Veneration Without Understanding

Dissent in Philippine society.--Society without purpose.--The anti-social Filipino.--Culture and national identity.--Diplomacy without policy.--Origin of a myth.--Roots of subservience.--The Filipino elite.--Veneration without understanding.--Intellectuals and activists.--Ethics for nationalists.--A leadership for Filipinos

This is a collection of more than forty essays on various topics especially history, the Philippines, atheism and existentialism. Many of the articles here were published in the local edition of The Philippine Post. This book is for those who are curious about the Philippines and the Filipinos. It provides an unconventional perspective on Philippine society, history and culture.

This title was first published in 1978.

The global history of liberalism has paid too much attention to the West, neglecting the contributions of liberals from colonial nations. This book mines the thought of Filipino propagandist and novelist, Jose Rizal, to present a vision of liberalism for the colonized. It is both an introduction to Rizal and a treatise on rights, freedom, and tyranny in colonial contexts. Though a work on history, it responds to the illiberal present of rising authoritarianism and populism.

An anthology of essays about Philippine cinema which seeks to illuminate issues of transparency of power and power relations. It lays bare the geopolitics of the visible in order to render the almost invisible working operation that makes both visibility and invisibility possible.

From Jail to Jail is the political autobiography of a central though enigmatic figure of the Indonesian Revolution. Variously labeled a communist, Trotskyite, and nationalist, Tan Malaka managed, during the several decades of his political activity, to run afoul of nearly every political group and faction involved in the Indonesian struggle for independence. Malaka was elected Chairman of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in 1921 and barely five years later opposed the PKI-led uprising in Indonesia. He openly opposed Sukarno’s support for negotiations with the Dutch, yet Sukarno issued a decree in 1963 recognizing Tan Malaka as a hero of national independence. During his several decades of political activity he spent periods of exile and hiding in nearly every country in Southeast Asia. From Jail to Jail is one of the few known autobiographies by an Asian Marxist of the 1930’s and 1940’s.