Pinoy

It’s a popular meme in Indonesia to point to neighbors like Malaysia and Singapore and say that things might have been better had it been the British who colonized the country because the Dutch were resource extractors, seeded racial and class divisions, sowed conflicts for their benefit, and conducted genocide, but the British also did the same in many of its colonized lands—India and Pakistan anyone?—who’s to say they wouldn’t have done the same in these lands?

Colonialism, regardless of its form, leaves behind a legacy of division and extraction. Ultimately how a post colonial nation progresses depends on its own people. The past may have shaped the nation but it doesn’t have to define its future.

#TootSEA

#pinoy