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Ambassadors have been mutually withdrawn.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.