Glenda Gambito & Precious Iva Joulea L. Maiquilla:

Decolonizing Knowledge, Decolonizing the Social Sciences: Issues, Concerns and Recommendations

For almost four hundred years, the Spaniards, Americans and Japanese colonized the Philippines. It was only in 1946 that the Philippines gained “independence”. But, are we really liberated? Our physical bodies may be free from the rule of the colonizers but our minds are not. Thus we are not truly liberated but experiencing the worst form of colonization, the colonization of the mind. According to Altbach, colonialism does not end with our independence from the colonizers but their influence continues in the sphere of our intellectual life. What they invaded is the minds of the people (1995: 452).

.Because of a very long time of being a colony, our thoughts, ideas, beliefs, attitudes and our culture as a whole have been westernized. One of the reasons for their continued domination is their use of the educational system, particularly the social sciences. Even Mathematics, considered to be universal, was also a form of domination or colonization that they employed as Bishop had said in one of his articles.

.To some extent, values like rationalism, objectism and power and control are connected with Western Mathematics. Rationalism is the use of human reason in order to arrive at a certain decision. Math also exhibits the value of power and control through te use of number and measurement in the different parts of the state like trade and administration. Objectism is also one of the goals of Mathematics wherein the reality is abstracted or decontextualized in order to come up with a generalization (Bishop, 1995: 74-75). The idea of objectism or objectivity is usually contrasted with subjectivity. Searle emphasized that a good deal of our outlook in life depends on our concept of objectivity and the distinction between the objective and the subjective (1995: 7). According to him, two distinctions are crucial in differentiating what is objective and what is subjective: in terms of epistemic sense and ontological sense. In the epistemic sense, objective and subjective are predicates of judgments while in ontological sense, objective and subjective are ascribed modes of existence (Ibid: 8).

.Two contrasting views regarding the colonization of the knowledge can be seen today. The first view, the traditionalists, believes that liberal education should be promoted. Liberal education is the transcendence of a person over his or her origin, gender, race, and ethnicity. They try to make the students rise above the mediocrity, provincialism or other restrictions of whatever environment from which they have come ( Searle, 1995: 231). There is no need for representativeness and everything must be based on merit and intellectual quality. One does not necessarily need to believe in a particular theory or practice to be able to teach it.

.However, the idea of multiculturalism emerges as an opposition to the traditionalist’s view. According to this view, there should be a resistance tot eh perpetuation of Western knowledge. Alatas termed the phenomenon of the control of the colonizers of various disciplines like political sciences in Third world countries as academic imperialism (2006: 600). This is maintained through academic dependency which creates inequality between the Social Sciences of the West and of the Third World. The former imposes their theories and ideas that the latter passively accepts and applies to their country even if it is not suitable or appropriate (David, 1977:96). Third World countries like the Philippines therefore need an academic dependency reversal. In the Social Sciences, the discipline of Political Science may be a good place to start.

.Due to the colonization, several issues have arisen in the situation of Philippine Political Science. One of these is the adoption of the idea of democracy as the form of government in our country. This democracy, which has the presidential system of government, is patterned in the Western model specifically American democracy. As the dominant ideology, it follows that it will penetrate the realm of knowledge taught in the Philippines. Thus, it became the standard in the Academe to use the Western model of democracy.

.Studies on Philippine politics are usually written by Western political scientists like Riedinger, Wurfel and McCoy. Even the assigned readings in political courses are written mostly by the West. Though a lot of political scientists are being produced by Philippine universities, only a few of them gain academic recognition. However, the sad fact is that these political scientists are only recognized if they make researches for other countries or in partnership with a Western author. Focus on doing our own Political Science is not being done.

.Since the knowledge being inculcated in Philippine political science is based on Western models, it only follows that Western ideas are being applied in our government. The Philippine Constitution and the way of governance in the Philippines are transplanted from the United States of America. This shows that we have a strong attachment to our former colonizer and we hold them in the highest regard which created the myth that whatever is best for them would be best for us too. This thinking then led to failure since applying democracy, specifically presidential system of government, is not suited or applicable in our country. A lot of drawbacks can be seen in the Philippine case from the time of our adoption of American democracy. Some of these weaknesses are: 1) political elites continue to dominate Philippine politics, 2) political participation only happens during elections, 3) continued marginalization of the poor, 4) suspicious disappearances of activists in the country and extrajudicial killings, 5) the continuing human rights abuses, and 6) extreme inequalities in wealth and protection between Christians and Muslims ( Riedinger, 1999: 207).

.Due to the weaknesses of applying Western democracy in the Philippines, we therefore need to construct a form of government, which is better suited to our country, and this task should be first done in the academe in order to start remaking the mindset of Filipino political scientists. Remigio Agpalo suggested a pangulo regime wherein it prescribed the value of organic hierarchy. It prescribed that the pain suffered by the humblest member was also suffered by the entire nation. This means that if one part of the country suffers, all the other parts also suffer (1996:200). What Agpalo wants to emphasize is that we should incorporate our own values like “pakikisama” or sharing, loving and caring in our government, which would act as one body. We should abolish or abandon the individualism and impersonalization embodied by Western democracy. In doing so, how political science, whose focus is particularly on the structure of the government, is being taught would be revolutionized. Thus, if a pangulo regime would be established, we would somehow become decolonized in our knowledge. However, in order to do this, certain ways on how to decolonize our knowledge in political science should be developed. These are: 1) making Filipino political scientists get interested in doing research studies in the Philippines which are not patterned after Western models, 2) improvement of tertiary education by the government, and 3) provision of good jobs, in order to stop the brain drain, by the government here in the Philippines which would help in redoing Philippine social sciences. If all of these could possibly be done, development of the Filipino nation in all aspects would be realized.-

.
BIBLIOGRAPHY


Agpalo, Remigio E. The Philippines: From Communal to Societal Pangulo Regime. Adventures in Political Sciences. Quezon City: University of the Philippines. 1996.

Alatas, Syed F. Countering Eurocentrism: Asian Discourses in the Social Sciences. London: New Delhi. 2006.

Altbach, Philip G. Education and Neocolonialism. ed. Bill Ashcroft et. al. The Post-colonial Studies Reader. London: Routledge. 1995. p452-456.

Bishop, Alan J. Western Mathematics: The Secret Weapon of Cultural Imperialism. ed. Bill Ashcroft et. al. The Post-colonial Studies Reader. London: Routledge. 1995. p71-76.

David, Randolf S. Ang Pagkagapos ng Agham Panlipunang Pilipino. Ikalawang Pambansang Kumperensiya ng Sikolohiyang Pilipino. Lunsod ng Quezon. 1977

Riedinger, Jeffrey M. Democracy and its Limits: Lessons from Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. 1999.

Searle, John R. Is There a Crisis in American Higher Education?. ed. Edith Kurzweil and William Philips. Our Country, Our Culture: The Politics of Political Correctness. Boston: Partisan Review Press. 1994. p227-243.

Searle, John R. The Construction of Social Reality. New York: Free Press. 1995