Fighting terror 01/16/2007

NONO ALFONSO, S.J., of the Institute on Church and Social Issues, made an interesting observation in his piece that appeared in our Opinion section last Saturday. No irony could be more sublime, he said, than that the Asean is making all sorts of noises about battling terrorism and yet can’t see it being actively promoted, or indeed systematically carried out, right in its own backyard.

“It will be playing host to a country whose terrorism against its own citizens is widely known: Burma (Myanmar). While many countries in Asia are opening up toward greater freedom and democracy, Burma, ruled by a military junta, has remained a rogue state. It has arrogantly snubbed diplomatic initiatives from Asean and even from the United Nations that would have paved the way for the restoration of democracy and civil liberties.”

It’s a very good point and one that shows up the hypocrisy of the anti-terrorism campaign being waged by the usual suspects today. It’s not unlike George W. Bush calling on all the world to help him fight terror wherever it rears its ugly head, ugly head being defined only by what he says it is and not by what he has. Quite incidentally, that madman is still insisting on committing more troops to Iraq notwithstanding that America’s continued occupation of that country represents a crime against humanity, if not a downright terrorist act. While at this, where are those local idiots now who, riding on the crest of the Bush-made hysteria then about invading Iraq being the patriotic thing to do, predicted smugly that Iraq would never become another Vietnam?

But to go back: Alfonso makes a good point particularly in light of the anti-terror pact the Asean meet in Cebu has just produced. That agreement, which is being hailed as groundbreaking, expressly says that Asean commits itself to “counter terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” and will offer no safe harbor to individuals who have committed or propose to commit terrorist acts.

Well, if so, why does “terrorism in all its forms and manifestations” include only communist groups in certain parts of the world -- the Philippines, following the US lead considers the Communist Party of the Philippines a terrorist organization and is determined to root it out by the presumably non-terroristic way of murdering every suspected sympathizer -- and not thuggish governments like Burma and those that mean to root out terrorist organizations by the presumably non-terroristic way of murdering all their sympathizers? Indeed, why does “terrorism in all its forms and manifestations” include only the bombing of public utilities by misguided citizens and not the repression of the citizens by power-mad autocrats?

The terror that governments feel at the threat of being attacked cannot be more than the terror that citizens feel at the actual reality of having their homes invaded at any time for no other reason than harboring a computer without government permission, which is the case in Burma. Fighting terror can only be justified by the passionate desire to defend life and freedom. But what if the self-appointed defenders of life and freedom are the very threats to the life and freedom of their citizens?

That question is particularly urgent given that, as a friend of mine studying abroad pointed out to me, none of the members of the Asean today is a functioning democracy. At least not in the liberal democratic sense of the word. At least not in the free elections, observance of human rights and civil liberties, libertarian, egalitarian, and non-sectarian sense of the word. The current Asean meet in fact fills me only with déjà vu. I’ve seen this before, during Marcos’ time, when the Asean, which largely harbored authoritarian regimes, also then loudly called for jihad against a common enemy: communism. That was all very well, except that in what name was it fighting communism for? For most of the citizens of the Asean countries, it was in the name of dictatorship.

It was so then, it is so now. The same thing Alfonso raised about Burma may in fact be said for the host country itself. There’s nothing more ironic than that Asean is making noises about fighting terrorism when it can’t see that pure and absolute terror is being systematically wreaked in the country that is currently basking in its “moment of glory” by hosting it.

Paraphrasing Alfonso, it is a country whose terrorism against its own citizens is widely known. While many Asian countries are opening up toward greater freedom and democracy, the Philippines, ruled by an unelected president with the support of a few key generals, has turned into a rogue state. It has largely ignored calls from the international human rights and media communities to stop the wholesale murder of political activists and journalists, apart from token responses such as the Melo Commission, which is about as potent as an expired lover, and to restore sanity, if not decency, to this once beautiful country.

Can anything be more terroristic than summarily shooting democracy in the head, which is what the theft of the vote means? Can anything be more terroristic than vowing fatwa against God’s, or Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s, enemies, such as by bashing the heads of angry crowds that gather to damn the usurpation? Can anything be more terroristic than unleashing murder and mayhem against the citizens in an effort to uphold wrongdoing? Anti-terrorism isn’t fighting the things that terrify governments, it is fighting the things that terrify the citizens.

The only time I’ll applaud the Asean for having an anti-terror pact that proposes to send terrorists to their home countries in chains is when they apply that to anyone named Garci. Or any variation thereof.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=43608