‘Malaysiagate’

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

3/13/2013

Daily Tribune

At this time when a domestic media war is raging to define the Sabah issue, when hardcore Yellows in the press (and a few in international media) are trying to portray the Sulu sultanate as "opportunist," "irresponsible," and, lately, "deceptive," as opposed to the rest who try to report on historical and current facts objectively, it is very helpful to note that a similar media war is being waged in the United States by the same country Filipinos are up in arms against today — Malaysia.
That country's perfidy and corruption of media to sway global opinion for its interests was the centerpiece of an exposé by Rosie Gray, staff of Internet news magazine BuzzFeed, on March 1 entitled, "Covert Malaysian Campaign Touched a Wide Range of American Media."

The report uncovered how US media outlets "carried pieces financed by the Malaysian government," where payments for such "propaganda for the government of Malaysia" to "conservative American opinion writers — whose work appeared in…the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner to the Washington Times to National Review and RedState — emerged in a filing this week to the Department of Justice."
That filing "under the Foreign Agent Registration Act" outlined "a campaign spanning May 2008 to April 2011" led by conservative pundit Joshua Trevino, "who received $389,724.70 under the contract and paid smaller sums to a series of conservative writers" whereby based on "Trevino's belated federal filing, the interests paying (him) were in fact the government of Malaysia, 'its ruling party, or interests closely aligned with either.'"

A follow through in McCain and Smitty's blog reports: "'MalaysiaGate' Day Four: Conspicuous Silence and Convenient Memory Lapses… Questions about the 'MalaysiaGate' controversy — in which American bloggers were paid as part of a foreign government's public-relations campaign — continued to be asked… The Malaysian PR campaign generated online articles in a number of publications including RedState, National Review, Huffington Post and the Washington Times. An October 2010 article Ben Domenech wrote for the San Francisco Examiner ('The search for moderate Muslims')…promoted the Malaysian ruling party's leadership."
We are thankful to our US-based patriot, Ado Paglinawan, for sending us these news reports exposing Kuala Lumpur's insidious ways in molding public opinion. A YouTube video he sent, however, is currently unavailable to RP netizens.

There are countless bloggers and email operators who are sadly paid hacks, many of them focused on the Philippines whom I have come to identify over the decade in the World Filipino Association (WFA) forum that counts among its members many Filipino migrants in the US who still style themselves as "patriots" while already being US citizens, constantly interfering and simply muddling the debates on Philippine issues.
One of the issues that had become their Waterloo was their universal support for Edsa Dos and Gloria Arroyo as the "economist who would save the Philippines," which support vanished when they quickly turned anti-Gloria upon the Hyatt 10's defection in 2005. It pays to have a memory of these things as only in a historical perspective can many truths be revealed.

One very active emailer these days is a former army captain in the Philippine military who now lives and works in the US. This character had been in touch for years, joining one of the blogs that our movement set up in the course of the Edsa Tres struggle. Lately, some of our blog members have noticed an apparent campaign in very well written essays, lambasting the Kirams. I received a complaint from one of our colleagues, asking me the check out this character's mails. I finally caught up with him in a letter published in a column in Malaya writing, "Let us also ask ourselves who is the fool who convinced other fools that 200 armed men could take Sabah from Malaysia. That is sheer stupidity!"

The real fool, in the first place, is the one who could think that anyone sending a 200-man armed force expects to get Sabah from Malaysia just like that. The fool is the one who does not or pretends not to understand that the courageous force of 200 men was a symbolic act and the shedding of blood was a sacrifice embodying the spirit and determination of a nation.

The fact now is, the Sultanate of Sulu and its people's daring, courage, and sacrifice have achieved victory beyond their wildest expectations, as the issue is now again on the agenda of the United Nations and the international community, so much so that the Philippine ruling class has been spurred into a defensive position for its dereliction of duty and into action against the atrocities of Malaysia's coercions — this, as Filipino nationhood and historical sense is rekindled once more.

I don't think there's a Malaysiagate brewing here just yet; but there has long been a continuing Yellowgate in the Philippines that produces such blatantly disingenuous articles as "A pattern of sultanate deception" — which omits historical facts to favor Malacañang and Malaysian-British perfidy — and "Fallout" — which feigns sympathy for Filipinos in Sabah harassed by Malaysian authorities despite their inalienable birthright to live, thrive, and be sovereign in their historical homeland.

(Note: President Estrada will speak at the "Tribute to Pres. Hugo Chávez" this Thursday, March 14, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., at the UP Diliman College of Science Auditorium, Velasquez Street; tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN's HTL show, GNN Channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 p.m. to 9 p.m., 11:15 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., and over at www.gnntv-asia.com, with this week's topic, "Sabah: An Eternal Struggle;" also visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)