It is timely that the Philippines should be chairman of ASEAN this year. Duterte is fond of the word “destiny.”
Just as it was his destiny to become president of the Philippines so is it the destiny of the Philippines to be the ASEAN chairman at this crucial time for our region.
With the unorthodox Duterte at the helm of the Philippines the region will play an important role on the world stage. This is indeed destiny because ASEAN is made up of former colonies by Western countries. (More on this tomorrow).
The world is indeed getting smaller. I was in the Luneta rally of April 2 but like many others I was worried whether the crowd would be as big as that of May 7, 2016. It was shoulder to shoulder then of a million people, something we thought we would never achieve given the growing political indifference of Filipinos who thought they would not be able to overcome the power of elite government. That was before Duterte rose up and accepted to lead us for change.
The answer came from farther away. It came from Turkey via Brazil where its leader Erdogan sought the powers necessary for change through a referendum.
As my friend from Brazil wrote, if Erdogan did it why can’t Duterte do it in the Philippines to get what Filipinos want – a better country against crime and corruption with a new constitution.
Crowds evaporate but not a written consent in a referendum. That is how I revived my FB friendship with my Turkish friend Gozde Dizdar. We met when ICAPP chairman and former Speaker Jose P. de Venecia invited us to monitor the elections in Azerbaijan. Gozde has come several times to the Philippines to expand trade and friendship between our two countries.
Before we left Azerbaijan, she gave me a biography of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
“He was a Turkish army officer, revolutionary, and founder of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President from 1923 until his death in 1938.
Atatürk led the Ottoman Turkish victory at the Battle of Gallipoli during World War I. He led the Turkish National Movement, which resisted against the mainland Turkey’s partition among the victorious Allied powers.
He did more than win wars. He created a new country when he abolished the Ottoman Empire and proclaimed the foundation of the Turkish Republic in its place.
Atatürk worked for a rigorous program of political, economic, and cultural reforms to build a modern and secular nation-state. He made primary education free and compulsory, opening thousands of new schools all over the country. Turkish women received equal civil and political rights during Atatürk’s presidency ahead of many Western countries.
The Turkish Parliament granted him the surname Atatürk in 1934, which means “Father of the Turks,” in recognition of the role he played in building the modern Turkish Republic.” (sourced from Wikipedia)
I wanted a more personal opinion so I wrote Gozde. Here is her reply:
“I do strongly believe not only in democracy but also in participatory democracy. It should be a culture in which everyone can take an active role on each and every level of decision making process from local to global.
Therefor my opinion (on the referendum for stronger powers for Erdogan) is for a better future on the global level. The system must be participatory.
For me one of the lessons to be learned not only in political science but also in life is that “power poisons.”
After this referendum we should open a new page to our beloved country.
We will have elections in 2019. Erdogan will have to tackle serious issues such as the economy, security and foreign affairs. But I do strongly believe that Turkey’s future will depend as much on his leadership and on the 80 million people who voted for him.”
The Philippines has become an active player in the international arena. There are different opinions about Time naming Duterte as the most influential individual in the world through a poll online which was based on the choice of its readers.
Time said Duterte got five percent of the total “yes.” He was ahead of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Pope Francis, United States billionaire Bill Gates and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who all received three percent of the total “yes” votes.
Bernie Sanders topped the reader poll in 2016 while Russian President Vladimir Putin took the lead in 2015.
The recognition Rody got from what Time calls a cerebral audience “puts him squarely on the world stage as a leader of a country despite his reluctance to assume the role.” writes National Interest, a foreign policy publication in the US, said in an article that “America, not Duterte, failed the Philippines.”
The author, Gordon Chang, said Washington did much to push Duterte away by failing to honor moral, if not legal, obligations to its long-standing ally.
“The responsibility of leading a moribund country, after years of being hoodwinked by the yellow “tuwid na daan” mantra, is already immense.
“Rody has been peeling away at the abuses of the previous administrations that has made public policies tilted toward the interests of the yellow mob and its backers.
Most of the vote in the Time poll that Rody got was, however, his steadfast position against the United States and charting for the Philippines a new direction in foreign policy.
Even US experts on its foreign policy consider that Rody is merely being brutally frank in dealing with Americans in his rhetoric.
“The Philippine president did not have to provoke America as he did in October during his trip to Beijing. But his words, though extreme, were nonetheless a predictable outcome of a misguided US policy,” the article said.
Chang wrote his many outbursts against the United States, “look genuine, rooted in a century of Philippine nationalism and mistrust.”
“Duterte was schooled in anti-Americanism from an early age. His grandmother, a Muslim, taught him that the United States was guilty of grave crimes during its colonization of the Philippines.
To this day, he refers to the 1906 massacre of the Muslim Moros and believes Washington has not atoned for this particular instance of brutality or, more generally, the torture of Filipinos and the subjugation of his country,” he added.
During an Asean meeting, in the presence of former President Barack Obama in Laos, Rody recounted the atrocities of the Americans to Filipinos some 100 years ago that took many of the participants, who are themselves leaders, aback.
The analysis said although Duterte’s views appear warped by prejudice, he nonetheless has good reason to complain about Washington, which despite its mutual-defense pact has not protected his country adequately.”
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