Our own ‘boat people’ tragedy exposes our lack of national will

We knew, let’s not hedge about it, for the past six months that the Malaysians were going to kick hundreds of thousands of Filipinos out of Malaysia – mostly from Sabah where some of them had settled (as "refugees") for more than a generation.

But we did nothing to prepare for the worst. Sadly, it might be said in mitigation, we possibly could not "afford" to do anything.

Perhaps, just perhaps, the pathetic sight of our own "boat people" (as editor and TV host Jullie Yap Daza called our cruelly detained and forcibly deported countrymen and women so poignantly yesterday) might shame us, even galvanize us into belated action.

In her column in the Manila Standard, I think Jullie most eloquently expressed the depths of humiliation and pain to which the sight of our wretched Filipinos in Sabah have reduced us: "The plight of our boat people is the tragedy of a poor, bankrupt, unproud government and a citizenry paralyzed by the magnitude of a nightmare so surreal it invites denial. Babies dying in their mothers’ arms, men and women packed like sardines on the boat bringing them to a home they longer own, to a homeland where they are strangers and outcasts, to a limbo where more suffering awaits."

Whatever the cost in financial and human terms, we must show our reluctantly returning "Filipinos", even those who long rejected that affiliation which I put in quotation marks, that they are welcome here at home. We must strive to help them, alleviate their suffering, demonstrate to them that they are truly home. This, after all, is the only advantage they have over Vietnam’s despairing boat people who fled their homeland into the unknown. It is a source of pride, even if a meager one, that the Philippines – both in Palawan and in Bataan – provided a temporary haven for those desperate Vietnamese who had left everything behind except hope. We can and should do no less for our returning Filipinos.

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In the meantime, we must continue to protest the ill treatment of those still being subjected to harsh treatment in Sabah. The indignant bluster and irritated denials of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in Kuala Lumpur, and the insistence by the authorities and the police in Sabah – that our "illegals" and their children were humanely treated – should not deceive or intimidate us.

They surely were mistreated – and continue to be bullied – in spite of the "guided" tour of the so-called detention centers in Sabah, given Presidential Adviser Nur Jaafar and his nine-man fact-finding team.

If one recalls the brutal treatment the Malaysian police accorded their own Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim when he was arrested in Kuala Lumpur (the chief of police even beat Ibrahim up when the detained leader was helplessly behind bars), can anyone doubt that several policemen in Tawau had grabbed detained Filipino women – mainly Christians – and debased them by forcing them into sex slavery? How can the degradation of the 13-year-old girl who was gang-raped by Malaysian policemen go unchallenged?

The President, at last, has reacted by sending a strongly-worded letter to Mahathir via the Department of Foreign Affairs – in short, the proper channels. But what was that earlier, very strange mission on which the already controversial Presidential Adviser on Special Concerns Norberto Gonzales was "sneaked" over to Kuala Lumpur, without the knowledge of Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople and our Ambassador to K.L., Jose "Chito" Brillantes? Gonzales had been dispatched to speak to Mahathir, as the Palace belatedly confirmed. We hear that, instead of being apologetic, Dr. Mahathir delivered Gonzales a tongue-lashing. Was his belligerence perhaps inspired by our grovelling?

Enough, I say, of this supine "back-channeling". Let’s not go through the back door. We must confront this messy situation frontally.

Alas, we’ve got nothing in our arsenal, as the whole world knows by now, with which to threaten the Malaysians. Owing to our complacency, we’re weak and weaponless. No wonder instead of backbone, all we have to offer is wishbone.

It’s also no surprise that we’re despised both at home and abroad. We couldn’t even find a C-130 we could commandeer to fly over to Sabah to rescue refugees who are in desperate straits. It’s the same old story: Too little, too late – or, worse than that, nothing at all.

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The Indonesians have done it.

An Indonesian court last Wednesday found the Speaker of Parliament and chairman of the powerful Golkar Party, Akbar Tanjung, Jr., 57, guilty in a $4.5 million corruption case (for abuse of power and graft), and sentenced him to three years in jail.

Can you imagine such a big shot being convicted and sentenced in the same manner over here?

Tanjung has refused to step down, pending an appeal. The ruling, it must be added, is far below the maximum 20-year penalty usually demanded for such charges.

Under a corruption law passed this year, Tanjung could have even been meted out a life sentence. But what the heck; at least the court courageously convicted him.

The court which had the guts to bring the Speaker to book is headed by Amiruddin Zakaria, the same Judge who, last July, (sentenced Tommy Suharto, a son of the former dictator, General Suharto, to 15 years in prison for the murder of a Supreme Court judge who had earlier convicted him, as well as for illegal weapons possession.

Tanjung’s conviction, some warn, might yet be overturned by a higher court, just as the Supreme Court last week overturned the conviction of Central Bank Governor Syahril Sabirin for "corruption". However, the 13-month old administration of President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who has pledged to reform Indonesia’s decrepit court system, is off to a good start.

All it takes are a few brave and wise judges, and "political will" at the top, to get reform rolling. There’s a lesson here for us.

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The International Press Institute has requested me to join a mission to Kathmandu to study the plight in jail and seek the release of 100 journalists arrested by the Nepalese government. The journalists – a number of them accused of being communists, Maoists or Marxists, and of abetting a violent communist rebellion – are said to be held in deplorable prison conditions.

The IPI group, organized by IPI Director Johann Fritz from our world headquarters in Vienna (Austria) will be composed of Nils Oy, General Secretary of the Norwegian Editors Association and their IPI National Committee; So-Whan Hyon, Vice Chairman of the Korean IPI National Committee, and leaders of the IPI National Committee of India. Some European IPI National Committees are expected to join. I was supposed to participate as Chairman of the Philippine IPI National Committee, but unfortunately, the message came too late for me to cancel my participation, on the same dates, in the Asia-Europe Press Forum 2002 to be held in Seoul (September 8 to 10).

This forum will involve about 30 senior editors and journalists throughout Asia, Europe and the United States, according to Director General Jong Woo Kil of the Forum Organizing Committee.

In any event, the IPI mission to Nepal is scheduled to meet on September 10 and 11 with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Information and Communication Minister Jay Prakash Gupta, the Justice Minister, and other officials, to urge them to ensure that press freedom is respected in the run-up to the coming Nepalese elections. This undertaking just goes to show that freedom of the press is embattled everywhere and must be diligently defended.

I’m disappointed at not being able to take part in this vital enterprise. (I’d already canvassed the drug stores for "altitude sickness" pills or any possible medication. When you’re thousands of feet up in the Himalayas, many experience breathing difficulties.)

Well, one can’t be in two places at the same time. Not even those who preen themselves as . . . uh, demi-gods, like columnists.