Delicate balancing

President GMA faces what can be her toughest challenge yet: how to protect the presidency as an institution at the same time that she avoids the pitfalls of authoritarianism. That requires delicate balancing between democratic rule and a firm hand. It is an ability to be patient but always with readiness to strike when it is called for. Many agree that the conspiracy against President GMA and the state, has been going on for too long and something more forceful was needed to deal with it. Indeed the would-be rebels who claim they are for democracy and freedom gave the GMA administration no choice but to declare the state of emergency.

If she survives the challenge, I am afraid, perhaps to the chagrin of many, "the little girl" rejected by the late Cardinal Sin in 1998 as "so small and fragile she will be laughed down by macho generals." We needed, he said, someone tougher, taller perhaps, someone to be feared, not laughed at. Well, Cardinal Sin was wrong. President GMA is tougher, small girl that she is, than most who have offered leadership of this fractious nation. She will need all the help to maneuver the ship of state through dangerous shoals to reach the shore. That is the best route for those of us who are confused by the sudden turn of events but care for the well-being of our country.

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The irony of the state of emergency being proclaimed on the day we might have celebrated the 20th anniversary of the EDSA peaceful people power revolution cannot have escaped many. I, for one, was quite eager to attend this year’s celebration, having been newly appointed to the EDSA People Power Commission, a position I thought I merited after 20 years of exile in the struggle against the Marcoses.

But life is about choices. The choice had to be made between celebrating a past no matter how glorious and protecting the state presently under siege. Here, too was the tension between past and present.

Cory may have been the heroine of 20 years ago but yesterday I am afraid she was pathetically out of sync trying to relive EDSA in 1986. I was amused at how she answered a CNN reporter on why she thought President GMA should resign. "Because, there are so many protests" she said, unembarrassed that she had been leading the protests. If that was the basis for making an elected president resign then we might as well fold up, stop pretending we are a nation in the 21st century. Instead we should live in tents and indulge in tribal warfare every full moon. Frankly, I do not think Cory fully understood what she said. Having been the heroine of EDSA 20 years ago can be sadly blinding.

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It is good to hear that the Partido Demokratiko-Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP) has put the party solidly behind charter change as part of thorough-going reform agenda.

Former Jesuit head Romeo J. Intengan whom we knew from days of our exile in Europe said "Charter change should be complementary to a thorough-going reform agenda that makes our politics clean and useful for the common good and nation building, an economy that allows each Filipino to be gainfully employed and to live at least in frugal comfort, and a culture that reflects and encourages the recovery of moral values." Intengan is a founding leader of the Partido Demokratiko-Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP) which has long been calling for a shift to a parliamentary system of government. He exhorted those who favor charter change to explain the need for it. "It is for the good of the nation and this they must explain to the people whose approval they seek for the draft Constitution," he added.

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LETTERS: Bobby Tordesillas< [email protected]> I hope President Aquino still remembers what she said when someone (I don’t remember if it is Enrile or Laurel) kept pesting her and wanted her to resign? She said in one of her speeches, "Parang silang langaw na dapat pitikin or something to that effect."

Well it appears that she has now become what she had abhorred before. Instead of helping GMA lead the nation to economic prosperity, she has become a counter force.

I have the highest respect for Pres. Aquino, and I am praying that she finally realized that she is just being used by those who are only hungry for power and not for the truth and those who are only thinking of their own business interests and not of the country.

Miguel Buencamino [email protected] from Saudi Arabia said: I feel sad for our country watching ANC as news unfolds from the events yesterday. What I’ve seen on my screen are the uncivil sector of our society marching and calling for president Gloria Macapagal to resign. I think the president had done the right thing.

Some of my Muslim friends wonder why there has not been a more forceful objection against the cartoons that mocked the prophet Muhammad (pbuh). They say that Saudis as the royal custodians of the Holy Mosques could have done more given the indignation and anger felt by millions of Muslims all over the world." The voice from the seat of faith is so feeble that some Muslims feel so hopeless," they said. They add that the hopelessness comes from Muslims in poorer countries, among them, Pakistan and Indonesia. Critics say that the cartoons were insulting, blasphemous, and intended to humiliate a marginalized minority.

There is however, still another analysis of the cartoon controversy and a very different one. After all, they say there have been other unflattering depictions of Mohammad (PBUH) in Christian churches in Europe. Why such a strong reaction now?

Curiously, they cite that the recent tragedy which killed hundreds of pilgrims may have sparked it. According to this analysis the most recent Hajj tragedy happened almost at the same time as the "outrage" over the Danish cartoons began in earnest. Hajj tragedies are not unavoidable accidents, they were the results of poor planning by the Saudi government, they said. The pilgrims’ deaths were hardly covered in western media but it was a big story in the Muslim world especially in Muslim countries where the Hajj is a very big story. According to them the cartoon controversy may have been used to cover up the growing discontent with the way the Hajj was being handled by the Saudi government. The 350 pilgrims were killed on January 12 almost at the same time that the cartoon controversy broke out. Saudi newspapers ran up to 4 articles per day condemning the Danish cartoons and the Saudi government asked for a formal apology from Denmark. When that was not forthcoming, they began calling for world-wide protests. So it is not a lack of action on Saudi’s part but for what reason it did.

Whatever the reason, it emphasizes that Muslim societies are in flux and under severe pressure to modernize. There is no single explanation for issues like the cartoons controversy.

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My e-mail is [email protected]