Call to the conscience of mankind

The decision by the Senate last Tuesday to convict Corona cast a gloom among his supporters. Most had hoped against hope there would be a swing vote led by Senate President Enrile among senators who they thought had minds of their own. They were to be disappointed and their faith in principled thinking among the senators misplaced.

From the start I did not believe it would be a fair trial. Indeed its roots and reasons for being were tainted from the start. In the Chief Justice’s words, when he filed for a temporary restraining order, it was null and void ab initio.  

If 188 members of Congress were made to sign without reading the impeachment complaint, and then proceed to disobey the rules of procedure, there can be only one result — conviction.

More perfidies were committed once the trial was in full swing — manufactured evidence, small ladies, anonymous sources and brown envelopes thrown over the wall. But we followed it blindly to its gory end with media feeding the frenzy to condemn the accused. 

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All this seems so local, merely part of the political scene. We should move on. Chief Justice Renato Corona’s impeachment now joins other ignominious trials in Philippine history. And there are many.

In a more hopeful vein I would cast it against what has become the international symbol of an unjust trial — the Dreyfus Affair that happened in France in the late 1800s. It shows what can be done and how individuals can challenge the power of the state and media when it oppresses one of them.

The Dreyfus Affair reverberated throughout the world because an eminent author, Emile Zola, took up the cause and challenged the French government to correct the mistake.

Captain Alfred Dreyfus was an innocent officer in the French Army who was “convicted on false evidence (scraps of paper from a wastebasket to condemn him as a spy for the German government) for a crime of high treason.”

What has that got to do with the impeachment of CJ Corona in the Philippines circa 2012? Many things. Those of us who followed the trial are convinced there was a miscarriage of justice, because like Dreyfus the so-called impeachment court convicted an individual on false evidence, dishonored him through media and then removed him from office.

The fight to prove the innocence of Dreyfus lasted 12 years, reports the blog J’Accuse, the Dreyfus Affair. It keeps alive the lessons learned from that unjust trial up to this day. Its followers keep it alive because it established the principle that whenever an individual is so unfairly treated, it is an affront to all men. It should not be about being afraid that we could suffer a similar fate but rather that we have the obligation to put right when someone else is unfairly treated.

The Dreyfus Affair roused intellectuals not only in France but also throughout the world. It led to history’s most famous call for justice — ‘J’accuse,’ a 4000-word letter by Emile Zola. It was published on the front page of a brave newspaper, L’Aurore on January 13, 1898. It was addressed to the President of France. Anatole France called the letter ”the conscience of mankind.”

The Dreyfus affair continues to be held up today as an example of injustice that we must not allow. “Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters” published in 2009 by the novelist and lawyer Louis Begley wrote it is “a pointed warning and reminder of how fragile the standards of civilized conduct prove in moments of national panic. The Dreyfus affair matters . . . because we’re still in the middle of it.”

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Unjust trials are never over. They continue to haunt the society that allowed it. The senators-judges who voted guilty must face the consequences of their action. Succinctly, they gave a guilty verdict because “we may not have the evidence but we will convict him anyway.”

J’Accuse is about the plain truth, whether it happened in the Philippines in 2012 or in France in 1894. Emile Zola’s letter could be addressed to the President of the Philippines as well.

“Mr. President, it is terrifying. It will leave an indelible stain on your presidency. I realize that you have no power over this case, that you are limited by the Constitution and your entourage.

You have, nonetheless, your duty as a man, which you will recognize and fulfill.

As for myself, I have not despaired in the least, of the triumph of right. I repeat with the most vehement conviction: truth is on the march, and nothing will stop it. Today is only the beginning, for it is only today that the positions have become clear: on one side, those who are guilty, who do not want the light to shine forth, on the other, those who seek justice and who will give their lives to attain it. I said it before and I repeat it now: when truth is buried underground, it grows and it builds up so much force that the day it explodes it blasts everything with it. We shall see whether we have been setting ourselves up for the most resounding of disasters, yet to come.” (He then lists the conspirators of the mistrial with his J’accuse).

In making these accusations I am aware that I am making myself liable to articles 30 and 31 of the July 29 1881 law on the press making libel a punishable offense. I expose myself to that risk voluntarily.

As for the people I am accusing, I do not know them, I have never seen them, and I bear them neither ill will nor hatred. To me they are mere entities, agents of harm to society. The action I am taking is no more than a radical measure to hasten the explosion of truth and justice.

I have but one passion, the search for light, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul.

Let them dare, then, to bring me before a court of law and investigate in the full light of day!

I am waiting.” Signed Emile Zola.

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Other prominent French intellectuals joined Emile Zola on the Dreyfus cause: Leon Blum, Charles Péguy, André Gide, Daniel Halévy and Marcel Proust.

What happened to a French Jew more than a hundred years ago has lessons for Filipinos of today. Let us not forget our basic democratic principles of individual rights even in times of crisis.