Towards a better history

With the international press and others including a UN rapporteur going against President Rodrigo Duterte on “human rights,” I find myself reading once again Stephen Kinzer’s “Overthrow.” It is good to read this book once again to remember it is not happening for the first time.

Kinzer writes on America’s foreign interventions into 14 sovereign nations.

They should have promoted social progress that would have led to the country’s long term stability. We are reaping the results of that failure today. “Washington’s fear of radicalism led it to support an oligarchy that was more interested in stealing money than in developing the country.” That is what the Philippines has become today with Duterte as President.

The more important news that the Philippines would be the ASEAN chair in the coming year was sidelined. It would be a chance for the Philippines to shine as a force in our region. Its sheer location at the center of the region is a great advantage.

“Southeast Asia stands at the crossroads of two enormous civilizations, China and India. This is the geographic reality that historically shaped Southeast Asia.

I am among those who have insisted in this column that our leaders should include in any agenda with their American counterparts – the return of the Balangiga bells.

These are not just worthless bells. It is a symbol of the Philippine-American War. The story is about how villagers armed only with bolos were able to deal a stunning blow to American soldiers occupying their little town. I love the story. The bolos were loaded in carts and covered tightly on the way to a church in Samar. When American soldiers asked what they were carrying, the villagers said “cadavers of those who have died from cholera.” The Americans let them go. The bells would summon villagers to attack killing almost the entire platoon of American soldiers. While eating breakfast.

It is a symbol of the ingenuity of Filipinos that so angered Captain Jacob Smith he ordered all the male villagers be killed to make Balangiga a “howling wilderness.” That is how brave Filipinos are.

We can make a choice on the lessons that we learn from history. We can dwell on the past with bitterness or take pride and courage in our struggle to right those wrongs.

It will be a good beginning if the Balangiga bells are returned as a starting point of a new era of Philippine-US relation as chair of ASEAN during its 50th anniversary, The Philippines should play a role in building half a century of community building in Southeast Asia.

“It took the wisdom of its founders to overcome their own rivalries to forge a vision of a peaceful region in which they could find their own paths to development.

It is a vision that has served Southeast Asia as a whole well. The Philippines has long been only on the periphery of this. We struggle to define our path given our historical ties.”

The chairing of ASEAN is a unique chance to redefine and shape a forward path for the Philippines. Deepening relationships and trust with our neighbors but also working with them to improve the broader geopolitical distrust in our region and world. We can only do this by resolving our own inner angst and approach great power relations with a sense of confidence in ourselves and what we stand for.

False accusations of “human rights violations” should not stand in the way for the Philippines to achieve this new role as the chair of ASEAN.

Obama has refrained, at least in public, from criticizing President Rodrigo Duterte, who has been unapologetic about waging a violent war against drugs. Mr. Obama abruptly canceled a meeting with Mr. Duterte but later met informally

The United States cannot alienate Mr. Duterte. Philippine analysts say that Mr. Duterte is on good terms with Chinese business executives who invested in Davao, the city where he served as mayor, and that he may be open to negotiating with Beijing over the South China Sea.

In his final speech to the UN, last Sept. 20, Obama touches on one of the cardinal rules of Duterte’s reformist government.

“A world in which one percent of humanity controls as much wealth as the other 99 percent will never be stable.”

“I do not think that America can – or should – impose our system of government on other countries... there appears to be growing contest between authoritarianism and liberalism right now.”

“That doesn’t mean democracies are without flaws. It does mean that the cure for what ails our democracies is greater engagement by our citizens – not less. Yes, in America, there is too much money in politics, too much entrenched partisanship, too little participation by citizens...”

“Let me conclude by saying that I recognize history tells a different story than the one I’ve talked about here today. There’s a much darker and more cynical view of history that we can adopt. Human beings are too often motivated by greed and by power. Big countries for most of history have pushed smaller ones around...”

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What is important is what we do now. All is not lost. With the Philippines firmly in The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), it can benefit and learn from its neighbors.

There are still the creation of a human rights body but this will be tackled by the members in, for and by the region and not by former colonizers.

This emerging Asian regionalism is a powerful historic force with the region cooperating with the rest of the world. In all this, the Philippines should not be left behind or tarred as an American Trojan horse. It must do everything possible to be part of the region’s shared prosperity.

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“Democracies have to have the courage to acknowledge when we don’t live up to the ideals that we stand for,” Mr. Obama said in March in Argentina, referring to a 1976 military coup that had received tacit American approval. “The United States, when it reflects on what happened here, has to examine its own policies, as well, and its own past.”

“He quoted William Faulkner: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” In addressing issues from race relations to foreign conflicts, he has repeatedly argued that present-day progress cannot be made without first overcoming past traumas.

“We have a responsibility to confront the past with honesty and transparency,” he said in his March speech in Buenos Aires, only barely rephrasing Faulkner. “What happened here in Argentina is not unique to Argentina, and it’s not confined to the past.”