RP cleans up its facade before APEC Summit
RP cleans up its facade before APEC Summit
By Juergen Dauth
SINGAPORE (DPA): The Philippine government is cleaning up its
facade for the Nov. 25 Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
summit in Manila. The poor are being expelled from the capital
and human rights activists and critics are not being let into the
country.
One is reminded of the era of Ferdinand Marcos, Philippine
president and dictator from 1965 to 1986. Whenever Marcos had a
visitor, the parlor was spring-cleaned. In Manila, where foreign
visitors were bound to put in an appearance, that was a major
operation. The central reservation on the main road to the
airport was replanted, flags were flown and municipal workers
were given new yellow tee shirts.
Above all, the slums that lined the main road to the airport
were cleared, with bulldozers being sent into to flatten the
shanty towns, while the poor were loaded onto trucks and driven
out into the country.
The Philippines has since reverted to a democratic system of
government and President Fidel Ramos is fond of calling himself
the president of the poor. Yet the same is now happening as used
to happen in the Marcos era.
On Nov. 25 the heads of state and government of APEC countries
are due to arrive for the summit, and that means visitors from
the United States and Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Papua-
New Guinea, Chile, China, Taiwan, Mexico, Hong Kong, Britain,
Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
Ramos is keen to show them all that the "sick man" of the
South China Sea has staged a full recovery. Nothing is to mar the
impression that the Philippines is prosperous and doing well, and
that particularly means the poor, who have been cleared from the
streets between Manila and Subic Bay.
At a cost of millions the former U.S. naval base has been
fitted out as a conference center -- a sham and a facade aimed at
attracting foreign investors. Not a single discordant note is to
disturb the Asia-Pacific growth region as it complacently
concentrates on itself.
That is why potential troublemakers have been blacklisted and
are not allowed into the country. Not even Ferdinand Marcos, who
otherwise lacked none of the failings of an authoritarian
potentate, barred overseas critics from visiting the country. The
worst he tried to do was to corrupt them by being over-generous.
President Ramos, in contrast, is afraid of anyone who might
tear down the facade of his public relations campaign and point
out that not all APEC summit guests are honorable men. South
African Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been
blacklisted, as have this year's laureates Bishop Carlos Belo and
Jose Ramos-Horta of East Timor.
Bishop Aloisius Nobuo-Soma of Japan is persona non grata for
the duration of the APEC summit. So is Danielle Mitterrand, human
rights campaigner and widow of the late French president.
Ramos hopes that by barring them he can take the edge off an
international human rights conference which is to be held
parallel to the APEC summit and plans to take a closer look at
sham democracies in the Asia-Pacific region.