What lies behind Philippines-Singapore row

What lies behind Philippines-Singapore row

By Harvey Stockwin

HONG KONG (JP): Two national inferiority complexes are hard at
work as relations have rapidly deteriorated between Singapore and
the Philippines, two allies in the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN).

The downward slide has been precipitated since, on March 17,
Filipina domestic helper Flor Contemplacion was hanged in
Singapore for a double murder, to which she had earlier
confessed, despite last-minute pleas from the Philippine
Government for further examination of "new evidence" in the case.

Ambassadors have been mutually withdrawn. Forthcoming visits
by the Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chock Tong to Manila, and by
the Philippine Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Arturo Enrile, to
Singapore have been canceled. A joint naval exercise set for July
has also been put off. Since further friction appears inevitable,
more negative developments can be expected.

The nationalist undertow, pulling the countries apart, was
superbly illustrated as Filipinos in Davao burnt the Singapore
flag, and Singapore responded with a haughty note demanding that
the flag-burners be prosecuted. Philippine Foreign Secretary
Roberto Romulo, who has tried hard to dampen emotions, felt the
Singapore note showed "a level of insensitivity inappropriate at
this time".

Philippine Catholic Bishop Teodoro Bacani brilliantly put his
finger on an essential aspect of the whole fracas -- for both
nations -- when he gave a homily at a mass for Contemplacion
contrasting, against the background of Christian doctrine, being
a nobody with being a somebody.

Many Filipinos feel that Contemplacion was hung because they
are regarded as nobodies, but the fact that so many came to the
mass meant she was a somebody. The mass was held at a highly
symbolic location -- at the shrine in Manila set up where, in
1986, hundreds of thousands felt they were somebody as they
helped overthrow a detested dictatorship.

Singapore, on the other hand, has again created a mini-crisis
by asserting itself needlessly as a somebody -- out of fear that
it might become a nobody.

First and last, the row, which might have been easily finessed
by deft Singaporean diplomacy, is one more spin-off from the
city-state's unofficial doctrine of being a "poisonous shrimp."

Singapore's leaders cannot rid themselves of deep-seated
anxiety over the island's vulnerability as a small but wealthy
Chinese-majority state set in a potentially jealous non-Chinese
sea.

"Overnight an oasis can become a desert," as Deputy Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong once articulated the fear. His father,
Senior Minister, but effective Singapore ruler, Lee Kuan Yew, has
long believed that the "shrimp" must be tough and indigestible if
it is to survive in these circumstances. But the net result of
the toughness has been to make Singapore's actions less
digestible within regional politics from time to time.

Singapore -- and Lee Kuan Yew -- should have no difficulty
recalling that hanging your neighbors can be a hazardous
business. Just after the conclusion of Confrontation between
Malaysia and Singapore on the one hand, and Indonesia in the
other, in the mid-sixties, Singapore hanged two Indonesian
marines despite pleas for clemency from the (then) emerging
Indonesian leader Gen. Soeharto.

The Indonesians felt that their marines merely did their
military duty, whereas the Singaporeans saw them as saboteurs who
killed in an undeclared war.

Commutation to life imprisonment seemed a suitable compromise,
but Singapore decreed that the rule of law required that they
proceed with the hanging. The Indonesian reaction was furious and
long lasting. Lee Kuan Yew only secured a state visit with
President Soeharto many years later after he had laid wreaths on
the marines' graves in the Heroes' Cemetery in Jakarta.

The heavy coverage in Jakarta of this Singapore-Philippines
dispute reminds that Indonesia has forgiven but not forgotten
this earlier Singapore behavior.

Singapore's regional deportment has been similarly inept on
this occasion. Ramos asked only for suspension of Contemplacion's
death sentence while new evidence was heard. The Singapore
government itself declared the evidence invalid, without any
additional court hearing.

The double murder was committed in 1991 but Contemplacion was
only convicted on the basis of her confession in 1993. Having
already waited another two years before carrying the death
sentence out, Singapore might have calculated that, given the
impending six week national election campaign in the Philippines,
a short additional delay would be a prudent display of regional
solidarity.

But since, in Singapore's calculus, even the prestige of the
U.S. Presidency was merely equated with reducing two strokes of
the cane out of six to be lashed on a vandal's buttocks, Ramos
was predictably unable to do anything to save Contemplacion's
neck. ASEAN solidarity counted for nothing.

All of which brought the Philippines face to face with its own
impotence. A crucial element in the Philippine psyche is that the
nation longs to be taken seriously -- but persists in behaving in
ways that makes this impossible. So it was on this occasion. The
media and popular opinion took notice of Contemplacion's sad fate
far too late. The nation then allowed itself to be carried away
on a tide of emotion.

While the government delayed getting involved in
Contemplacion's fate until the very last moment, Filipino film-
makers lost no time in talking about making a movie about the
affair.

Their choice of superstar Nora Aunor as the actress to play
Contemplacion was instructive. Aunor was the first native-looking
dark-skinned film star to dominate in Manila movies, as distinct
from the previously dominant pale-skinned mixed-blood stars. She
was the first star to emerge from the masses to which
Contemplacion also belonged, giving the downtrodden the feeling
that they can aspire to a place in the sun. As employment
overseas rapidly increased in the last decade, it, too, has
likewise given the masses hope.

Because it longs to be taken seriously, the Philippine elite
has had a difficult time accepting the growing Philippine image
of a nation which exports domestic servants all over the world.

In point of fact, it exports talent along with the workers.
Filipinos professionals are to be found all over Asia, often in
prestigious positions. Roughly a quarter of the domestics are
graduates from Philippine universities who earn more abroad as
servants than they would back home in the professions for which
they have been trained.

But as foreign remittances have become the Philippines' top
source of foreign exchange, the elite resent the fact that they
are seen as a nation which does every other nation's dirty work.
Hence the constant talk by politicians, from Ramos downwards, of
bringing home all the servants by the year 2000. These words are
not matched by deeds.

So Filipinos also resent the fact that there is no chance that
the two million workers overseas will all find well-paying jobs
at home any time soon.

So while the agitation over Contemplacion's plight does give
the current election campaign populist thrust, it touches much
deeper issues than that. Many of the domestic workers abroad find
trouble in foreign environments. Beheadings in the Middle East,
rape by thoughtless foreign employers, the many faces of
exploitation of overseas workers -- too often the Philippine
government is as indifferent to the masses overseas as it is to
the masses at home.

Unwittingly, the Singapore government, with its lack of
regional sensitivity, has confronted Filipinos with their own
failings. Not surprisingly, Filipino politicians are attacking
Singapore rather than themselves.

ASEAN normally constrains nationalist antagonisms -- but not
on this occasion.

Another usually hidden intra-ASEAN tension has been between
the authoritarian and the democratic tendencies within Southeast
Asia. The way in which Contemplacion's case was handled has
brought this strand into play.

When he was last in Manila, Lee Kuan Yew, once widely seen by
Filipinos as a supporter of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos,
lectured Filipinos on the advantages of authoritarianism. The
strength of the Philippine response over the hanging emphasizes
that his authoritarian lecture and behavior are deeply resented
-- and that democracy continues to be an important value for
Filipinos, whatever the failings of their democratic system.

This controversy also comes at a moment when Singapore leaders
are avidly lecturing the Western world on the relevance of "Asian
Values."

These lectures, too, can be seen as part of the desperate
Singapore drive to be a real somebody.

But that status will probably be elusive, just so long as the
universal value which Singapore -- and particularly Lee Kuan Yew
-- has never accepted is that "magnanimity in politics is not
seldom the truest wisdom."

Window: Singapore, on the other hand, has again created a mini-
crisis by asserting itself needlessly as a somebody -- out of fear
that it might become a nobody.