So much has been said, mostly in shock and condemnation, of President Duterte’s “disruptive” remarks against the Western powers, particularly our so-called “long time ally,” the United States of America.
In Bacolod over the weekend at the invitation of my good friend Deputy BIR Commissioner Clint Aranas, whose hospitality knows no bounds, I encountered some rather “worried” reactions from political acquaintances who basically said that the President may be pushing the envelope too far in his “anti” US rhetoric. This worry is of course understandable in the heart of sugarlandia whose mono-crop largesse was largely built up for years of market preference based on the US sugar quota.
Friends asked me for tips on how they could communicate best what the President they supported really means when he fulminates against the powerful US of A, or the United Nations or even the European Union.
Truth is, it is the Filipino who should begin to change his or her mindset.
The President we elected in May this year has long changed his mindset about “favored” friends and “reliable” alliances. He has been a keen student of history, and most probably scoffed at the textbook on Philippine history we were both fed by our teachers and Catholic school administrators, which kept reminding us of America’s “altruistic” rule of the Philippine Islands for 40 years while hiding the brutalities of the war that preceded it, from Bud Dajo to Balangiga and elsewhere.
In reminding both the international community and the Filipino publics, media especially, of these incidents in our history, Duterte seeks to re-cast the Filipino mindset that America is our one and only “trusted” ally, and that we therefore should pursue an independent foreign policy so that we will be respected by the rest of the international community which heretofore has regarded our country as some servile appendage of the US of A.
There are still those who believe that being friends with China, or even Russia is pushing it too far, and may offend the sensibilities of the Americans, especially those feared “manipulators” in the CIA and Pentagon. Such perceptions are further bolstered by the belief, rightly or wrongly, that what happened to Marcos and Estrada, the two targets of “people power,” could not have succeeded, or even transpired, without American intervention.
But, as we wrote about in our previous article last Monday, it’s all about seeking balance. In pursuing our best interests as a nation, we should be friends to all and enemies to no one.
But to begin with, the Filipino public must shake off the mindset that our fate must be bound together with the US of A, come hell or high water. It may be precisely because we have chosen through all these years to sink or swim with that powerful North American nation that we have been unable to take advantage of opportunities for economic advancement that are available bilaterally from other countries or other multilateral alliances.
Recently, Wilson Lee Flores, writing for another paper, recounted his recent attendance at a two-day conference in Xian City in the Shaanxi Province of China, the principal topic of which was the 4 trillion dollar trans-continental development loan development plan called the One-Belt, One Road Initiative which seeks to link all of Asia to the Middle East and Europe via trade, reliving the ancient trade routes. He makes mention of his being seated beside Jonathan E. Hillman of the American think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Philip Fleischmann of Germany’s business paper, Handelsblatt. One of the best speakers in the conference, he relates, was US investment banker Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn.
In fine, we can remain a friend and ally of the United States even as we seek stronger relations with other countries whose economic or political agenda may rival those of America. I recall for instance how Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi balanced their country’s relations with both the US and the USSR at the height of the Cold War, when the State Department was dictating our foreign policy through a succession of presidents who trusted the “benevolence” of our mighty ally.
Where is India now? One of the world’s great economies, rivaling in growth so many countries who used to decry its massive poverty and backwardness. As we write, it is now the world’s fastest-growing economy. Why can’t we be like them?
Rodrigo Duterte is not a Chinese toady, nor a great admirer of Vladimir Putin, whom he once described in less-than-lofty terms. And neither is he an American puppet, so unlike a gaggle of his predecessors. He is simply a Filipino who will put his country’s interests over and above any other country, and will fight for such interests no matter whose sensibilities he pricks.
He keeps arguing that if the Americans really wanted to protect our maritime claims over the West Philippine Sea, then why did it allow the Chinese to reclaim islands out of rocks, and occupy these in the first place?
The truth is, America will protect only its national interests, which is fine, as a country’s foreign policy is a function of its domestic interests. But sauce for the goose must be sauce for the gander. In like manner, the Philippines must do whatever is best for its national interests, especially for the benefit of teeming millions of poor in this country left backward by wrong policies and a subservient past.
So if Rodrigo Duterte seems to be “boorish” or “extreme” in his statements, read it as an attempt to recalibrate calcified mindsets and attitudes built through years of misguided brainwashing.
He does not find it humiliating to apologize whenever his judgment goes awry or his statements run afoul. He is capable of eating his unfortunate words and saying sorry for language said in anger. Such humility belies attempts to picture him as an aspiring dictator.
When he sees that we as a people have regained our nationalistic bearings, and are conscious of our rights in the community of nations, watch him bring us back to center.
Let us give him space. His heart is in the right place. He has a sharp mind. He has a great sense of history. And to top it all, he has balls.
