‘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)

Chávez vs neoliberalism

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

3/11/2013

Daily Tribune

"Comandante Eternal," he is now called by some — to be preserved and placed in full view of his nation, his continent, and the whole world in the same manner as Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh, embalmed and exalted as a paradigm of leadership and heroism. If Latin America still had the body of Simon Bolivar who preceded Hugo Chávez by almost 240 years, the two would be placed side by side in the pantheon of the continent's heroes against colonialism and imperialism — first, against Spain and, today, against the government of the United States of America. But Chávez will be known for something more — the struggle against neoliberalism (the philosophy of economic greed that epitomizes Western imperialism today) and the pursuit of social justice and development under a "Socialism of the 21st Century."

And while there is another heroic military leader cum social reformer looked up to by some of our idealist young Filipino officers, both in the active service and elsewhere, in the person of Col. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a Turkish independence revolutionary statesman credited for modernizing and westernizing Turkey, the similarity ends there. Atatürk's militarist approach to social and political leadership, which continues to be an issue in modern Turkey today, as well as the shift in orientation that his state-led economic push eventually took by turning over state assets to capitalists, are without a doubt important distinctions.

It is most important to remember that Col. Hugo Chávez's ascent to leadership came as a logical development of the historical continuity of Latin America's aspiration for genuine independence; hence, the Bolivarian ideal from Simon Bolivar (just as idealist Filipinos continue to revere Rizal, Bonifacio and the Katipunan on their lips), simultaneous with the continuity of the progressive nationalist and socialist ideals that Chávez first encountered when he entered the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences in Caracas under a curriculum known as the Andres Bello Plan instituted by a group of progressive, nationalistic military officers.
Likewise, The Diary of Che Guevara, the Cuban revolution, and his constant contact with the Venezuelan progressive movements of the Left have all made a profound impact on the mind and vision of Col. Hugo Chávez.

Those ideals were mobilized into action when in 1989 the Venezuelan government accepted an International Monetary Fund proposal for "structural adjustments," embodied by what then evolved as the "Washington Consensus," in exchange for a $4.5-billion loan. That, of course, spelled the liberalization, deregulation, and privatization of the Venezuelan economy that involved increasing taxation, raising interest rates, plunging the domestic exchange rate, and the transfer of state assets to private interests. The implementation of these neoliberal "reforms" in turn caused fuel prices and other public utilities such as water to skyrocket, resulting in massive popular protests that government crushed with violent repression, causing deaths estimated between 3,000 and 10,000, leading to a declaration of a state of emergency.

Chávez, already organizing the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement since the early 1980s, sprung into action in 1992, when he led the MBR in a coup attempt against the neoliberal government of President Carlos Andrés Pérez, for which he was imprisoned.
In the aftermath of the failed coup, Chávez spoke on nationwide broadcast media calling on his soldiers to yield and famously accept defeat "por hora" (for now). For that, Chávez's dedication, courage and determination won him the adoration of the people.

Released from prison two years later, Chávez founded the Fifth Republic Movement, a social democratic party, and was elected president of Venezuela in 1998.
In 2007, this group merged with other parties to become the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Thus, with the political ideology of Bolivarianism and his "Socialism of the 21st Century," Chávez launched the Bolivarian Revolution. He organized Bolivarian Circles as the foundation of democracy; nationalized the oil industry; funded health care and education (with 50,000 Cuban professionals in exchange for oil); and caused significant reductions in poverty, according to government figures. Even a UN study attests that poverty rates fell from 48.6 percent in 2002 to 29.5 percent in 2011 under Chávez.

But Chávez was not only to be a Venezuelan leader; he became a Pan-Latin American leader who used his country's oil wealth to support other progressive Latin American and Caribbean nations under ALBA (Alliance of Latin American Bolivarian States) and CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States). Chávez also became a leader on the world stage, linking Latin America with the rest of the anti-Western imperialist nations that include, among others, Iran, China, Russia and Muammar Kadhafi's Libya.

Chávez engaged the poor and progressive forces of the US as well by donating 200 million gallons of heating oil to ex-Rep. Joe Kennedy's charity, Citizens' Energy, in order to heat the US poor's homes, and even offered subsidized oil to the Philippines when he met with President Joseph Estrada in 1999.
Chávez could have done so much more for the world had he not met his untimely passing; but most likely, he will still continue to do so as our "Comandante Eternal," inspiring global change for people everywhere.

(Note: President Estrada will speak at the "Tribute to President Hugo Chávez" this Thursday, March 14, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., UP Diliman College of Science Auditorium, Velasquez St.; 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, "Malaysia Invades Sabah;" also visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)

Ethnic cleansing in Sabah

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

3/6/2013

Daily Tribune

Initial reports in one local mainstream newspaper early this week claimed that 300 Filipinos in Sabah had "returned" to the Philippines as refugees fleeing the fighting there. That same figure or a figure close to it was earlier reported by international media as Filipinos being deported from Sabah. Lately, this has been clarified as 289 Filipinos being deported from Sabah and "worrying about their relatives" there.

Deportation of Filipinos from Sabah by the Malaysian government, however, is nothing new. It has been going on for years now. At the same time, the transfer of population from the Malay Peninsula to Sabah has been ongoing for years as well. The intention is, of course, the marginalization of the original inhabitants of Sabah — the Filipino Tausugs. This is ethnic cleansing.

Ethnic cleansing is a term evolved from the experience of the United Nations in dealing with conflict situations in different countries or nations involving "the process or policy of eliminating unwanted ethnic or religious groups by deportation, forcible displacement, mass murder or by threats of such acts, with the intent of creating a territory inhabited by people of a homogeneous or pure ethnicity, religion, culture and history."

The implicit threat of the Malaysian government of "drastic action," aside from the military crackdown and "elimination" (or massacre) of defiant members of the Filipino Tausug nation in Sabah engaged in the symbolic return of the "Sultan's army," which has turned into a bloody confrontation, is the launching of undisguised ethnic cleansing, which the recent 289 deportees may be the beginning of.

The Aquino government is just continuing the policy of appeasement and capitulation to the British-Malaysian illegal occupation of Sabah. Its figurative and literal "mother," the Cory Aquino government, foisted onto the nation by the fraudulent Edsa I counter-revolution, had, as its counter-revolutionary high point, the attempted ceding of Philippine territory long held in Philippine history as part of the nation's patrimony.

Cory Aquino began the process of "losing" the territory with the removal of the provision previously included in the Philippine Constitution on the National Territory: "The national territory comprises the Philippine archipelago, with all the islands and waters … and all the other territories belonging to the Philippines by historic or legal title, including the territorial sea, the air space…" Cory's — or the Western powers' — Constitutional Commission omitted "historic or legal title."

Sandakan, for example, was the site for Jose Rizal's dream "Utopia" to move landless peasants from his hometown Calamba to form the New Calamba. From Ckomyonisxt's Blog: "Dr. Rizal went to Sabah to negotiate with the British authorities and this mission was a success. They were intended to settle at Bengkoka river and Maradu as well. The British Gov't was willing to give this Filipino colony…100,000 acres of land free of all charges for 999 years. The fact (is) that the long run Sabah Patrimony was one to be the greatest dream(s) of Rizal. Sabah is…our heritage land…"
But for the latest Aquino in Malacañang, like the first one there, this "heritage land" is but a mere commodity to give away in exchange for the family name to carry on as part of the ruling class — a ruling class of families subservient to Western powers.

To divert from the real issue of this government's "a-piece-ment" policy, Aquino is turning to shake the voodoo doll, Mr. Bogeyman, the scarecrow, and the "multo" of "conspirators, plotters, and "critics" behind the growing conflict between Malaysian authorities and the Tausug patriots in Sabah. Aquino's two major media cronies in the Inquirer and Philippine Star are attempting to ridicule the sacrifice of Tausug blood as being like the Marcos-era cult "Lapiang Malaya," besides being "subversive" for "inciting to war;" this, as Malacañang simultaneously uses the age-old ploy of conjuring "other sultans and claimants" to muddle the issue.

None will succeed in erasing the words written in the blood of the patriot Tausug — spoken by Princess Jaycel Kiram — rejecting surrender: "The decision remains the same because honor is above life. This is a clear message of the sultanate. What's the use of life if we lose our honor?"
Princess Jaycel will not find an ear in Malacañang today where — by the tradition handed down from grandfather and Japanese puppet-leader to the son who committed treason in the "Jabidah" exposé in the service of the British, to the mother who "Snopaked" Sabah from the Philippine map for the same master, to the grandson who does not and cannot know anymore the meaning of "honor," with "surrender" written into his DNA — treason is de rigueur.

As Malacañang looks for wriggle room to extricate itself and its tradition of treason from the Sabah bind, the noose gets tighter while the Malaysian occupation government's ethnic cleansing and murder will find even greater opposition from the Tausugs —for all Filipinos are now Tausug.

(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, "Philippine Astronomical Society on Asteroid Threats;" also visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)