‘That’s diplomacy,’ Locsin style

Angry exchange of words over Twitter posts last week broke open wide again old wounds, so to speak.

Ironically, the exchange of harsh words erupted online from officials of the diplomatic world supposedly in charge of the international relationships between governments and among countries.

The online feud started July 27 when Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. reacted to an official announcement by the United States Embassy in Manila as posted on its official Twitter account. The US Embassy tweeted about the US Agency for International Development (USAID) donation saying:“@usaid_manila donated 500 hygiene kits to the @dswdserves Region IX for use by returning Filipino repatriates from Sabah, Malaysia who arrived in Zamboanga City and Bongao, Tawi Tawi.” The USAID Philippines posted the same on its official Twitter account.

Reacting to it, Locsin angrily declared: “Sabah is not in Malaysia if you want to have anything to do with the Philippines.” The DFA Secretary tweeted @teddyboylocsin, with a veiled threat: “You better edit that announcement if you know what’s good for you.”

Feisty Locsin, known for his very colorful language, actively engages with the public, both locally and internationally on his Twitter account. Through the same Twitter account, Locsin also conducts his communications with DFA officials, even at times with Philippine embassies and consulates as well who are among his 666,800 Twitter followers as of last Friday. And sometimes, he even posts a raving review of movies he watched.

While at times Locsin is sarcastic, he could also wax philosophical in his Twitter posts such as this one: “There is a red line real diplomats never cross – when diplomatic tact becomes the first refuge of cowards and the last redoubt of traitors. Real diplomats are a rare breed.

Only five days earlier, Locsin grudgingly noted the number of his Twitter followers unfortunately is associated with the so-called “devil’s number” and wished to see it increase some more. “I now have 666.4k followers. And been there for a while. To improve my disposition I need .6k more followers to get out of demonic circle…,” the DFA chief tweeted. Obviously, Locsin’s Sabah-related tweets resulted to hefty increase of his followers. He only needs now 200 more to break out of the “666.”

Malaysian Foreign Affairs Minister Hishammuddin Hussein responded to Locsin two days later. Posting on his own Twitter account @HishammuddinH2O, he chastised his Filipino counterpart, calling Locsin’s comment an “irresponsible statement that affects bilateral ties.” On July 29 tweet of Hussein, he announced: “@MalaysiaMFA will summon the Philippines Ambassador on Monday to explain. Sabah is, and will always be, part of Malaysia.”

Immediately after learning about our Philippine ambassador to Malaysia Charles Jose was summoned, Locsin riposted on his Twitter: “No country can tell another what it can and cannot say about what the latter regards as rightfully its own. I don’t insist China say only what we want to hear about the Arbitral Award. It is free to say what it wants while we say and do what needs doing. That holds for Sabah.” In retaliation, Locsin summoned to his office Malaysian Ambassador to the Philippines, Norman Bin Muhamad.

Locsin, however, hastily clarified he did not draw the first blood in the ensuing word war with his Malaysian counterpart: “It started with a US Embassy tweet that hasn’t been taken down.”

Directly turning his guns to Malaysian counterpart, the DFA Secretary charged: “You summoned our ambassador for a historically factual statement I made: that Malaysia tried to derail the Arbitral Award. This was reported to us by our diplomats on the scene and our German lawyer. None may share our Hague victory who worked against it.”

This was in an obvious reference to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) where both the Philippines and Malaysia are members of this ten-member states regional bloc. The Philippines and Malaysia have overlapping maritime territorial claims over South China Sea that also included fellow ASEAN states Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. “None helped, many tried to screw us, especially in the region,” Locsin deplored.

In subsequent tweets, Locsin reminded Filipinos the incident in 2013 when about 200 militants from Tawi-Tawi led by Jamalul Kiram III, the self-proclaimed “35th Sultan of Sulu and North Borneo” went to Lahad Datu, southeast Sabah. They tried to reassert stake historical claims on the territory as descendants of the Sulu sultanate who were rewarded by the King of Brunei in the 16th century for helping quell internal rebellion.

“But PNoy turned his back, taking no responsibility whatsoever & sending a clear signal to wipe it off the face of the earth and the memory of a cowardly race,” Locsin recounted. He alluded to then president Benigno Simeon “Noy” Aquino III.

Notwithstanding our Sabah claims, PNoy continued with Malaysia as third party broker in the Philippine government’s peace negotiations with the Muslim secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). PNoy even invited to come to Manila on March 27, 2014 then Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak as witness to the signing of the peace pact. Incidentally, Najib was convicted in Kuala Lumpur last week on charges of money laundering and abuse of power during his term and sentenced to 12 years in jail.

Tweet-for-tweet, Locsin responds directly to his online bashers and critics. One taunted his stand on South China Sea issue as reflecting President Duterte’s admission of being “inutile” to insist on China to acknowledge The Hague ruling in favor of the Philippines. Tart-tongued Locsin retorted: “Hey idiot, two Chinese ambassadors and I have met time and again to talk about our differences, sometimes heatedly but always forthrightly. I never objected to China making contrary claims nor China to me doing the same with our uncompromising stand. That’s diplomacy.”

Methinks, geo-politics is much dirtier and deadlier than the pandemic.