A big hear-hear: Philippine Senate passes resolution calling for Myanmar`s expulsion from ASEAN

There`s a flicker of hope that the ASEAN would do more to adress the abuses and the excesses of the tyrranical regime of Than Swe and his minions in Nyawpyitaw. It came in the form of a resolution passed by the Senate of the Philippines, which is currently the chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The Philippines, being a crazy lover of democracy, has been the harshest critic in the ASEAN of the the ruling junta in Myanmar. In 2005, for example, it defied the ASEAN consensus system by voting for a UN Security Council resolution condemning the junta`s human rights abuses. It was a not-so-pleasant surprise, for the ASEAN countries expected that Manila`s vote would be ASEAN`s vote in the Council (the regional bloc`s consensus then was to protect Burma from UN sanctions).

It is not surprising then that while other ASEAN governments are issuing phony condemnations, the upper house of the Congress of the Philippines does something that others are won`t to do: call for the junta`s expulsion.
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FREE BURMA!

The people of Myanmar has been sufferring under the butal Orwellian regime of Than Swe and his junta even before this blogger was born.

The well-endowed country had a potential for economic stability when it achieved statehood in the late 1940s, but the military rulers turned it into the backwater that it presently is. In 1988, my birth year, the Burmese people finally decided that their country deserved a better government. Edsa-style pro-democracy revolt erupted, only to be bruttally supressed Tianamen-style by the uniformed tyrrants.

Pressured by the international community, the ruling regime then promised the country democratization. Aung Suu Kyi was elected leader in a free election in 1990. Reforms were promised, and the junta was granted membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

But the generals` greed and lust for power proved to be harder than international pressure to resist.

Today, Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate, is in jail. There is no freedom of speech, of assembly and of expression. The promises of reforms were never kept. But that is the least of the Burmese people`s problems.

The bigger concern is the fact that a quarter of the population is currently living with less than a dollar per day. Basic commodities are skyrocketing. The junta just announced another oil price hike. Budget deficit is so severe the government didn`t even bother to drew up a budget for the fiscal year. People walk to their work because they coudn`t afford bus fares. Water and electricity is a luxury while cellular phones and access to the Internet are virtually non-existent. And General Than Swe spent millions for a lavish wedding feast for his daughter. 

The people of Myanmar has been pushed way beyond their limits. If the junta`s rule would continue, the people of Myanmar will never make it. They will never survive, unless they fight, rise and unite in revolt against a diabolical regime. Such is their most important inalianable right. Such is their last resort.

And now that they, led by the holy men in marroon robes, are risking their lives doing exactly that, the international community should not just stand idly by. Every peace-loving country should do better than waging a phony war with the junta in Nyawpitaw.

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Lyceum won again!

More good news.

After Glady Brojan trashed one debater from Ateneo de Manila University, Suzy Selleza and Barny Rivera defeated Ateneo de Davao University in the latest episode of ANC`s Face Off. Lyceum would now advance to the televised tournament`s quarterfinals.

Next opponent: Univiersity of the Philippines Diliman.

What should ASEAN expect from Yasuo Fukuda?

I got an e-mail from Mr. Guillermo H. A. Santos, former UNESCO commissioner, distinguished international journalist and lecturer at the Lyceum of the Philippines University. The message was in response to my previous blog entry about the race to succeed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and was full of questions about the thoughts of the front-runner, former chief cabinet secretary Yasuo Fukuda. Here`s part of the e-mail:

Good work, gathering these. I have some questions:

1) What is Fukuda’s stand on Abe’s advocacy to
remilitarize or semimilitarize Japan, starting with
the constitutional change, virtually redefining the
role of the "defense forces" and restoring Japan’s
miliary heroes to their pedestals, etc? This is one
question everyone in the Asean is concerned of.

2) What is Fukuda’s (personal) stand on Iran’s nuclear
development (even considering Japan’s alliance with
the U.S.) I know this is tough to get from the
published reports in English in Japan. But what do you
get from your friends in the campus and other sources
you may have now there?

3) What is Fukuda’s stand on Burma? How does he think
Burma should be handled or nursed until its own
democratization is half-achieved with the release of
Suu Kyi (eventually in the next three years)?

I know the LDP is publicly united specially when it
comes to foreign policy. But is there anyway you can
read Fukuda’s personal stances on these questions?

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Estrada`s guilty verdict a political convenience for squatter Arroyo.

So, Joseph Estrada has just been acquitted of perjury but convicted of economic plunder and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Sandiganbayan.

I always believed that if Estrada is guilty of anything, it should be of having unexplained wealth (or maybe perjury) but not of plunder. The prosecution`s case just didn`t make sense to me. But then again, I do not know how the Sandiganbayan justified its decision. So unless I get to read the ruling, I think it would be better for me to keep my mouth shut about its merits.

As to the question of wether or not Gloria Arroyo pulled strings behind the scenes, I can only speculate. What I know is that this verdict is a win-win solution for Arroyo. I am sure that this is exactly what Arroyo and her minions wished for.

Why? Because a not-guilty verdict would undermine the legitimacy of Edsa Dos. Imagine, if Erap turns out to be innocent, how would the civil socialites explain their going extra-constituional in ousting a popular president?

So, would Estrada land in jail? I don`t think so. I think every politician in the Philippines knows that Estrada`s supporters should never be underestimated.

It`s either Arroyo would pardon Erap so she could apease (and probably even get pogi-points from) the Erap loyalists or her minions would allow Estrada to appeal the ruling and have the trial prolonged, with the ultimate verdict being handed down long after Arroyo is no longer in office.

As for me, I feel that something is just not right. I do not regard Erap as a saint, but I think he`s getting these things not because of his faults but because he had, during his presidency, the audacity of defying the country`s elite establishment.

Creepy

When my mother and her friend met the day before yesterday to catch up on each other, mom immediately noticed that she looked so stressed out.

When mom inquired, the friend told her she missed her grandmother so much. And then she talked, for almost two hours, about the nice old lady.  Everytime my mother opened up another topic, she always managed to bring the conversation back to her grandma. Mom found that strange, considering that she hasn`t even met her lola.

And then this morning, that same friend called up mom. She was crying. I mean weeping, like a child would when you grab his lollipop. She said her lola just died at the exact moment when she met my mom.

Really creepy, if you`d ask me.

God bless her soul.

There goes the Philippine economy

When I read Inquirer`s banner headline announcing the record-breaking 7.5 per cent growth of the Philippines` Gross Domestic Product and eight per cent for the Gross National Product, my heart danced in joy for a moment. This figure overtook those of Asian economic powerhouses Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong and is the country`s best performance in twenty years.

I hate Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. I always have an image of her hanging by my Christmas tree whenever I think of what for me would be a perfect Christmas. But the recent media coverage both here in Tokyo and there in Manila of the performance of the Philippine economy seems to project that the Palace squatter is doing a good job.
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Super song from Brazil

Here`s one Brazillian rock song that made me more interested with Brazil.

Ana Julia by Los Hermanos.

World Debate Rankings 2007: From 427, Lyceum`s rank down to 429.

My dear Lyceum of the Philippines University is at the bottom of the latest unofficial World Debate Rankings compiled by the World Debating Website.

Similarly, debating giant Ateneo de Manila`s rank went down to seven from five the last time I checked last year. But still, Ateneo remains the only Asian university, indeed the only institution from a non-native English-speaking country, to make it to the list`s top ten. The said university precedes the United States` Yale (8th) and Harvard (31)universities.

But then again, what is the yardstick behind this ranking?
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Hot stuff up north

Now I concede. Humans, not an alien race or a giant piece of space rock, will one day destroy their very own civilization.

Call it cunning. I say it`s stupid. Call it wise political strategy. I say it`s greedy. And diabolically so. 

As most of my fellow International Relations students would know, one situation is slowly becoming an international hot-spot: the overlapping claims of several countries for ownership of the Northern Passage- the North Pole.

Canada`s prime minister, who seems to be finding nostalgia in the fact that these overlapping claims are making Canada`s foreign policy-making less boring, recently announced his intentions to establish a military outpost up there.

No, he`s not preparing to defend Canada against an army of penguins.
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