The Malaysians bully our workers because they know we’re weaklings

Surely, it’s right to complain – as Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople did – of the awful treatment our Filipino workers and their families have been getting during the pogrom of expulsion the Malaysian government is now embarked on. Our President GMA is allegedly appalled at the death of so many babies in the holding camps, or in the process of embarkation.

The truth is that this kind of harsh deportation has been going on for months, with men, women and children (some of them very sick) being crammed by Malaysian authorities into every rusty, leaky or precarious vessel available. More than 15,000 "deportees" came into Zamboanga and Basilan, after making the crossing in deplorable conditions, in the past four months alone.

Now that our attention has been focused by the dramatic escalation of the exodus, with the Malaysians threatening any stragglers among our migrant "illegal" workers with arrest and caning, let’s reexamine Kuala Lumpur’s sneering attitude towards us.

Incidentally, the penalty of "caning", which is a punishment common to both Malaysia and Singapore, isn’t as "harmless" as it may sound. The instrument utilized in beating the backs of those condemned is called a rotan – which makes the wooden instrument utilized sound like a flexible rattan stick. It is, in reality, a very solid cane which tears and splits open the skin and draws blood from the backside of anyone being beaten. Six strokes are not only painful, but can be life-threatening. If too many strokes of the rotan are prescribed, the subject of punishment may die of the caning – which is why, under custom, a doctor is supposed to "stand by" while the flogging is ongoing.

I don’t know how many, or whether any of our migrant workers or "overstaying" Filipinos have been harshly dealt with in this manner, but as one who’s covered both Malaysia and Singapore over the years, I’ve heard of a number of deaths in which some sentenced succumbed to their punishment.

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We mustn’t expect any tender feelings from Malaysia’s Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who’s set his retirement date for a year from now.

Mahathir, both a charmer and authoritarian, was irritated when our former President Joseph "Erap" Estrada expressed support for his deposed and jailed (now "convicted") Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. However, Kuala Lumpur’s deeply-ingrained hostility towards us, thinly-disguised by claims of bonhommie and smiles of ASEAN fraternity, dates back to the British having "given" North Borneo (Sabah) to the Federation of Malaysia over our strong protests, and the valid ownership claim of the Sultanate of Jolo. If you look at a map, you’ll find that Sabah is larger than Mindanao – that’s what we lost in that act of post-imperial land-grabbing.

Malaysian authorities have naturally denied that conditions in detention centers for "illegal immigrants" were harsh or overcrowded. That’s the diplomatic way: deny – not necessarily to the death, but somewhere close to it.

In any event, what can we do? We can only plead and cajole. We can’t threaten. There’s nothing we can threaten the Malaysians with, except saliva, diplomatic protests, notes verbales, and indignant press releases. Even the summoning to the Department of Foreign Affairs of Malaysian Ambassador Mohammad Taufik was merely a ritual exercise, with Taufik smoothly parrying frowns by toothily alleging Filipinos are appreciated in Malaysia and would be welcomed back if they were provided the "proper documentation". Don’t hold your breath on that one. Taufik almost rhymes with tongue-in-cheek.

Now, some of our congressmen, like Negros Occidental Rep. Jun Lozada, Ilocos Norte Rep. Imee Marcos, Lanao del Sur Rep. Benasing Macarambon, and other solons are talking of "revisiting" or resurrecting our claim to Sabah. Of course, this is an admirable and valid sentiment, but, alas, we’ve no Sunday Punch to add force to our claim, or make K.L. and the world take notice.

I agree we should never give it up. On the other hand, the Malaysians will simply scoff at the very idea since – weak and weaponless – we’ve nothing in our arsenal in which to pursue it.

Why, we can’t even handle a gaggle of scruffy Abu Sayyaf, who’ve shamed and humiliated our government and armed forces over the past four years. Even Nur Misuari’s Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which was supported by Malaysia and other Muslim nations (training camps of the MNLF were even being operated in Sabah and other Malaysian hideaways), and pretended to surrender to the FVR government – is back in a warlike mood. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is still in "business", despite so many giveaway peace concessions awarded them by the GMA government.

Our politicians – eager to spend the money elsewhere (especially on themselves – deprived our armed forces of the wherewithal to acquire up-to-date military equipment, as the result of which we ended up with a junk navy and a junk air force, just like the 15-year old junk buses, belching smoke like volcanoes as they ply EDSA. Our leaders cooed that all that was needed to defend our archipelago was "diplomacy".

Well, where’s our diplomatic "clout" now?

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Admiral Horatio Nelson, whose statue on its tall plinthe dominates London’s Trafalgar Square, was quoted by Alfred Thayer Mahan in 1897 to have asserted: "A fleet of British ships of war are the best negotiators in Europe."

Long before Lord Nelson, England’s dictator Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) declared: "A man-of-war is the best ambassador."

We have no such ambassadors.

Niccolo Machiavelli, in his classic and much-quoted work, The Prince (1513), puts his finger precisely on what ails us: "Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised."

I was never a great admirer of the late US President Richard M. Nixon, but one trait Tricky Dick had, despite his Watergate, was his canny instinct in foreign affairs. In 1978, writing his Memoirs, Nixon said: "Communist leaders believe in Lenin’s concept. Probe with bayonets. If you encounter mush, proceed; if you encounter steel, withdraw."

What those who wish us ill or who scorn us usually encounter when they probe us with bayonets, or even just with sharp speech or pointed remarks – is mush.

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For the past few years, in contrast, the Malaysians have been arming themselves as if they were going to start World War III. And, perhaps, now we realize why. In a column some months ago, speaking about Kuala Lumpur’s military build-up, I asked the stupid question, in jest: Are they planning to invade Singapore or attack Indonesia? It seems in the light of recent developments, they may have been preparing themselves for any showdown with the Philippines.

Yet, how could we have a showdown with Malaysia anyway, least of all over Sabah which lies so tantalizingly close? All we had to send over to "evacuate" our miserable workers and their families were two Philippine Navy LSV’s or Landing Ship Vessels, which sailed to Sandakan and back with loads of evacuees. Our Navymen performed their mission well, but it remains clear that we continue to provide them with inadequate vessels, and inadequate logistics. The voyage between Sandakan in Sabah and the island of Bongao in Tawi-Tawi – where the "deportees" are landed, to be given initial shelter, and processed by our immigration, DFA officials, military, Department of Labor and Employment, and Department of Social Services – is 14 to 16 hours by LSV, depending on the weather.

Once upon a time, the Philippine Navy had a rust-bucket of a destroyer, the biggest ship in our fleet, but it overturned, I recall, in a typhoon and sank. Since then, what have we acquired to replace it?

In contrast, the Malaysians have built up their own navy – not bad for a bunch of Bumiputras from the kampongs. Recently, the Malaysians even took a major step towards realizing their long-held dream of establishing a submarine arm by awarding the French DCN International 1 and Spain’s Izar a contract worth some RM (Ringgit) 4 billion (US$1.8 billion) to construct two Scorpene diesel-electric submarines for the Royal Malaysian Navy. (This is confirmed by Jane’s Navy International, 13 June 2002.) In fact, the original deal was for three French subs.

The Malaysians have also contracted for British and French missile systems worth RM 1.4 billion to boost their airpower. Their defense ministry further signed a RM 1.2 billion contract with European consortium MBDA to procure a JERNAS short-term missile system to flesh out a new air-defense regiment. It also worked out an RM 182-million deal with Russian state-run Rosoboronexport for an IGLA air defense system. The Malaysians, who already have a strong jet air force (including Russian MiG-29s, with a spare parts and assembly plant in place in Malaysia itself), has been negotiating to purchase Russian Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets as well.

Sus, they’re even making noises about buying tanks from Poland – without the permission of the Holy Father, who hails from Crackow.

The Malaysians aren’t scared of us. No way. Not even of our bluster.

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The Asian Wall Street Journal continued its rampage in its issue yesterday (Thursday, August 29). It ran a two-column story, datelined Hong Kong, by Philip Segal, stating in its headline: "Bangladesh, Philippines Rank Among Most Corrupt in Report.

The article stated that "Bangladesh is perceived to be the country with the world’s worst corruption problem, but other Asian countries including the Philippines, India and China also racked up poor scores in the latest survey by anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International."

"The Corruption Perceptions index 2002, released by the Berlin-based group on Wednesday, saw a slight improvement over last year in the score for South Korea, while the scores for India and China were unchanged, and that of the Philippines worse."

"Among the least corrupt countries in this year’s ranking of 102 nations were Finland, Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore. Hong Kong placed 14th, scoring slightly better than the US."

A Transparency study released earlier in May had a "Bribe Payer’s Survey" (an additional study launched in 1999) which revealed that "companies from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea were perceived to be the most willing to pay bribes abroad".

The current report said that "the countries judged this year to host companies least likely to pay bribes were Australia, Sweden and Switzerland. Companies from the US, which has forbidden bribery anywhere in the world since 1977, were perceived to be as likely to pay bribes overseas as companies based in Japan."

I submit that GMA’s anti-corruption drive still has a long way to go. And beware of "bribery" from America.