The man who fooled everybody

VIENNA, Austria – In case you’re tempted to believe that little Austria has now become just a backwater of history, consider this: from here came the fellow who fooled everybody into electing him Secretary-General of the United Nations (long before Kofi Annan) then got himself elected President of Austria.

I’m referring to Kurt Waldheim – who was one of the best friends of our late Apo Ferdinand E. Marcos and his First Lady Imeldific. Kurt and Macoy got so buddy-buddy during martial law that the UN Secretary General, his wife, and daughter, would party with the Marcoses frequently, and his wife and kid used to vacation with Imelda in Cam-Ulot, Leyte, the fantasy paradise of the former Superma’am.

Waldheim served as UN Secretary-General from 1972 to 1982, then successfully ran for the Austrian Presidency. It was only then that the terrible legacy of Waldheim’s Nazi past surfaced. During World War II, it surfaced, he had been a lieutenant of the German Army (Wehrmacht) in the Balkans at the time when his fellow Nazis were deporting Jews from Greece, rounding up slave laborers from Slavs, Gypsies, Rumanians, Poles and other ethnic minorities, and inflicting cruel reprisals on Yugoslavs (in Yugoslavia where Waldheim had been assigned) and Albanians. It was "partisan" resistance to the German forces in Yugoslavia, by the way, which brought the Communist guerrilla leader, Marshal Josef Broz Tito to power in the postwar era.

In any event, Waldheim finally fell into disgrace when questions arose, at last, over his role in such atrocities and whether or not he had been involved.

In defiance of the international uproar, however, the Austrians stubbornly elected Kurt President. The United States, in disgust, later condemned him as an "undesirable alien" and placed him on its watchlist, which meant he couldn’t even return to New York where he had run the UN for ten years as its Secretary General.

The Austrian Government, for its part, established an international commission to inquire into Waldheim’s suspicious Nazi past. The commission, perhaps in whitewash? found no proof of his "direct involvement" in any war crime. On the other hand, the Commission was compelled to note he had lied about his past and that "he had known what was taking place" although his ability, it commented, to prevent war crimes was "limited." There were numerous calls for Waldheim to resign his Presidency – sounds familiar? – and Austria itself was ostracized by the international community during his six-year term. But Waldheim completed his term – then went into obscurity.

Just as Macoy lied about his medals, Kurt lied about his wartime record – birds of a feather, I guess, flock together. I’ve a suspicion that some of the undiscovered Marcos loot and wealth is stashed away in Austria, not just in Switzerland. Is that why Herminio Disini fled to Austria long before EDSA People Power and the Fall of the dictatorship – to live the life of Reiley over here? He even got to be a sort of "Count," having bought a chateau or castle here.

Too many mysteries and unanswered questions are buried here.

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The local elections for Mayor, etc., were held as scheduled last Sunday here. There were no campaigning, no rallies, no miting de avance held. There were no election posters or billboards! Political parties here just seem to be, . . . well "partying" among themselves.

Socialist Mayor Michael Haeupl is again the Mayor of Vienna. As usual the results were known within hours of the close of the precincts. In Austria the losers don’t raise a howl. They agree to cooperate with the winner, although there’s no doubt furtive tear is wiped from the eye.

This happened during the Presidential elections the other year. When the count was completed – again within hours of the close of the balloting, nobody complained or demonstrated against the results. In Metro Manila, we’re still protesting and demonstrating more than a year and a half after the May 2004 elections – and the opposition and Radical Left are angrily claiming GMA cheated. Our country is in gridlock, while Austria moves on to the next order of business. The Austrians were fooled once by Kurt Waldheim. They’re still smarting from that – but they learned their lesson.

In our case, nobody "loses" an election. He or she, the clamor goes up, "wuz robbed!"

In effect, our selfish politicians are robbing our people of their chance for stability – or to make a livelihood. It’s no wonder our people are deserting our country in droves, and seeking uncertain new lives in the foreign diaspora.

Sad, but true.