Choosing leaders; a new approach to South China Sea conflict

Recently there was a debate among opposition/reformers on how to take on those who had supported Benigno Aquino III for president in the May 2010 elections but who now regret it.

Personally, I do not think there should be any question that persons have a right to change their minds and should be welcomed to join the protest movement. My take on the issue is more on drawing lessons from the change of mind.

The statement of support for the protest is prefaced by the corruption in the past administration for which reason the letter-writer said he supported P-Noy in May 2010 because he is not “corrupt.” “I follow only the command of my conscience, and my conscience tells me to vote for Noynoy Aquino” he wrote in April 2010. 

It is my position and position alone that urges me to say that this was not an intelligent decision and a case can be made that it was the reason for the economic and political debacle in the country today. It was an error in judgment.

The choice of a leader without any qualifications or track record to run a country of more than a hundred million people based on that assumption is foolhardy not especially now that we know how the Smartmatic-PCOs operated in 2010. By all means let’s respect his change of mind but I would be careful about promoting the reason why he supported President Aquino in 2010 and joined the necromania of that election. By all means sympathize with those who have lost their loved ones but it is a different thing to base the election of a leader on death alone. It has happened to us twice and I think it is time that we discourage this kind of thinking.

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It was appropriate that Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii pushed for the Filipino Veterans Fairness Act on June 12. It was a fitting act as we celebrated our independence that never was.  Up to this day Schatz told his colleagues it is a crying shame that “Filipino soldiers do not get the same benefits given to other veterans who defended the United States during World War II.”

Indeed another ardent American legislator, Sen. Daniel Inouye died defending the right of Filipino veterans to those benefits. He came to the Philippines from time to time promising it will come through several American presidents. Schatz said only some benefits have been given and a Filipino veterans who live in the US are prioritized to Filipino veterans who live in the Philippines. It is unfair.

“Unfortunately, many Filipino veterans are in their 90s and passing away rapidly. It has been more than 50 years, and yet, many Filipino veterans have not been properly recognized for their service and have been denied their basic veterans’ rights. We must fix this wrong. It is critical that we pass this legislation to ensure that the Filipino soldiers who fought for our country -- and their families -- receive full benefits,” said Senator Schatz.

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It is in this light that our leaders should not be so avid and generous about sending Filipino soldiers to war yet again if war should break out between the United States and China. 

Of course, the reason will be advanced as it did in the last world war we were merely fighting for our own freedom anyway. 

And this is said with a straight face despite the fact that when we went to war against the Japanese we were still a colony of the US and our soldiers were fighting under American military officers. Filipino veterans were killed defending the US. Freedom came as an afterthought dominated by politicians forgetting the Filipino veterans who suffered and died in the war.

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We should craft policies on our own behalf, protect our sovereignty and defend our freedom the way other countries in the region comport themselves.

The Americans may be our allies but there are lessons from 50 years of colonization and the bloody wars for independence. This is the background that we must keep in mind as we craft an alternative approach to the South China Sea conflict.

On the other hand the Chinese have been our neighbors even before Magellan stepped on our land. We traded with the Chinese and many of us have Chinese ancestors. There was no conquest. It is an alliance with far deeper roots. That does not mean that we have to abandon our claim to the Spratly islands.

It is not going to be easy to straddle between the two superpowers but it can be done as other countries in the region already have. We need an alternative approach other than calling on the US to defend us if war broke out. Indeed, we should do our very best to avoid a war precisely because we are not capable of fighting a war.

The last time we went to war with the US against the Japanese in World War II, Manila was second only to Warsaw as the most destroyed cities of that war. The infrastructure of hundreds of years and the beauty of what was once known as the Pearl of the Orient became the battlefield on which both Americans and Japanese fought savagely. 

We should stop seeking reassurance from the US that “Washington should come to our defense in a confrontation with China.” In any case the US has already said categorically that it will not go to war in a territorial conflict between the Philippines and China.

 Other avenues have to be explored to open negotiations with the same attitude that Deng Xiaoping tried to promote. He said repeatedly “let us shelve the issue of ownership and leave it to the next generation while we discuss how best to develop and make use of whatever riches the South China Sea holds for all of us. “

I am told that the Vietnamese too are seeking new approaches other than following Philippine belligerence against China. It, too is now seeking avenues for dialogue and cooperation on differences with China. They realize that the care of the sea is more fundamental than ownership conflicts otherwise there will be nothing to fight about pretty soon.

Ambassador Alberto Encomienda who has studied maritime governance has put together a paper on a “new policy, research and teaching centre for the South/East Asian region to address the technical aspects of “ocean governance and the significant and important concerns relating to the orderly care and management of the seas in maritime Asia “. We can start with that.