Mabini the statesman: A bridge to his people

Abstract

ON a worn-oat rattan chair sits a paralytic. The late afternoon sun falls on his face, revealing an unusually high forehead, rounded cheekbones, and eyes with a distinctively plaintive expression. His collar-button is closed. His hands do not grip the arms of his chair; they fall on his knees in repose. His shoulders- perhaps the most striking feature about him - are slightly hunched. There is nothing dynamic about the picture. It is that of a man whose life is being wasted away. Yet long alter this man is dead, historians will refer to him as one of the country s greatest statesmen. Poets will call him the Sublime Paralytic. His name: Apolinario Mabini.