relief to some of their patriotic emotions.”
Sammenligningen med Wilhelm Tell kan virke opstyltet, men er relevant nok, for udover at Rizal oversatte H. C. Andersen så oversatte han også Wilhelm Tell (o.a.) til tagalog, hvad vor englænderinde jo nok har været klar over.
A pro pos: Rizal Day 2000 udførte muhammedanske terrorister et koordineret bombeangreb i Manila; wiki., hvad vel nu kan ses som en slags generalprøve på senere angreb af den type.
Kronologi omkring angrebet, her.
Undskabens Hotel 