Pay more taxes? Only if government biggies waste less money

While this writer was away covering Indonesia and Singapore, it seems, the result of a poll survey was published "revealing" that Filipino didn’t want any new taxes. That was the most useless survey question ever asked. Of course, nobody wants to pay more taxes.

Citizens want to pay more taxes even less when they see their tax contributions being squandered by government officials with outlandish paychecks and perks, or dumped into financially hemmoraghing government-run institutions.

Even the President’s appeal to the nation’s top 50,000 taxpayers and institutions to donate an extra P1 million each smacks less of gentle persuasion than sugar-coated extortion. Of course, our country is broke. The fiscal deficit and our debts are horrendous. This means we must get our house in order set our priorities straight, do away with our ruinous giveaway over-populist practices and stop squabbling.

One fact is clear: you cannot keep on giving away candy at the candy store without running out of candy. This is what has happened – and our legislators still can’t get it. Why? Because the candy has been going to them and their friends and favorites.

As for the President, it is within her power if she has the political will to put a cap on those non-stop overseas junkets by her Executive Branch officials. Every government official, after all, has to get clearance for a foreign trip from Malacañang. The Chief Executive can begin by restricting the size of her own official parties. Her stripped-down expedition to Beijing still looked not just like a political caravan, but a family outing. There’s nothing more convincing than the power of example.

It is not easy to build a strong republic. However, it must begin with a demonstration of strength of character in its leadership. Speeches are cheap rhetoric. It’s in the doing that a nation advances towards its goals.

At the site of the last stand of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae in 480 B.C., led by Leonidas, against the invading Persian horde, stands a statue of a warrior, on whose base is inscribed the famous line of Simonides. "Go, tell the Spartans, oh yes passerby, that here in fulfillment of their command we lie."

They fought to the last man. We are being asked to do much less.

* * *

Tomorrow, 155 million Indonesians will go to the polls to cast their ballots to choose the next President of their country. This is a runoff battle between two sole contenders: incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri who’s running for re-election, and her challenger, retired four-star General and former Minister of Internal Security Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, better known on the campaign trail as "SBY".

The voting will take place between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. at 574,945 ballot stations, and will be secured by 230,000 police officers or two-thirds of the nation’s police force. (The General Elections Commission has printed 154.1 million ballots.)

It’s dangerous, of course, to make any predictions, but with Bambang running 30 percent ahead in the last poll surveys, Indonesia may have a new President at the close of the counting. This run-off election is the conclusion of a seven-months-long campaign in which two other contenders, former armed forces chief Gen. Wiranto, and former Speaker of the upper house Amien Rais fell by the wayside.

What SBY has going for him in his "Mr. Clean" image in a nation in which chronic corruption is one of the biggest issues, his laid-back lack of confrontation – a trait prized by the Javanese majority – and his outspoken position against terrorism (a question around which his rivals timidly skirted for fear of provoking the more fundamentalist Muslim voters). In the wake of last week’s bombing of the frontage of the Australian Embassy on Jlan Rasuna Said in which nine Indonesians were killed and 180 wounded, again mostly Indonesians, SBY’s position has been strengthened as a former military man who’s pledged to beef up security agencies in their fight against terrorists.

The Jakarta bombing may prove a watershed in which Indonesian Muslims, previously reluctant to condemn terrorist attacks, are now speaking out.

After the Bali bombing in which 202 died, there was even talk that it was an American or even an Israel plot to frame Muslims – now, this is true no longer.

Jakarta TV stations (mind you, there are 21 TV networks today all over Indonesia – a defining factor) were besieged with calls and SMS (text) messages calling on Muslims not to defend the bombing. A typical comment was: "Muslims in this country should not protest if the perpetrators are found to have indeed been Muslims."

In the popular Tempo Magazine, Ullil Abshar Abdalla of the Liberal Islam Network declared: "I regret that Muslim leaders are fearful when certain groups of Muslims are identified as the perpetrators of terrorist acts as if this would tarnish the name of Islam."

"Why are they so afraid? It will do lot of good if leaders are open about criticizing their own community, instead of being defensive."

* * *

In the meantime, in a television dialogue with her challenger, President Megawatti Sukarnoputri – who's been staging a last-minute rally with surprising vigor (too late?) – asserted that Indonesia is "safe" but there is no way to pre-empt a terrorist attack.

"We are on red alert status, but we are practically safe because there was no disruption of our trade and market after the blast," she insisted.

During the TV debate, though, while she looked more confident than she did in her last TV appearance against Amien Rais in June, Ibu Mega still had to be "rescued" by her runningmate, Hasyim Muzadi, in the course of the 45-minute give-and-take. Notoriously media-shy, she had to ask the four-member panel to repeat their questions several times, and even then sometimes "missed the point".

In her three years as President, I guess, Sukarno’s daughter never measured up to the eloquence and savvy of her great but volatile father, the grand old Bung, who decreed that on his tombstone should be written: Here lies the Tongue of the Indonesian People. Mega was simply tongue-tied.

I met SBY in the Jakarta Hilton at his birthday party. He reminded me of Raul Roco, if you want to know, with a relaxed manner – too relaxed, in my book, for a candidate, but I suppose – to harken back to this trait – that’s the Javanese style. He didn’t act like a candidate, not even bothering to work the room to handshake.

He assured us that he would respect democratic norms and civilian authority, reminding us that when he was security minister, all actions he took in rebellious Aceh and in Irian (Papua) were based on law." In short, he promised not to be "a general" in his outlook and actions.

Then his handlers did a strange thing. They announced that all the TV and newspaper reporters should "now leave the room." This injunction didn’t include us, of course, but what a way for a candidate’s men to treat the media! Oh, well. They sometimes do things differently in Indonesia.

* * *

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto C. Romulo (not to be confused with his totally different cousin, "Triple R" Robert R. Romulo) delivered a great speech defining our foreign policy at the Diplomatic Night dinner of the Manila Overseas Press Club in the Westin. (We’re publishing it elsewhere in this newspaper).

During the open forum, our DFA Secretary demonstrated his accurate grasp of facts and figures – and his complete amiability. This is Bert’s quality which disarms everybody, and he’ll have much use for it in the next few months.

Secretary Romulo is leaving today for New York, where he’ll meet with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and his counterparts in the UN as well as sit with the UN Security Council in which we’re a member for the next two years.

Bert knows one of the tough jobs he’ll have to undertake is to smooth over irritations between our country and the United States, mainly over our abandoning of the "coalition" in Iraq. He’s the best man for the job – brilliant yet self-effacing, a gentleman at all times.

* * *

It is inescapable, when speaking of diplomats, to lapse into humor. This is because, throughout history, there have been countless jokes about diplomats and envoys, most of them spun by themselves.

Even Robert Frost, the American post laureate, had a wry comment: "A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman’s birthday but never remembers her age." (1875-1938).

England’s dour and often cruel Lord Protector, the man who hanged a king, Oliver Cromwell, was more sanguine: "A man-of-war (battleship) is the best ambassador."

Peter Ustinov, the late British author, sometime actor, and wit sniffed: "A diplomat those days is nothing but a headwaiter who‘s allowed to sit down occasionally." (b. 1921)

"If you are to stand up for your Government," said Sir Harold (later Lord) Caccia, in 1905 while British Ambassador to Washington, "you must be able to stand up to your Government." (I don’t know about Lord Harold’s clout at home, but envoys who stand up to their Government usually get re-assigned to Baghdad these days.)

Direct to the point was the American poet and illustrator, Oliver Herford (1865-1955). He quipped, "Diplomacy: lying in state." Ergo, "American diplomacy" would be "lying by the State Department"?

I think Isaac Goldberg (1887-1938), the American critic, said it best: "Diplomacy is to do and say, the nastiest things in the nicest way."

Alberto G. Romulo has, throughout his career, been always nice and never nasty. Diplomats in its cynical sense may not be his strong suit, but his earnestness, patriotism, and sense of delicadeza and decorum will ensure his success is that land-mine- strewn landscape which we call the Diplomatic Field. ("Decorum" meaning, as in dulce est decorum eat pro patria mori – but this time, Bert Romulo, will live for his country.)

The President, when she returned from China, described Bert Romulo as a man handpicked for his virtues, who’s being sent out to "fix" our foreign policy in the light of new realities: she hinted at our somewhat altered relationship with our "traditional ally", the United States of America – which I would describe as much worse than merely strained – and our new intimacy with the giant neighboring presence of the People’s Republic of China, the fastest-growing economy in the region.

A Doctor of Laws sobresaliente from Madrid, former Senator of our Republic, a minister who previously held three important Cabinet Portfolios, such as Budget Management, Finance, and that of "Little President," i.e. Executive Secretary, and most of all a gentleman of the gravitas and probity of the Old School, Romulo – I’m certain – will do us proud in his new and vital assignment.