Thursday, February 17, 2005

state of emergency

Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit the same planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And, we are all mortal. --John F. Kennedy

The attacks on Makati, General Santos, and Davao last February 14 should serve as an eye opener to our people.
Terrorists are among us, and they don't care if they kill people on Valentine's Day.
Valentine's Day, the day when people share their love with the people around them, turned into a bloodbath when bombs exploded in three different cities within the space of an hour.
Now you only need to mention the word "bomb" and people would start running for cover.
It only takes a strange phone call to send a Super Ferry heading to Manila back to port and discover that no bomb was aboard.
It only takes a "bayong" left on a storefront to get a bomb squad to find out that it was only full of clothes.
Such is the power of terror; its effects reverberate long after the explosions die down.
How could people who call themselves "warriors of god" kill the innocent?
The long years of injustice and intolerance in the south, and the atrocities committed by both sides in the Mindanao conflict are now being felt at our doorsteps.
We will never be safe for as long as we remain prejudiced towards each other.
We can never be safe unless we address the failings and the weaknesses of our society.
Bombs will fall from the sky, buses will blow up in the streets, and plastic bags will send people running for cover until we find it in our hearts to accept each other as brothers and sisters, as equals, as Filipinos who share one nation regardless of religious faith or ideological belief.
Terrorists feed on our prejudices.
They use our hatred towards each other as an excuse for their actions.
I'm not only talking about the Abu Sayyaf or the MILF or the MNLF, I'm also talking about the military.
Yes, their job is to protect the state against external and internal threats.
You can't deny that the extremist groups mentioned above are threats to national security, and that it's the military's job to see to it that these groups are wiped out.
But military action against terrorists is not the same as military action against civilians.
The media rarely reports about it, but our soldiers can also be terrorists.
The celebrations following the capture of the rebel camp in Mindanao included one event not reported: the jubilant soldiers released a pig inside a mosque.
And there are stories of them stuffing pork in dead Muslim's mouths.
And there are stories of maltreatment of Muslim civilians in the south.
How can we justify a "war on terror" if we use terror ourselves?
How can this madness end if both sides keep reprising and attacking and retaliating?
How can there be peace if we don't respect each other's beliefs?

An eye for an eye makes a man blind.
We are all Filipinos regardless of ethnicity, religion, or beliefs.
It's time to act as such, and end this senseless conflict.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm a political scientist. And I must say that most of the comments you have made had weight. But, (this is also in response to your other article about what we can do for the country), the reason WHY we have not progressed(in the technical-fundamental meaning of the word) is precisely because most of society is aware of the comments you have made, there is just lack of societal will to do so. I found most of your comments to be refreshingly idealistic-but that is really the point of divergence between us. I think that the main thing that we should remember is that NOT BECAUSE IT IS RIGHT IT IS WHAT IS HAPPENING, AND NOT BECAUSE IT IS WHAT IS HAPPENING, IT IS WHAT IS RIGHT. You're right on most of the comments you have made--we just don't have a congruence of opinions because I'm probably a lot more pessimistic. Our present situation-as the most benign country in southeast asia-east asia w/cever-the only country to not have a capable navy and the only country not participating in the arms race-is a result of both lack of political will and lask of societal will. We are one of the poorest countries but our society is far from poor, our state in the nature of things IS (u are right) due to the lack of foresight and initiative of the government. They are unwilling to dissolve the line that separates national power from state power. Because if only they did, our country may not have much hard power but it is certainly sufficient in soft power..heck! our soft power is sufficient to scare singapore, the so-called 'number 1 in seasia! (but then again..singapore is afraid of everybody!) I am sorry if my ramblings do not make much sense, it is the result of too little sleep and information overload..and I find myself enjoying replying to your article. But to get back on track...(if ever I was on it to begin with). IT is equally easy to say DO something, but the actual doing is difficult, because even if there is initiative for change, we are talking about a government that is too rule-drievn to even govern itself. It has wrapped itself in so much ex-ante controls and red tape that I don't think there is even a government underneath it. We are all governed by colonial-mentalit'ied' individuals who are trained to be top-bottom reponsiveness that they forget all about outward accountability.... so to end my very long (and I fear senseless) caffeine-induced ramble.. the desire to change, if ever they do, would be to much of an about-face for the country. The problems we face today are not problems we created ourselves..'they just culminated in our time'-wilson..and i'm beginning to think that our country cannot stand that rapid an about-face....