The Burmese thugs’ local relatives
The political troglodytes strike again with their plan to deport foreign activists gathering for this week’s meeting of the Asean foreign ministers and their counterparts from Asean partner countries in the Asean Regional Forum.Foreigners are not supposed to meddle in the domestic affairs of the country. So visitors are welcome to see the scenic sights, have a taste of the Manila nightlife and shoot the breeze with local activists. But standing at picket lines and marching in the streets are a no-no. That’s foreign intervention. And no comparison should be made with American soldiers helping track down Abu Sayyaf fighters. They are here with the express blessing of the government.
We ourselves are at times bemused by the sight of these scruffy do-gooders from the First World who travel thousands of miles to join the fight against injustice and oppression. Can’t they do battle against bigotry and prejudice, to name just one issue that is currently besetting advanced European countries, right in their own backyard?
Perhaps they see themselves as the contemporary incarnation of the volunteers of the International Brigade who fought against Franco’s barbarians in the Spanish civil war. The literary types, it seems, continue to draw inspiration from Christopher St. John Sprigg aka Christopher Caudwell, who was last seen manning a machine gun on the bank of the Jarama river.
But misplaced the idealism of these foreign activists may be, they personify humanity’s deepest longing for a better world, a longing that transcends national boundaries. Only the narrow-minded of the likes of Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan and national security adviser Norberto Gonzales would see these fine young men and women as troublemakers if not outright threats to the security of the Republic.
Very likely, Libanan and Gonzales do not see the irony of throwing out visitors who want their voices heard in the coming deliberations on the Asean Charter, considered the most important document to be tackled by the regional group since the Asean founding declaration in 1967.
The Asean Charter seeks to provide the framework for regional cooperation in the 21st century. It seeks to ground relations among the 10 members on codified principles, on bedrock rules that would bind autocratic but economically advanced Singapore, Western-style democratic but economically middling Philippines and political and economic basket case Burma.
Among the more ticklish provisions of the proposed charter is the enshrinement of respect for human rights. We would like to believe the Philippines, with its long history of liberalism and democracy, however flawed, is in the forefront of efforts to press for the adoption of the draft provision which calls for "respect of fundamental freedoms, the promotion and protection of human rights and the promotion of social justice."
But the way Libanan and Gonzales are threatening foreign activists, they probably feel more comfortable aligning themselves with the thugs who rule Burma.
