In the UK, where I lived for many years, Asian meant, those who come from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh. The Japanese were Japanese and the Chinese were Chinese and Filipinos were Filipinos, not Asians. The British natives would laugh into your face if you told them that the Japanese, Chinese or Filipinos are all Asians ie belonging to the continent of Asia. Some work needs to be done in that part of the world to correct the impression that the only Asians are those who come from the Indian subcontinent.
To be fair, it is not only ordinary British who are unable to comprehend the collective idea of Asians as belonging to this part of the world. As a Filipino, I also had a limited notion of my Asian-ness. My education and upbringing in a convent school did not cultivate an awareness of Asia, the region to which I, as a Filipino, belonged. It was only much later, as an adult that I began to be conscious I was not just Filipino but also Asian and that meant a lot to me. That consciousness began when I traveled around Asia — China, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar — At the same time a post-colonial Asia was emerging to create an environment to make it possible for Asians like me to look to the region as the wellspring of identity.
That same search for a wider identity may have prompted our national hero to annotate the book Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas by Antonio de Morga. It is an account of events in the Philippines and originally published in 1609. Feeling rejected by Spain, the colonizing country, Rizal sought refuge in a time before the Spaniards came and found it in ‘Sucesos’. Dr. Jose Rizal wrote that if the annotated book “succeeds to awaken your consciousness of our past, already effaced from your memory, and to rectify what has been falsified and slandered, then I have not worked in vain, and with this as a basis, however small it may be, we shall be able to study the future. Rizal offered the annotated Sucesos to generations of Filipinos with the wise counsel that “to foretell the destiny of a nation, it is necessary to open the books that tell of her past.”
In a few days, ASEAN foreign ministers will meet in Manila with representatives from some 27 countries both ASEAN and non-ASEAN. It will be a good occasion for Asians, particularly Filipinos to rekindle that desire pursued by Rizal to look to the past as the anchor of our identity. Ironically that past of belonging to Asia is also our future. Filipinos were first Asians before we became ‘Filipinos’. We were part of the trading routes which brought the peoples of Asia in touch with each other long before the West discovered the continent. We need to connect with that pre-colonial past together with other Asians if we are to achieve the aspirations for a great Asian society.
That is best done through people to people contacts and mundane acts of work and travel. Making travel easier and cheaper in Asia may be the best boost yet for this rediscovery. At the same time it should be part of the formal agenda of governments when they meet as ASEAN. The ASEAN foreign ministers are expected to discuss the progress of efforts towards community building as well as the progress in security economic and socio-cultural concerns.
The Philippines, as current chairman of the ASEAN Standing Committee will lead the talks to follow up on the initiatives at the Cebu Summit. The 10 ASEAN members are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
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The democratization of Myanmar, considered a thorn in ASEAN, will once again be discussed. But there have been notable changes that should be borne in mind. In the past few days its military government has made clear signals that it is making progress. However slow that may seem to outsiders, changes leading to a more open society are happening. Just how quickly that progress will be is anyone’s guess but it is happening and outsiders should help push it along. Political activists in Myanmar themselves have changed their own policy of promoting sanctions. If tourists and foreign investors avoid Myanmar, it is the people who will hurt.
They want more tourists and freer commerce to help them in their journey for an open society for Myanmar.
Ibrahim Gambari, a special adviser to the United Nations secretary-general, who visited Myanmar was allowed by Myanmar’s military junta rare meetings with National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Recently the military government freed four more activists who were detained after holding prayer vigils. It also released a statement that “it wanted to work with other countries including the United States, which imposed sanctions over the detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.”
“We are ready to cooperate with the international community for the benefit of the two countries as well as for the region. That includes not only the US, but also other countries,” Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan told the press in a recent interview. He made the statement after talks were held with the US in Beijing.
Kyaw Hsan, the junta’s information minister, foreign minister Nyan Win and culture minister Khin Aung Myint met with an American team led by deputy US assistant secretary of state Eric John. The meeting was significant because it took place in Beijing and were arranged by the Chinese. A Washington Post article had a guarded assessment of the talks. “While these talks are unlikely to be productive, after years of nothing on Burma, perhaps they will be the beginning of a process in which China can play a role similar to that in North Korea,” the article said.
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