Rising criminality brings rightist backlash

It is simple enough, at least to the concierge of a Paris hotel when an American business executive reported the loss of personal valuables from her hotel-stored luggage. "And they are surprised about Le Pen," he muttered. Rising criminality encourages the rise of a rightist backlash in Paris or in Manila or anywhere else. The most liberal person turns fascist when his personal security or that of his family is threatened. That's basic.

That, I think, is also at the root of the "collective leadership" idea of that group called Council of Philippine Affairs or COPA. The ideology behind their Freedom Force concept touches primarily on this rising fear among ordinary peace loving citizens that they are losing their basic rights or freedoms to the chaotic conditions in our contemporary environment.

The "junta" idea is a rightist backlash, and unless our political authorities are able to reassure Filipinos today about law and order and an effective national leadership, a rightist alternative will just bide its time to fully ripen.

The left will challenge it with its own "dictatorship of the masses" concept which, in essence, is just as anti-democratic. Both left and right will play on people's fears that will eventually make them willing and ready to surrender some basic freedoms in exchange for personal security and a national leadership that can lead. It is a national tragedy waiting to happen.

Le Pen

It can happen even in the developed countries. We received with some amount of shock the first round victory of ultra rightist Le Pen in France over the incumbent socialist prime minister. Le Pen focused on the insecurities of common people brought about by criminality. He blamed this on immigrants and it seems, this over simplistic cause and effect presentation of the French right has taken hold.

Apparently, France today is suffering from the same rising crime rate that most of the world is grappling with. How bad is it? Let's hear it from an American woman business executive who writes a column for Business Week. Her experience in Brussels and Paris should scare enough tourists from visiting these capitals and also cause their equivalent of Dick Gordon sleepless nights.

Lisa Bergson, wrote in Business Week that "when our bags were swiped in Brussels and my jewelry vanished in Paris, couldn't-care-less gendarmes added insult to injury." She and her companion were told that "The police have better things to do than chase after pickpockets." Inspector Boone, in his dingy little beige cubicle tucked behind a locked door at the Gare Midi, one of Brussels' largest train stations, merely shrugged that "They know the tourists have money, so!"

They were not alone. She and her director of laser analysis, Dr. Wen-Bin Yan waited an hour behind a trail of similar victims from Africa, China, and other parts of Europe to report their stolen goods.

"It happened so fast, she relates. "Wen-Bin stepped away from our baggage-laden carts to join me at the ticket counter. The clerk had to have seen it – the bags were behind us and directly in his line of sight. Was he in cahoots with them? And what about the cops: No time to stake out their station? These days, it's easy to get paranoid in Europe."

On their week's travel through Brussels, Munich, and Paris, first, a pickpocket physically assailed Wen-Bin, and then, at Midi, thieves stole his briefcase, containing his passport, new Dell Latitude C400 computer, Nikon camera, prescription glasses, personal papers, toothbrush, and medications.

They also made off with her backpack, which held the new and sleek Sony Vaio laptop which was full of unbacked-up writing. Then there was the other stuff, beginning with a new Sony personal organizer. Thieves also stole her jewelry – two pearl necklaces and a pair of diamond stud earrings.

As she very well puts it, "all told they made out like, well, bandits."

The nonchalant attitude of the Belgian and French cops – even the concierge at Paris's fancy Hyatt Regency, where the jewelry disappeared – left a disturbing impression on the American business executive. Her Asian companion thought it was a racist thing. "They attack Asians here," said Wen-Bin, wide-eyed after the back of his suit was sprayed with a vomit-looking substance while they awaited the train to Leuven on their first day in Belgium.

But what Wen-Bin took for a racially motivated act was actually a ploy to get at the valuables in his jacket. The well-dressed, open-faced young man who rather crudely alerted him to the icky stuff on his jacket kept trying to get him to take his jacket off. Somebody explained that "They go after Arabs, Jews, gypsies, Chinese, anybody ‘different’." Talk of unsafe streets!

That's only how they treat tourists. Apparently, the locals too have their own problems with peace and order. Remember that the police officer did say he has better things to do than babysit tourists.

And so in France, as it is here, the intellectuals and the politicians endlessly debate as the criminals flourish. The ordinary citizens feel unattended, perhaps lost in the process until someone like Le Pen comes around and works on their insecurities.

In the Philippine setting, I see that Filipino Le Pen in Sen. Ping Lacson. He hasn't done or said much lately but note how his approval rating has shot up in the midst of all the confusion and sense of helplessness. He may not be an angel but folk wisdom has it that it takes someone like Ping to deal with the rest of the sons of bitches.

I wouldn't worry about Peping Cojuangco or Boy Saycon. They couldn't muster a junta with popular support if they tried. Collective leadership isn't going to work in this country, anyway. Ping Lacson is different. We are talking of a strongman here. Unless our current leaders get their act together, our local Le Pen will find it increasingly conducive to stage his own surprise in 2004, or earlier. We would be ripe for him only because we ignored the warning for too long.

Be safe all the way

Reader Chito Santos e-mailed this one.

A businessman packing for a trip glances in his briefcase.

"Honey?"

"Yes, darling?"

"Honey," he says, in mild exasperation, "why do you persist in putting a condom in my briefcase every time I go on a trip? You know I only have eyes for you. I'd never be unfaithful."

"Oh, I know, darling, and I trust you," she replies sweetly. "It's just that, well you know, with all those terrible diseases out there, it would make me feel better to know that if anything did happen, you'd be protected. So please, darling, take it with you, won't you? For my peace of mind?"

"Oh, alright, if you put it that way," he relented. "I'll do it for you. But for safety's sake, give me more than one."

(Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected])