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Author Topic: martial law at a different angle  (Read 1345 times)

azriel

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martial law at a different angle
« on: March 15, 2006, 09:02:44 pm »
Got this from my email today. sana di pa posted. any comments?

Emergency
FIRST PERSON By Alex Magno
The Philippine Star 03/16/2006

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is threatening to show us how it
is really done.

On his desk is a declaration of a state of emergency that will empower
him to detain rabble rousers for thirty days without charges and without
a warrant. That same declaration will allow him broad powers that will,
in effect, put democracy in a state of suspended animation.

And the Thai leader is not even staring down a coup attempt like our
government had to on the morning of February 24.

Thaksin threatens to sign that document if the demonstrators do not
clear the streets of Bangkok. People there who are supporting a firm
response by the Prime Minister use the analogy of Beijing's response to
the tumult at Tiananmen Square over a decade-and-a-half ago: had the
Chinese government failed to respond with sufficient decisiveness, the
economic miracle we now witness would have been nipped in the bud and
hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens would still be wallowing in
abject poverty.

I recall that Crispin Beltran and his ilk praised what we know outside
China as the "Tiananmen massacre." The Communist Party of the
Philippines was the only political group of note that supported the
action of the Communist party of China.

As I write this, Thaksin has yet to sign that document. I will not be
surprised if he executes that declaration if the noisy rabble rousers
gathered the streets of Bangkok refuse to be intimidated by the threat.

There are times when statesmen need to assert the majesty of the state
when unelectable demagogues make a travesty of democratic processes.

I listened intently the other day to a long interview granted by Thaksin
to the CNN. His mind was clear about the correctness of his position.
His conviction seemed unshakeable.

His understanding of democracy and the dictates of statesmanship was
lucid. If his enemies wanted power, they should contest it in an
election. If they are not willing to do that, and instead threaten him
with expulsion by unconstitutional means, he will deal with them with an
iron fist.

That is how it should be.

Revolutions should never come easy. Regimes have as much right to
defends themselves as self-appointed messiahs have the right to think
they have divine appointment to move mountains.

Democracies should never be weak. Accountable, maybe, but not weak.
Otherwise a nation's freedom will be in constant peril of being overcome
by armed messiahs.

In Thailand, a small but vociferous minority arrogantly claims to speak
on behalf of the people. Unable to win elections, they want to take
power by besieging the capital with some counterfeit exercise of "people
power." They claim some sort of exceptional right to think on behalf of
those they think are incapable of thought.

They are an overbearing, self-righteous lot - not unlike the those in
our own streets who think they own the franchise for the Edsa Revolution
and readily attempt to overthrow a government entirely out of peeve.

They claim to be democrats but refuse to abide by the ground rules of
democratic practice. They have the gumption to declare a sitting
government "illegitimate" and yet are willing to conspire with military
adventurers to install a "transitional" government by the barrel of the
gun, handing over power to a cabal of unelectable but ambitious players.


In Bangkok, as in Manila, these pretenders to power find themselves
ranged against a strong-willed leader. A leader who is willing to
demonstrate that democracy, for all its imperfection, is not defenseless
against impostors.

While the deck is being cleared in Bangkok for a decisive engagement
between Thaksin and those who want to force him out of power by the
destructive force of anarchy, here in Manila we are busy whining about a
briefly declared state of emergency that did not really give the
President emergency powers.

At the Senate, quality senatorial time is again being squandered
discussing the "suppression" of a paper that was never really closed
down and the matter of a search warrant on the offices of the Philippine
Center for Investigative Journalism that, it turns out, was never issued
in the first place.

At the House of Representatives, so much media space has been taken by a
ghost story: the tale of yet another scandalous video that no one had
seen and no one has bought. So much media space has been wasted covering
those five leftist congressmen who have become informal settlers on
public property, freeloading at public expense and, like robots, waving
their fists every time a camera is pointed in their direction.

True, one arrest has indeed been made the other day.

Linggoy Alcuaz, erstwhile director of the PCSO, took home a public
vehicle and, for over a year, refused to return public property. He has
also left over P800,000 in cash advances unliquidated.

As a matter of course, he was taken to court by the lawyers of the PCSO.
After so much waiting, an arrest warrant was issued. Thereafter, we see
Linggoy crying political persecution.

His attitude seems to be symptomatic. Those who oppose government think
that, by virtue of their political stripe, they should be immune from
arrest. They may jaywalk, cause massive traffic jams by marching in the
streets without a permit, conspire with those who seek the armed
overthrow of elected government and yet, precisely because they are
anti-government they should not be arrested because that would
constitute undemocratic "persecution".

What sort of idiocy has descended upon our political discourse?

If there is one more thing we have to envy about Thailand, it is the
clarity of their political utterance. When Thaksin says he will impose a
state of emergency, he is bound to deliver the real thing.

Here we are engulfed by grayness. The very clowns who are conspiring to
establish a "transitional revolutionary government" are now trying to
convince us that they are not committing sedition by doing so.

oj

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Re: martial law at a different angle
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2006, 02:21:14 am »
Di ba si Alex Magno ay "adviser" ni GMA?
If that is correct, I wouldn't put too much weight on it.
Just remember, they arrested C. Beltran base on a warrant of arrest issued in 1985 (during Marcos time, pre-Edsa I). If that's not silly enough, I don't know what is...

azriel

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Re: martial law at a different angle
« Reply #2 on: March 19, 2006, 02:41:18 am »
sa kin naman, iba rin kasi situation sa thailand at sa tin... kung di sana niloko ng kampo ni gloria ang eleksyon, baka pa. pero i was there in davao during the election, at talagang panalo si FPJ. kaya nahihirapan si gloria makuha yung full support ng tao eh... alam kasi ng lahat na talo sya.

soldakez

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Re: martial law at a different angle
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2006, 06:47:39 am »
tama po si sir noli, iba nga ang situation sa thailand versus dito sa Pinas.


At yun pong solution ni Thaksin sa kanyang problem, not necessarily applicable po sa ating country.