Humiliated

This is an episode of humiliation for us all.

Last Tuesday, Malaysian security forces began what appears to be a final assault on the Filipino “intruders” around Lahad Datu. Fighter jets bomb the Tausug fighters. From the looks of it, the objective here is to slaughter Filipinos like rats.

The offensive began while our Foreign Secretary was in Kuala Lumpur pleading for restraint. His pleadings were obviously ignored.

Manila requested for one of our navy ships to enter Lahad Datu so that humanitarian assistance may be rendered to the Filipinos. In addition, Manila asks for a “safe corridor” for the non-combatants in the areas of combat. Kuala Lumpur has not granted either.

Having caused them so much trouble, the Malaysians now seem bent on humiliating us at every turn. By failing to adeptly manage this problem, we set ourselves up for humiliation.

Too much time had passed since the incident at Lahad Datu began. The Malaysian prime minister, facing a tough election battle, has been criticized for being soft with the troublemakers. The overpowering assault is, possibly, part of the effort to deflect that criticism.

The President’s men maintain that they have done everything to avert the violence now wildly unleashed. “Everything” is a relative term. By procrastinating in the early stages of this crisis, the options quickly narrowed. The best of very late efforts will very often amount to nothing.

The Palace maintains it was wrong for the Sultanate to assert its claim over Sabah by introducing an armed force. No one quarrels with that. The argument is whether or not our side acted promptly to contain the situation.

The Sultanate maintains its people crossed over to settle in land they own, not invade a foreign land. Considering their claim, and the poverty that pushed hundreds of thousands of Tausugs to cross the sea in quest of greener pastures, the decision might be understandable as well.

Early on, some creative strategy might have been devised to cajole the Sultan to order at least the few dozen armed men to return to Tawi-tawi. Instead, the Sultan was treated with so much disrespect.

The word from the Kiram household is that the first emissary the Palace sent was Ronald Llamas (although for days after that, Palace spokespersons were strangely maintaining they had not sent any emissary).

Being Valentine’s Day, Llamas was delayed waiting for his girlfriend. He made the Sultan wait. When he finally materialized at the Kiram home, he delivered the President’s message bluntly: Order the Sultanate’s men to return home or else.

The emissary did not inquire into the Sultan’s health and exchanged no pleasantries. There was no conversation on political options and certainly no assurance the matter of the historic claim remains an official concern. It seems he was in a hurry to leave to catch his date.

Things started off on the wrong foot. Nothing could happen right from there on. The Sultan was more than just offended.

When President Aquino, a week later, finally addressed the matter publicly, he threatened to file charges against the Sultan, brought up the questions raised about his succession to the throne, dwelt on the Sultan’s financial difficulties and suggested he was the stooge of some conspiracy. The Sultan was humiliated in full public view.

A more creative approach should have been to win the Sultan’s confidence, work out with him a face-saving formula that Malaysia might agree to and produced some political theater that enables Raja Muda’s force to withdraw without seeming to surrender. That can no longer happen now.

Diplomacy is ultimately the art of saving faces all around. That art has been absent so far in this episode. That absence will have truly tragic consequences.

Asset

While we may not reclaim Sabah, it might make sense to reclaim land to solve the serious space problem the City of Manila faces. At some point in the evolution of cities — as we see in Dubai, Singapore and Kansai — it makes economic sense. The high cost of reclamation is overshadowed by the much higher value of newly created urban space.

When a storm surge hit the Manila Bay area in 2011, it is remarkable that the Pasay stretch of Roxas Boulevard protected by the reclaimed land did not flood. That underscores the possibility that reclamation projects may be so expertly planned that they will help solve Manila’s flooding problem rather than aggravate it.

The reclamation projects along the Pasay and Parañaque segments of the bay will soon return the investments made in making new land assets. Rising in these areas is a new city promising to make the area the entertainment hub for the region.

There is another, even better designed, reclamation project on the drawing board. It will be to the north side of the CCP complex. Using the most advanced technologies in urban planning, the projected Solar City will begin by improving the city’s drainage system, pushing sewage discharge further out in the water. The high-end complex will center on a cruise ship facility which the country lacks at the moment. That complex will bring an additional 400,000 tourists to the country.

Solar City will be entirely powered by renewable energy. The reclamation phase will employ 20,000 workers. When fully operational, the facility will create 200,000 jobs in addition to providing spaces for the city government to relocate. It will represent the urban renewal Manila so direly needs and which cannot be done in the cramped spaces of the old city.

Those concerned about the urban blight that is Manila should look closely at the blueprints for this new project. It could be the key to Manila’s economic revival.