Ignoring someone is arguably the worst kind of criticism.
For three decades since my arrival in Sydney, the Filipino community had clamored, nay, prayed, for someone with the courage and the credentials to represent Filipino-Australians in the political arena.
Two years ago, our prayers were answered: Jess Diaz, a member of the NSW Bar, was elected to Blacktown City Council. Years earlier, Diaz failed to win a seat in the NSW State Parliament, thanks to a lack of support from a large section of the Filipino community. Blacktown and the surrounding areas, mind you, boast the largest concentration of Filipinos in the whole of Australia.
But no sooner had Diaz taken his rightful place in Blacktown Council’s table of 14 councilors than he got the cold-shoulder treatment from his own Filipino community. The fact that he was in the opposition in a Labor Party-dominated Council did not make it any easier for Diaz to demonstrate his skills as a lawyer from the Philippines and to achieve his dreams for a better city and for the Filipino community he had believed deserved his gratitude for putting him there.
Even the Filipino press appears to have shut its eyes on the only Filipino elected to local government in the Sydney metropolitan area ~ and only the second such Filipino politician in the whole of Australia.
For all intents and purposes, the Filipino community in Blacktown has decided that Jess Diaz, a practising lawyer, a founder of the Diaz Foundation for youth, and a local Councilor, does not exist.
In the meantime, every week without fail, we have one Filipino doing hours’ (of) service for the Australian community within the city. And every month, Diaz is out there debating with 13 other Councilors about everything from gutters and city planning to waste management, budgets and the environment. There’s no Filipino in the gallery. There are no Filipino journalists at the press table to watch Diaz perform. How much more alone can a politician feel?
At the next election time, however, there will be a chorus of Filipino voters in Blacktown demanding: ”What have you done for us these last three years, Councilor Diaz?”
Ah, the answer to our prayers resurrects. And perhaps we would be looking for another whipping boy that Filipinos in Blacktown can ignore over the next three years. – ?
Your article is an interesting analysis of the situation.
I am proud to be a friend of Jess Diaz and his family. He has made a major contribution to the Australian Filipino community.
I have always been a community activist so I appreciate the positive and highly productive contribution Jess Diaz is making to the community.
He has proven that Australian Filipinos can make a valuable mainstream contribution to Australian society.
He makes a very good contribution to the debate at Council.
The Filipino community is blessed to have such a strong advocate.
You may not agree with all his views. But he always puts forward his ideas in a very professional manner which does great credit to the Australian Filipino community.
I have a strong love for the good qualities of Filipino people and their culture and I am glad to know people like Jess Diaz.
God Bless You
Cr. Allan V. Green
Blacktown City Council
There is some great generalisations here of the “contribution” Jess Diaz has made to the community. But it’s pretty hard to drill down and find out exactly what that contribution is. So can you rattle off a few? It seems to me that Diaz and his family are all just about self interest and using their pinoy background as an avenue to achieve this.
I can’t think of anything Jess Diaz or his family has done for the community in the last three years except rip off a lot of fellow pinoys and left a lot of dissapointed people with a heavier load on their shoulders after having to suffer through serious immigration issues due to his incompetence.
What contribution has he made? He has contributed to the suffering of alot of pinoys through shambled immigration practices.