Special friendship

US government’s concern that President GMA is out to extend her term through failure of election is well taken but it is one point of view. Let me say at once this is also the view of critics and oppositionists in the Philippines who wanted President GMA ousted in 2005.

It is a view from the American perspective.

W. Scott Thompson, former official of the US State Department said in an interview with opposition television in the Philippines that “the US government is keeping its ears on how the May elections will be conducted.”

He added “there are consequences if the process or outcome of the elections is tainted.” But who is to decide if and when the process or the election is tainted?

Is that a warning from a former colonial master that wants to dictate the politics of our country? It would seem so. Official America will see what it wants to see. This is not the way two sovereign countries should speak especially if one is a superpower and the other a weak former colony struggling to find its place in the community of nations.

More equal relations between US and the Philippines in the spirit of a special friendship must be two-way. Thompson’s statements in ANC is that the US is worried about its interests if there is failure of election.

Former US Ambassador Kenney was also criticized. He said the new Ambassador, Harry Thomas Jr. and other Washington officials are more aware of the political situation than she had been. That remains to be seen. US concern about the May elections, he said was prompted by what has happened to Thailand.

“The immediate reason is what’s happening in Thailand,” Thompson said. “That is making the Philippines 10 times as important. Thailand was a very secure, calm ally. Now it is going to pieces.”

It is silent about Filipinos who want authentic and free elections just as badly but the US has no inclination to listen to Filipino suggestions that “it will not happen in the present presidential system with a social and economic structure that was imposed on us when we were granted our independence. Formal colonial relations may have ended but its effects continue and the US must share the blame.

W. Scott Thompson was not asked why he was not worried about all the talk on ‘failure of election’. There is another side to it. It is also possible as a convenient excuse for more blatant intervention if its favored opposition candidate loses in the election.

It is said that Washington has changed it mind. It is now listening after the unsatisfactory reports of former US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney “painted an overly optimistic picture of the Philippines.” There was no comment about her undiplomatic behavior pushing for elections at the time when the debate on constitutional reform was going on and Congress was poised to vote for a constitutional convention. She appeared on ANC calling on Filipinos to vote wisely and freely that effectively foreclosed debate on constitutional reforms. Election for whom? For somebody like Noynoy?

Some Filipinos are committed to their country’s well-being and self-determination as they are to orderly and fair elections. They ask if it can happen under the present system but Washington is not listening.

There is an implicit regard that Filipinos are not able to run their country. It is manifest destiny all over again. If we are to be truly free and independent we must be able to balance America’s interests in the region and our self-determination. Filipino-American relations should be about conversations, not threats or warnings.

Mr. Thompson’s warning to President GMA is uncalled for. He said “Washington has made clear now to the Arroyo administration that it is committed to a fair, orderly election process. If that doesn’t happen, then there are consequences”. It is a warning without regard for facts on the ground that contribute to the worry – among them the short lead time for automated elections, power shortages and a generally ignorant electorate.  

Even if is said that “various elements” are in place to make it possible for President GMA to continue as interim president such as her appointment of Supreme Court justices, the [PMA] Class of ’78 (Philippine military) etc. Possibility is distinct from fact. The accusation is a possibility not a fact. More important to Filipinos’ interest is if failure of election were to happen will she as president of the Philippines be able to take the necessary steps to avoid chaos? Or should we just descend into chaos so she is not accused of manipulating the failure to extend her term?

More ominous about the warning is his statement that historically, “the power relationship is always played out in the bigger country’s capital, in this case Washington, not here (in Manila),” What could be more explicit than that?

*      *      *

In the same interview, Thompson praised US Ambassador Harry K. Thomas because he has the ears of officials in Washington and has already sent the message on failure-of-election scenarios.

It was heartwarming to know that the new ambassador’s father was here after World War II and had pleasant memories with the people of the Philippines.

For the kind of challenges the Obama administration faces in the Philippines, it would have been more helpful if the new ambassador’s father had been here earlier, when African American soldiers sent to fight against Filipinos in the Philippine war of independence defected from their army and fought instead on the side of Philippine rebels. After all, what Filipinos were fighting for was what they were fighting for at home when African Americans were oppressed.

Official America came to the Philippines to pursue what some political writers have called manifest destiny through a policy of “benevolent assimilation”. Ironically, that benevolence led to the death of 4,234 soldiers killed and 3,000 wounded.

American anti-imperialists denounced sending troops halfway across the world for conquest as inconsistent with its political ideas and ideals. But that was not good enough. Missing from that outrage was concern for Filipinos and for their side to be heard. In that benevolent mission approximately 250,000 to 1.4 million Filipinos died defending their country’s right to self-determination after a hard-fought independence from Spain.

If there are Filipinos today who resent American meddling in our politics, it is because of this deeply rooted memory of its treachery. It should not be brushed aside no matter if it is cloaked in concern for “democracy”.