Not anymore

It really makes a lot of difference when something is brought to the world’s attention. This is what several members of ASEAN, led by the Philippines, wants in resolving disputes concerning several islands in the West Philippine Sea. What China wants is to deal with these complaining countries, even ASEAN as a whole – as it has Cambodia in its corner – on a direct basis, thus making it easier to intimidate and even threaten, with the use of economic factors, a particular country. Honestly, it is on the Philippines that has the balls to bring this whole issue to bear, with the other countries merely following suit! President Aquino has shown this by publicly rebuking Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen when he made a statement saying that ASEAN leaders had agreed not to internationalize the disputes, and that direct negotiations between China and the bloc or individual countries would just take place. How presumptuous indeed!

It’s a good thing President Aquino, notwithstanding being under the weather, made a stand against a sweeping statement like that! That act gave courage to other countries with similar disputes with China to eventually stand up and support the move to bring the disputes to an international forum or body. President Aquino went on further to hit what he called ‘coercive economic diplomacy’ or the use of economic pressure against countries it has disputes with. The bananas come into mind, when it so happened that while our ships were facing that of the Chinese, Philippine bananas were allowed to rot in Chinese storage facilities, citing quarantine reasons. Right. What’s next, mangoes?

With President Barack Obama joining the meeting of east Asian nations, hopefully more pressure will be placed on China to accept international arbitration regarding the disputed islands. I cannot help but think that the reason why China is avoiding such a scenario is because their reasoning is so self-serving, and not based on international law, but on who has the bigger military! A lot easier to quietly bully individual countries, than to bully them in front of the whole world.

I only hope that President Barack Obama’s attending the meeting is not just for show, but an indication as to their concern for the situation in the West Philippine Sea. They can say they are neutral and not taking sides, but just as Cambodia is China’s ally, we are an ally of the US. No country should be able to just say that they own everything, without presenting acceptable evidence. No country, in this day and age, especially after the events of the last two decades, should be able to just claim land for their own. No matter how powerful they perceive themselves to be. No country should be allowed to be the neighborhood bully anymore. Not anymore.