The few against the many; Strengthening Filipino-Chinese friendship

As expected the Supreme Court criminalized libel with harsher penalties when committed in the Internet. In other words libel in cyberspace would be punished more severely than it would if committed in other medium. It will be remembered that a ruckus was already raised last year when it was first brought to court by legislators. A TRO was imposed on the bill known as RA 10175 but it was a temporary reprieve.

I joined the many protests that were raised then. All around me were young activists and they had a comradeship I had not seen in previous hakot crowds. This was different and I was glad to be standing up as a senior citizen among the young. It was an awakening. It will be a long war, but I think a tactical mistake by the Aquino government. The protests online and offline have the potential to excite both young and old, rich or poor as long as you are hooked to the Internet.

*      *      *

It is not the libel that was being attacked by this law but the power of social media. Social media was born of modern technology to strengthen and empower ordinary individuals to have wider access to the public. It would have been impossible in pre-computer era. Media was a monopoly of the rich and powerful, those who owned media.

Technology has changed all that. Internet democratized media that surprised even those who created it. Facebook that began as campus communication can now bring groups and individuals together by the millions around the world. In the Philippines, it is believed that there are more than a third of the population, or at least 30 million users. That angers the few who hold power and wealth. It is not only in the Philippines but in any society where the privileged feel threatened by the underprivileged. It is a victory for the many in the classic struggle between the few and the many.

When speaking in a Tedx program, defeated presidential candidate Gilberto Teodoro then said that “Social media is about empowering the individual. It is no longer true that an individual’s opinion cannot matter in big affairs of state, or even of the world. It can matter and it is done through networking. Networking is an expertise that must frighten authority because it is the equivalent of massing crowds in protest. And more.”

Sen. Edgardo Angara, one of the authors of the bill explained his position then. “The penalties for cyber crime law are more severe because of its global reach.

“With one click, you can send it all over the world,” he said. In other words, he is blaming technology. If a crime is proved and then written about with whatever technology to communicate it remains the same crime punishable by the Revised Penal Code.” There you go.

The lawmakers don’t get it. To them the argument is against change and modernity. “Why was the penalty raised? The only rationale I can think of is that because of the novelty and swiftness, and the spread and reach of information and communication technology, it becomes an aggravating circumstance,” Angara said at a Senate news forum. Blame Mark Zuckenberg.

Today netizens are able to get a following far wider than they ever dreamed when there was no computer technology. The Internet is putting newspapers and television stations owned by the mega rich out of business. Netizens realize this empowerment and will fight for it. My advice to legislators: don’t even try to bottle it. The netizen without a newspaper or a television station will compete. It will do so with a computer and it has changed the world.

*      *      *

As a working journalist, I cannot work without the Internet. Almost any information is now available with a click. Indeed, the word used for the click to get information is also called googling after the search vehicle called Google. It is from Google that I learned almost by accident that there will be a conference on Renminbi in Luxembourg.

I was following up China expert Martin Jacques’ blog when I chanced upon the announcement that Luxembourg for Finance in partnership with Clearstream would be hosting  a distinctive conference on the internationalisation of the Renminbi. It would bring together some 300 European key experts who are interested in the growing RMB market and opportunities arising from the internationalisation of the Renminbi in Europe.

This is useful information for local businessmen who have long advocated closer exchanges with the Chinese, the valuation of the renminbi being one of the significant tools of their rise to a world superpower. Attention especially dedicated to the Clarita Lapus of Mama Sita Foundation who has encouraged businessmen especially exporters to look at how China manages their currency.

*      *      *

There are individuals, Chinese, Filipinos and Chinese-Filipinos who are bothered by the increasing animosity being incited by sectors of mainstream press between China and the Philippines. Instead of being drawn to arguments and conflicts they have continued their work on how to bring Chinese and Filipinos closer through projects and events.

 One of them is Anvil Business Club (Association of Young Filipino-Chinese Entrepreneurs). Recently they invited Kenneth Cobonpue, “one the world’s most critically-acclaimed icons in the realm of contemporary design for their second Business Exchange Forum for 2014. Time Magazine called him “rattan’s first virtuoso.”

A Chinese-Filipino himself the multi-awarded furniture designer comes from Cebu. He graduated in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute in New York with highest honors. In 1994, he moved on to studying Furniture Marketing and Production at the Export Akademie Baden-Württemberg in Reutlingen, Germany and worked in Bielefeld and Munich.

He uses locally sourced materials with innovative handmade production processes. Today Cobonpue’s brand is known around the world for its unique designs. His work has redefined the entire landscape in furniture art and have placed the Philippines in the global map as an emerging Mecca of sustainable design.

Next time, I told Reginald Yu of Anvil Club please inform this column earlier.

*      *      *

From our honorary ambassador to China, Carlos Chan, I learned about the Tzu Chi Foundation. It raised more than a P1.2 B for the Yolanda/Haiyan typhoon victims. The group is especially known for their innovative cash for work scheme spending nearly P900 million for the purpose.

Alfredo Li, Tzu Chi Foundation Philippines CEO, said: “When we help others, we’re creating our own blessings. So what we give out in material, we retrieve in spiritual... We hope relationships will be good, that is what we hope for. We are never for confrontation. All the time, we are for peace, we are for love, we are for gratefulness to each other.”