The Ghost Of Leticia Ramos-Shahani
The ghost of former Senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani haunts me,
and I am glad. I've always been afraid of seeing a ghost, but not of this one –
she makes me braver than I thought I could be! On her advice, this time,
bravery is the soul of wit. Are you wit me? "Wit" refers to
"intelligent playfulness" as well as "the natural ability to
perceive and understand" (American
Heritage Dictionary). Pity the living soul that is without wit! And we have
a multitude among our Filipino politicians.
Is Shahani gone? Only physically. Her ghost should haunt us
now! (The original of the image above is a favorite of her daughter Lila; I
have painterized it, which is a favorite trick of mine.)
I discovered yesterday these haunting words from Shahani on
the webpages of Asia Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation Inc, which has a
Facebook account (facebook.com/appfi.ph).
She wrote last year a 640-word opinion on "Philippine-Chinese relations"
– note, not "Chinese-Philippine relations" (no date, appfi.ph).
When Shahani describes the relationship between China and the Philippines as "eyeball-to-eyeball,"
she describes a brave Philippines! Pray tell me, do you have the courage to
tell me where I can find it?
Are we Filipinos brave? Not that I have seen, or heard. Takrot ti Pilipino. The Filipino is a
coward. But he has Brave New Words.
Like:
"China is good to us. America is our friend but they
abandoned us... The Americans are characterized as the monkey riding your
back... China is my neighbor. I just want to make friends and trade so that my
people will be happy and we can improve the country" (news.abs-cbn.com).
"We cannot stop China from doing its thing. Even the
Americans were not able to stop them... So what do you want me to do, declare
war on China?" (philstar.com).
"Why did you not send the armada of the 7th
Fleet?" Duterte to US Ambassador Sung Kim (aljazeera.com).
"Rodrigo Duterte seems
alarmingly resigned to new Chinese building activity in the South China Sea"
(qz.com).
Not alarmingly resigned, Sir,
no, just resigned. Or simply and delightfully watching the bull in the China
shop, which is ours.
About the treasures of West
Philippine Sea, Duterte says, "Even if I wanted to extract everything, we
do not have the capital. Even the (oil) rig and everything, we can't afford it.
I would consider sharing it" (channelnewsasia.com).
About Chinese vessels in
Benham Rise, a waterbody East of Luzon that has been recognized by the United
Nations as belonging to the Philippines, Duterte says, "Bakit ka naman
mag-walang hiya para magdaan lang? (Why would you raise hell if they just pass there?)
And so what if they stop there? They admit it is within the territory of the
Philippines. That does not satisfy you?"
"Duterte foreign policy direction 'confusing': security
analysts" (Ellen T Tordesillas, 27 March 2017, Vera Files, verafiles.org).
No Ma'am and Sirs, the direction is not confusing; it's very clear to me the
direction is East this time, West next time, North this time, and South next
time.
Rodrigo Duterte is the kind of diplomat that Leticia
Ramos-Shahani had been afraid of, to say the least. How would she have described
him? Using a diplomatic word instead of coward?
Figure of speech. Maybe invertebrate,
to signify lack of backbone. Maybe pusillanimous,
to signify timidity. Maybe Momma's Boy,
to signify wuss. Or maybe dotard, to signify trembling. Whatever
it is, she might have come up with, she knew he wouldn't like it. So she would
not. So she did not. She played the diplomatic game even when others would not.
In other
words, Shahani said we have to confront our demons!
Today, from the grave, Shahani says, and I quote from her thoughts
published by Asia Pacific Pathways last year (as cited):
Philippine-Chinese
relations, between these two neighbors who have peacefully interacted with each
other in the past, are both profound and complex because they have been based
on people-to-people relations. The Philippines, representing the smaller and
younger culture, has been on the receiving end of Chinese culture and migration
for centuries.
"(Filipinos have) been on the receiving end of Chinese culture
and migration" – that makes me think of "Chinese culture and
denigration" – in fact, the Chinese are denigrating us not because of our
weak army and navy but because of our weak, or demoralizing, leadership. Are
Filipinos pathetic? You are known by the leadership you keep.
Today, from the grave, Shahani says:
Philippine foreign
policy did not develop into the eyeball-to-eyeball relationship it now is
between the Philippines and China until the outbreak of the West Philippine Sea
(WPS) issue, well into the 1990s.
If I remember right, it was Shahani who started calling that
body of water that belongs to us "West Philippine Sea." The meaning
is clear to the diplomat, but not to the politician who must play his own game.
Today, from the grave, Shahani says:
With the issue on the
West Philippine Sea, however, the fundamentals of Philippine-Chinese relations
have become drastically altered, and now need to be understood within the
context of a threatening military-economic power game. As one who was born and
raised in Lingayen, Pangasinan's capital town, right smack on the Lingayen
Gulf, where thousands of families depend on the sea for their livelihood,
issues of sovereignty and territorial integrity are to me not intellectual
issues to be analyzed for academic or theoretical lessons in international
relations, but they are real life-and-death issues, as for millions of
Filipinos and hundreds of local government units. "Foreign policy"
has thus become conflated with "domestic policy".
The people of Pangasinan, where I was born, especially the
fishermen, knew that that sea belonged to the Philippines, and they would happily
fish there. If you prevent them from doing so, it becomes a matter of life and
death to them.
Look at the above image again: "Boo!" Shahani is
saying to the politicians who are betraying their country for their own
interests. If you deny the military-economic power game being played by China,
you are either pro-Chinese or anti-Filipino, no matter your protestations. Or
you are hopelessly ineducable.
On Facebook, Queen Elizabeth says, "Philippines
government needs support not condemnation." I accept, except the grammar;
it should be "Philippine government." No, we Filipinos don't need
condemnation because that is counter-productive. Yes, we need support because
we have a sagging (banana) international leadership.
Or, as to be kind to animals, I say our politicians are
selfish, most of them. Adam Smith says in The
Theory Of Moral Sentiments (6th ed, 1790, ibiblio.org):
Howsoever selfish man
may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest
him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him,
though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.
Considering the happiness of others? Not those selfish Filipino
politicians, I say.
Shahani would have appreciated this one from Quartz, source cited above, this
self-explanatory map from US Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska. This is from the
Facebook account of Sullivan:
China continues to
pursue a "strategic triangle" in the middle of the South China Sea,
which would significantly threaten key US allies and our interests in the
region. To complete the final point of this triangle, rumors have surfaced of
increased Chinese maritime activity near Scarborough Shoal, a feature which
sits a mere 140 nautical miles from the Philippines – one of America's
strongest regional allies. The rings in the diagram below depict the
approximate range of Chinese fighters, and illustrate the disturbing impact
China's continued attempts at hegemony pose to the security of our allies.
Nearly one-third of
the world's maritime trade passes through the South China Sea. China's provocation
must be answered with frequent US freedom of navigation operations – to such an
extent that they are no longer newsworthy – and a strengthening of our
relationships with our Asia-Pacific allies and partners.
Did
Shahani say we should rely on our allies because we are helpless? Shahani was
not defeatist. She was an activist in more ways than one. Being a patriot, pacifist,
feminist and farmer, she would have made a great
Philippine President!
Today, from the grave, Shahani says:
What must Filipinos
do? The list is long but here (is) my list of priorities. We have to understand
and act accordingly that: (a) as citizens of the Philippines, we are duty-bound
to defend our sovereignty, national territory and national interest because no
one else will; (b) under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, ratified by
the Philippines and China, the Philippines, as an archipelago, and China, as a
coastal state, both have rights and obligations that must be respected and
honored; (c) as citizens of the Philippines we have a responsibility to defend
a coastline which happens to be the 5th longest in the world; (d) we have to
live peacefully with the world, especially with our neighbors. However,
Filipinos MUST know the realities of their nationhood FIRST and therefore must
actively FORGE, TOGETHER WITH THE STATE, AN INDEPENDENT FOREIGN POLICY.
Those ALLCAPS are from her. "Filipinos MUST know the
realities of their nationhood FIRST and therefore must actively FORGE, TOGETHER
WITH THE STATE, AN INDEPENDENT FOREIGN POLICY."
Correct
me if I'm wrong, but I see that what we have now is independent foreign policy
– independent of the national interests of the Filipino people!
To
those independent politicians, my wish is this: May the ghost of Leticia Ramos-Shahani discompose you till the day you die! @
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