In a letter published in the Manila Mail
last month, Gus Alzona, Republican candidate for Congress in Maryland,
criticized some Filipino Americans, including some “so-called community
leaders” for continuing to practice the ‘politics of personal destruction’ and
to engage in that almost uniquely Filipino art of divisive ‘crab
mentality’." Because of these practices, he predicts that the community
will end up in a permanent split.
Mr. Alzona should be praised for having
the courage to write about this pernicious practice of some members of the
Filipino American community. While he did not mention any names, almost
everyone in the community knows who the “crabs” are. The community knows who are
practicing the “politics of personal destruction.” Many have also criticized
the way some organizations are being ran, but no one, it seems, has had the
courage to expose them.
The tendency of some groups to act as a
sort of an exclusive club that bars others from joining is not something new.
This has existed in the DC area for as long as one can remember. This explains
why some organizations have split into two or three groups if members do not
like the way their leaders run them. This explains why two galas to mark the
centennial of Filipino immigration and Philippine independence were held on the
same day and time last month. And this explains why, after learning that a
Filipina American was running for public office in Maryland, another Filipina also threw her
hat into the ring, thus splitting the Filipino vote.
However, while these may cause some
divisiveness in the community, they will not result in a permanent split as Mr.
Alzona sees it. But divisiveness in any form is not conducive to advancing the
aspirations of the Filipino American community to become a strong and powerful
force in the nation’s capital.
We must stop the crabs and those who
practice the politics of personal destruction from continuing with their
nefarious practices.
