What lies behind Philippines-Singapore row<\/p>\n
By Harvey Stockwin<\/p>\n
HONG KONG (JP): Two national inferiority complexes are hard at
\nwork as relations have rapidly deteriorated between Singapore and
\nthe Philippines, two allies in the Association of Southeast Asian
\nNations (ASEAN).<\/p>\n
The downward slide has been precipitated since, on March 17,
\nFilipina domestic helper Flor Contemplacion was hanged in
\nSingapore for a double murder, to which she had earlier
\nconfessed, despite last-minute pleas from the Philippine
\nGovernment for further examination of \"new evidence\" in the case.<\/p>\n
Ambassadors have been mutually withdrawn. Forthcoming visits
\nby the Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chock Tong to Manila, and by
\nthe Philippine Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Arturo Enrile, to
\nSingapore have been canceled. A joint naval exercise set for July
\nhas also been put off. Since further friction appears inevitable,
\nmore negative developments can be expected.<\/p>\n
The nationalist undertow, pulling the countries apart, was
\nsuperbly illustrated as Filipinos in Davao burnt the Singapore
\nflag, and Singapore responded with a haughty note demanding that
\nthe flag-burners be prosecuted. Philippine Foreign Secretary
\nRoberto Romulo, who has tried hard to dampen emotions, felt the
\nSingapore note showed \"a level of insensitivity inappropriate at
\nthis time\".<\/p>\n
Philippine Catholic Bishop Teodoro Bacani brilliantly put his
\nfinger on an essential aspect of the whole fracas -- for both
\nnations -- when he gave a homily at a mass for Contemplacion
\ncontrasting, against the background of Christian doctrine, being
\na nobody with being a somebody.<\/p>\n
Many Filipinos feel that Contemplacion was hung because they
\nare regarded as nobodies, but the fact that so many came to the
\nmass meant she was a somebody. The mass was held at a highly
\nsymbolic location -- at the shrine in Manila set up where, in
\n1986, hundreds of thousands felt they were somebody as they
\nhelped overthrow a detested dictatorship.<\/p>\n
Singapore, on the other hand, has again created a mini-crisis
\nby asserting itself needlessly as a somebody -- out of fear that
\nit might become a nobody.<\/p>\n
First and last, the row, which might have been easily finessed
\nby deft Singaporean diplomacy, is one more spin-off from the
\ncity-state's unofficial doctrine of being a \"poisonous shrimp.\"<\/p>\n
Singapore's leaders cannot rid themselves of deep-seated
\nanxiety over the island's vulnerability as a small but wealthy
\nChinese-majority state set in a potentially jealous non-Chinese
\nsea.<\/p>\n
\"Overnight an oasis can become a desert,\" as Deputy Prime
\nMinister Lee Hsien Loong once articulated the fear. His father,
\nSenior Minister, but effective Singapore ruler, Lee Kuan Yew, has
\nlong believed that the \"shrimp\" must be tough and indigestible if
\nit is to survive in these circumstances. But the net result of
\nthe toughness has been to make Singapore's actions less
\ndigestible within regional politics from time to time.<\/p>\n
Singapore -- and Lee Kuan Yew -- should have no difficulty
\nrecalling that hanging your neighbors can be a hazardous
\nbusiness. Just after the conclusion of Confrontation between
\nMalaysia and Singapore on the one hand, and Indonesia in the
\nother, in the mid-sixties, Singapore hanged two Indonesian
\nmarines despite pleas for clemency from the (then) emerging
\nIndonesian leader Gen. Soeharto.<\/p>\n
The Indonesians felt that their marines merely did their
\nmilitary duty, whereas the Singaporeans saw them as saboteurs who
\nkilled in an undeclared war.<\/p>\n
Commutation to life imprisonment seemed a suitable compromise,
\nbut Singapore decreed that the rule of law required that they
\nproceed with the hanging. The Indonesian reaction was furious and
\nlong lasting. Lee Kuan Yew only secured a state visit with
\nPresident Soeharto many years later after he had laid wreaths on
\nthe marines' graves in the Heroes' Cemetery in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The heavy coverage in Jakarta of this Singapore-Philippines
\ndispute reminds that Indonesia has forgiven but not forgotten
\nthis earlier Singapore behavior.<\/p>\n
Singapore's regional deportment has been similarly inept on
\nthis occasion. Ramos asked only for suspension of Contemplacion's
\ndeath sentence while new evidence was heard. The Singapore
\ngovernment itself declared the evidence invalid, without any
\nadditional court hearing.<\/p>\n
The double murder was committed in 1991 but Contemplacion was
\nonly convicted on the basis of her confession in 1993. Having
\nalready waited another two years before carrying the death
\nsentence out, Singapore might have calculated that, given the
\nimpending six week national election campaign in the Philippines,
\na short additional delay would be a prudent display of regional
\nsolidarity.<\/p>\n
But since, in Singapore's calculus, even the prestige of the
\nU.S. Presidency was merely equated with reducing two strokes of
\nthe cane out of six to be lashed on a vandal's buttocks, Ramos
\nwas predictably unable to do anything to save Contemplacion's
\nneck. ASEAN solidarity counted for nothing.<\/p>\n
All of which brought the Philippines face to face with its own
\nimpotence. A crucial element in the Philippine psyche is that the
\nnation longs to be taken seriously -- but persists in behaving in
\nways that makes this impossible. So it was on this occasion. The
\nmedia and popular opinion took notice of Contemplacion's sad fate
\nfar too late. The nation then allowed itself to be carried away
\non a tide of emotion.<\/p>\n
While the government delayed getting involved in
\nContemplacion's fate until the very last moment, Filipino film-
\nmakers lost no time in talking about making a movie about the
\naffair.<\/p>\n
Their choice of superstar Nora Aunor as the actress to play
\nContemplacion was instructive. Aunor was the first native-looking
\ndark-skinned film star to dominate in Manila movies, as distinct
\nfrom the previously dominant pale-skinned mixed-blood stars. She
\nwas the first star to emerge from the masses to which
\nContemplacion also belonged, giving the downtrodden the feeling
\nthat they can aspire to a place in the sun. As employment
\noverseas rapidly increased in the last decade, it, too, has
\nlikewise given the masses hope.<\/p>\n
Because it longs to be taken seriously, the Philippine elite
\nhas had a difficult time accepting the growing Philippine image
\nof a nation which exports domestic servants all over the world.<\/p>\n
In point of fact, it exports talent along with the workers.
\nFilipinos professionals are to be found all over Asia, often in
\nprestigious positions. Roughly a quarter of the domestics are
\ngraduates from Philippine universities who earn more abroad as
\nservants than they would back home in the professions for which
\nthey have been trained.<\/p>\n
But as foreign remittances have become the Philippines' top
\nsource of foreign exchange, the elite resent the fact that they
\nare seen as a nation which does every other nation's dirty work.
\nHence the constant talk by politicians, from Ramos downwards, of
\nbringing home all the servants by the year 2000. These words are
\nnot matched by deeds.<\/p>\n
So Filipinos also resent the fact that there is no chance that
\nthe two million workers overseas will all find well-paying jobs
\nat home any time soon.<\/p>\n
So while the agitation over Contemplacion's plight does give
\nthe current election campaign populist thrust, it touches much
\ndeeper issues than that. Many of the domestic workers abroad find
\ntrouble in foreign environments. Beheadings in the Middle East,
\nrape by thoughtless foreign employers, the many faces of
\nexploitation of overseas workers -- too often the Philippine
\ngovernment is as indifferent to the masses overseas as it is to
\nthe masses at home.<\/p>\n
Unwittingly, the Singapore government, with its lack of
\nregional sensitivity, has confronted Filipinos with their own
\nfailings. Not surprisingly, Filipino politicians are attacking
\nSingapore rather than themselves.<\/p>\n
ASEAN normally constrains nationalist antagonisms -- but not
\non this occasion.<\/p>\n
Another usually hidden intra-ASEAN tension has been between
\nthe authoritarian and the democratic tendencies within Southeast
\nAsia. The way in which Contemplacion's case was handled has
\nbrought this strand into play.<\/p>\n
When he was last in Manila, Lee Kuan Yew, once widely seen by
\nFilipinos as a supporter of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos,
\nlectured Filipinos on the advantages of authoritarianism. The
\nstrength of the Philippine response over the hanging emphasizes
\nthat his authoritarian lecture and behavior are deeply resented
\n-- and that democracy continues to be an important value for
\nFilipinos, whatever the failings of their democratic system.<\/p>\n
This controversy also comes at a moment when Singapore leaders
\nare avidly lecturing the Western world on the relevance of \"Asian
\nValues.\"<\/p>\n
These lectures, too, can be seen as part of the desperate
\nSingapore drive to be a real somebody.<\/p>\n
But that status will probably be elusive, just so long as the
\nuniversal value which Singapore -- and particularly Lee Kuan Yew
\n-- has never accepted is that \"magnanimity in politics is not
\nseldom the truest wisdom.\"<\/p>\n
Window: Singapore, on the other hand, has again created a mini-
\ncrisis by asserting itself needlessly as a somebody -- out of fear
\nthat it might become a nobody.<\/p>",
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