A mad, whirling world / Fred Lim replies

A historian 40 or 50 years from now will probably make sense of today’s world, spinning madly, shuddering in bewilderment and fear, not knowing where it’s headed, both the powerful and the weak unsure where the destiny of mankind lies. No sooner had America laid its imperial feet on Iraq than the world staggered from another direction – Asia. Where was God? A mysterious malediction, a disease called SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), struck in Southern China.

From there, SARS leaped like a giddy leprechaun.

Heedless of ideology, political systems, caste, race, color or religion, SARS devastated Hong Kong, then Singapore, spread like a fan, hit many more countries including North America, particularly Canada. American’s invasion of Iraq did not "shock" and did not "awe" as it promised, despite Baghdad’s breaking down like cardboard under a rain of US bombs. SARS did shock n’ awe and continues to do so. Hundreds have already died. Many thousands have been stricken.

The medical and scientific worlds are aghast. SARS came not only like a thief in the night, but an invisible goblin berserk with gooey bacteria in hand to kill and destroy. Unless it is stalled, stopped or rid of its poison, SARS will kill hundreds more, thousands more, who knows millions more, a pandemic waiting to take wing.

But SARS must be understood within the wider context of a world breaking up. Why SARS came at this particular time is one of the mysteries that prophets are called upon to prognosticate or ponder. And historians to depict and analyze generations after. SARS came at a time America, the greatest power the world has ever known, had just conquered Iraq. It was just counting the days to officially proclaim its victory. America needed a recalcitrant Iraq to demonstrate its awesome military power and pin down the likes of France and Germany, which had stridently positioned themselves diplomatically against the American juggernaut. France and Germany were just flicked aside like, in the words of H.L. Mencken, musca domestica.

The United Nations Security Council followed the spoor taken by the post-World War I League of Nations. All America did was push the tapioca-sized rebel head of Secretary General Kofi Annan into the water, and pffft – he did not struggle anymore. And yet, we all knew, we all realized this was a different America. The torch had gone from the Statue of Liberty, the bell from Philadelphia, the magic of democracy from its Constitution and the Federalist papers. The benevolent smile of Uncle Sam had gone. And now we were looking at the taciturn visage of President George W. Bush, spitting words like bullets and short sentences like bazooka blasts.

America was looking for a country to punch slug-silly after September 11, 2001 and a tinpot dictator to knock his teeth in. Iraq, top of the triad in Bush’s Axis of Evil, was just dandy. The hirsute mug of Saddam Hussein was even dandier. Both Saddam and his Ba’ath regime were demolished faster than the first octave of the Star Spangled Banner.

But then how long will the American imperium last?

Over in Asia, different cultures, different civilizations, have refused to cower before the bomb-clutching American eagle. Will they too be brought down like Iraq? North Korea, now reportedly armed with several nuclear missiles, is spoiling for a fight. Will America oblige? If it does, will all of Asia just remain silent? Or will China, South Korea and Japan react? How about India? Take it from me, this hombre George W. Bush will not hesitate to wipe North Korea from the face of the earth, and ground the pompadour of Kim Jong-il into the mud swamp.

If we started with SARS, it was precisely to dramatize the international crisis today. In the case of SARS, we all hang together or separately. In the case of an aroused and angry America, the rest of the world stands no chance of winning in military combat. See what one single event can do? The terror swoop of 9/11 Twin Towers and the Pentagon transformed America overnight from what many called a gentle giant into a colossal, arrogant glowering bully.

And so there we are.

In the twinkle of an eye, the luster of globalization has virtually vanished. And so have the Brave New World sought by the Philosopher’s Stone, the One World Wendell Wilkie intoned with such poignant idealism in the early 30s. This is a Hobbesian world. Looming over us is Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, the fight of all against all. John Locke, ever confident humanity would take the right track, now peeps from the bushes, his "Social Contract" limply in hand. A tear rolling down his cheek.

Or maybe, it’s not really as bad and gloomy as we think.

SARS will be brought to heel as previous epidemics have been brought to heel – malaria, influenza, tuberculosis and all that which in their time killed millions. Either America clicks its heels in reverse as a superpower, realizes it has gone too far, returns to the community of nations. And if it doesn’t, it will suffer the fate of all empires. It will gradually disintegrate and get drunk and goofy from within, then collapse as all the great imperial powers that ever trod the face of the earth collapsed.

It is not as the Roman gladiator said: Te moritori salutamus. We who are about to die salute thee. No, the world will go on and on.

* * *

After a few line squawks which rendered telephone conversation impossible, the voice on the other end kept repeating his name, and then I got it: "Teddy, this is Fred Lim." Yes, it was the former Manila mayor all right, former NBI chief, former super policeman virtually pouring out his reaction to my column Wednesday on how drugs were wreaking havoc on our country. "It’s true what you said, Teddy, everything is true. Drugs are all over, and it’s all because of greed. There’s a lot of money in narcotics, but it can be stopped." How? Fred Lim said all it needed was a "few good men" and "Malacañang should field them without much delay".

I snorted, "Malacañang?" A few good men in Malacañang?

"For all I know, Fred," I riposted, "there could be some drug lords in Malacañang masquerading as high-flying members of the cabinet, directors of government agencies, or presidential advisers. Yes, I agree, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should on the instant go after narcotics lords and criminals. But can she? Will she? It’s too big a job for her." I should have added GMA was pampering the police, accused by Mary "Rosebud" Ong as up to their necks in the drug traffic. And remember she mentioned Sen. Panfilo Lacson during the Senate hearings as top man on the narcotics totem pole when he was PNP chief. And so did Col. Victor Corpuz, director of ISAFP (Intelligence Service, Armed Forces of the Philippines).

"It’s the money," Fred stated. "Big money. Apparently it’s very hard to resist this kind of money. But let’s not give up. There should be one or two brave, honest and intrepid Filipinos who can do the job. We must not give up. We cannot give up. As for me, I haven’t given up trying but I hope to be back on active duty one day and go after those drug lords and pushers. I have some ideas, plans, but this is not the time to reveal them. And please do not call me a hero for what I did when I went after them as Manila mayor, I was just doing my job."

"Let’s all do our jobs," I cut in, "we in media who were on the forefront are still there, and we do expect, Fred, that you will be back in harness. The nation needs you very badly, there’s nobody now in the government really cracking down on drugs, and all we see is a lot of operetta. Palabas. Not a single bigtime drug lord has been caught and jailed, not any prominent drug protector in or out of the government."

When a year ago President GMA declared "total war" on crime, she omitted to mention the most hideous criminals preying on the Filipino people today – the drug lords. Maybe it’s not too late. It’s still more than a year to the 2004 elections, enough time to set up a powerful dragnet and get them. This time, she can have all the photo-ops she wants. And everybody will cheer. Get them, Mrs. President, for all you know, you’ll not only be getting kudos from the citizenry but a deafening clamor for you to run in 2004.

Get them, we said. Get at least three to five of the biggest names in the drug racket, including perhaps a prominent politician, a police general – and, Gloria baby, you can write out our ticket.

Better still, why not issue an Executive Order posthaste, assigning Fred Lim as your drug czar. We need to clean up this country, and the first thing we should do is sweep out the narcotics vampires who suck the blood of your youth and leave us no future except millions of crosses in the cemetery reeking with the stench of shabu.