Peace Researcher 30 – March 2005
This
Philippine Daily Inquirer editorial (“Mixed Legacy”, 9/6/04) is a vital reality check for those
wading through the bullshit following Reagan’s death. It’s startlingly
different from those of mainstream media in other countries, including New
Zealand and provides the true Third World perspective. Filipinos have no reason to mourn Reagan. His Presidency coincided with
the final years of the vicious Marcos martial law dictatorship, which Reagan
supported to the hilt. When People Power 1 had Ferdinand Marcos surrounded in
the Malacanang Palace, in 1986, it was the US military that flew him out, and
he went into exile in Reagan’s America. At least Reagan got a State funeral and
was promptly buried. Ferdinand Marcos has had neither. He died, in Hawaiian
exile, in 1989, and remains, unburied and on public display, in a refrigerated
crypt in his political stronghold in the far north of Luzon, the main island.
His widow, the repulsive Imelda, is holding out for him to be buried with other
former Presidents, in Metro Manila. She’d also like him to have a State
funeral. These remain political hot potatoes for Filipino governments, no
matter how kindly disposed they might be towards the Marcoses, so he’s not
likely to be buried anytime soon. Ed.
The “Palace in the Sky” *, the hilltop
mansion the Ferdinand Marcos had built in Tagaytay City, outside Manila, is
Ronald Wilson Reagan's monument in the Philippines. It is a monument to the
cynicism and extravagance his leadership inspired in Filipino politicians. A
manipulative and mendicant reaction to Reagan that, in the end, resulted in the
betrayal of a traditional relationship that is Reagan's true legacy to
Filipinos. *The Palace in the Sky,
overlooking the beautiful Lake Taal, is a blot on the landscape, and another
illustration of the fact that, although the Marcoses were guilty of many
heinous crimes, nobody ever accused them of having good taste. Ed.
His relation with the Philippines began as a special guest in the inauguration of the Cultural Center of the Philippines in the early 1970s. It blossomed into a personal relationship with the Marcoses. A relationship the Marcoses used to personify the larger, sentimental, relationship an older generation of Filipinos felt for America and Americans. It ended in bitterness, disbelief and betrayal.
Reagan and Ferdinand Marcos belonged to what the Americans call their “greatest generation”, and which we remember as the generation of Filipinos and Americans bound together by ties of loyalty and sentiment due to the shared sacrifices of World War 2. It was a relationship characterised by a sense of brotherhood filled with gratitude on the part of Filipinos. Reagan and Marcos, for a time, stood tall together. Their countrymen took pride in that shared sense of partnership.
For all his sense of vision, his devotion to the American brand of democracy, and his conservatism that changed the political landscape of America, Reagan's influence on the Philippines and Latin America represented nothing new, and in fact, represented a darker, more sinister permutation of American policy. Democracy was something to be insisted upon in Europe, but was something unnecessary, and even inconvenient, in Asia and Latin America.
Democracy Inconvenient And
Unnecessary
Democracy in the Philippines was inconvenient and unnecessary in Ronald Reagan's worldview. Having a loyal lackey in Manila was, however, essential. The Philippines cannot forget the friendship he shared with the Marcoses because it was that friendship that destroyed a larger friendship. His trust in Marcos' capacity to be a bulwark against Communism fostered the growing strength of Communism in this country. His esteem for Marcos shown in messages and State visits resulted in the erosion of Filipino esteem for the America that Reagan presided over. His ambivalence in the face of a furious and brave effort by Filipinos to redeem their freedoms resulted in a redemption achieved despite of, and not because of, the efforts of Reagan's America.
We can never forget Reagan sending his Vice President, George Bush, to proclaim their “love” for Marcos' “devotion to the democratic process”. We can never forget, nor forgive, Reagan's public statements than in a country where Filipinos were chaining themselves to ballot boxes and dying at the hands of Marcos' goons, “there was cheating on both sides”. We can neither gloss over nor understand, then, as now, Reagan's last-ditch efforts to try to form a government composed of Marcos and the opposition.
America’s Interests Are Not
The Philippines’
When Reagan began to suffer from Alzheimer's disease, he engineered a bowing out from the public eye, all the better to preserve his image and his legacy. Undeniably, he was and remains a beloved American president. We are not, however, America, and we are not Americans. At the bier of Reagan must be laid, posthumously, the eradication of a bond of trust nurtured by World War 2, and dissipated by martial law. We cannot be kind to him in death, because every day of our lives, our country continues to suffer from the manner in which Reagan confused his friendship with the Marcoses with the broader interests of his country and ours.
It may be that everything Reagan did was less due to affection for the Marcoses, and more along the lines of American interests in our region. This only goes to show how those interests are so widely divergent from the interests of our own country. The billions of pesos stolen; the thousands of people dead and maimed; the lives crushed and wasted; the ideals ground in the dust: all these are factors in the delicate democracy we are still so hard pressed to sustain. Ronald Wilson Reagan turned a blind eye to all these sufferings. As he rests in peace, this country must remember its uneasiness will long outlive the man. That he is a great man by American standards only goes to show how different American ideals can be from what should be our own.
Marcos’ Devastating Effect
On Just One Family
I’ll
confine myself to the impact of the Marcos dictatorship on just one family, the
Hilaos – two of my wife’s aunts and her only uncle were among the hundreds of
thousands held without charge or trial for several years, when Marcos declared
martial law. Another aunt, a student newspaper editor in her early 20s, was
raped, tortured (enduring things such as cigarettes being stubbed out on her
lips) and beaten to death. Drain cleaning acid was poured down her throat and
the official cause of death was listed as “suicide”. She was the first female
political prisoner to be murdered during the 14 years of martial law and her
case remains a cause celebre to this day, more than 30 years later. Her mother,
Becky’s maternal grandmother (who died in 2003), was the lead plaintiff in the
class action suit taken against the Marcos estate by human right victims and
their families. This historic case was heard in Hawaii, under US law, because
it was to Reagan’s US that the Marcoses fled, so they came under the
jurisdiction of US civil law. The plaintiffs were awarded $NZ2 billion. They
haven’t received a cent yet. Imelda Marcos has never been convicted of
anything; she, and two of her children, hold political office in the
Philippines today. I recommend that you watch the fascinating documentary
“Imelda”, (its subject succeeded in getting it banned in the Philippines, at
least temporarily).
One
of the imprisoned aunts of my wife is Marie Hilao-Enriquez (she gave birth to
her oldest daughter in prison). She is the Philippines’ best-known human rights
leader and heads the organisation of former Marcos political prisoners. She
toured New Zealand, in October 2004 (I accompanied her, in my Philippines
Solidarity Network of Aotearoa capacity). For those of you who heard Marie
speak, reflect on Ronald Reagan and his faithful servant, Ferdinand Marcos.
But the Anti-Bases Campaign has got one thing to thank old Ronnie for. If it weren’t for him and his lunatic nuclear arms buildup, we wouldn’t have Bob Leonard. The Leonards – Bob, Barbara and their infant son, Graham – were among the American diaspora of Reagan Refugees who poured out of the US in the early 1980s. They threw themselves into the ferment of the nuclear free movement of 1980s New Zealand and Bob became one of the founders of what evolved into today’s ABC. Others like them also came to New Zealand. So, thank you, Ronnie, America’s loss is our gain. Ed.
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