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Issue Number 24, August 2004
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Kapatiran Issue
No. 24, August 2004
REAGAN &
MARCOS
The Gruesome Twosome
The June 2004 death
of former US President Ronald Reagan (1980-88) produced
an outpouring of quite extraordinary rosetinted nostalgia
for an apparent "Golden Age" (the 80s, for
God's sake), when America, and the world, were led by
"The Great Communicator". A prime example of
this is the Commemorative Issue of Time
(14/6/04) devoted entirely to this myth. New Zealanders
have plenty of reasons to not look back fondly on Reagan
- his was the intransigent US Administration that tried
to bully us out of our nuclear free policy, and didn't
say a word when French State terrorists bombed the Rainbow
Warrior in Auckland Harbour, killing a man in the
process. The peoples of America and the world have also
got no shortage of reasons to not mythologise this most
reactionary of US Presidents. There was a flood of
critical material following his death. My favourite was
titled, succinctly, "Fuck Ronald Reagan" (World
War 3 Report; 10/6/04; Bill Weinberg). I couldn't
have put it better myself.
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 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 of Ilocos Norte (far northern Luzon). 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.
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. 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 II. 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 II,
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.
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