This is not Singapore. Referring to the statement of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales who says that protesters during the ASEAN Summit will be thrown “into the Mactan Straits and let the sharks eat them there”, the Asia-Pacific Solidarity Coalition (APSOC), an off-shoot of the Asia-Pacific Conference for East Timor (APCET), considered the statement irresponsible and a great disservice to the Filipino people.
This is not Singapore. Referring to the statement of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales who says that protesters during the ASEAN Summit will be thrown “into the Mactan Straits and let the sharks eat them there”, the Asia-Pacific Solidarity Coalition (APSOC), an off-shoot of the Asia-Pacific Conference for East Timor (APCET), considered the statement irresponsible and a great disservice to the Filipino people.
Secretary Gonzales was almost flawless when he shamelessly said that the government will impose “an iron-curtain” to prevent the protesters from disrupting the Summit — reminiscents of the Marcosian era and resembling closely with that of Singapore’s iron-hand policy against legitimate protests. Singapore had earned the opprobium of the international community when it barred international activists from entering the city-state when the World Bank and the International Monetary Bank held meeting in Batam last month.
Calling the protesters as “troublemakers”, the justice secretary had only succeeded to show how little did his respect of the people’s rights to assembly in furtherance of their collective interests. Gonzales revealed not only his shallowness of his understanding on the difference between legitimate people’s right to express dissent and that of mere trouble rousing, but also of his dictatorial tendencies while holding office supposed to uphold people’s democratic rights.
It might be of help to remind the justice secretary that the ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong himself is of the belief that the civil society is indispensable in tackling the issues attendant to the envisioned ASEAN community. This is so especially at this stage when the ASEAN leaders has embarked on an ambitious tasks of building a “caring and sharing ASEAN Community” by maintaining regional security, driving economic integration and solidifying social stability. A task so
enormous that ASEAN governments alone, if left by themselves, can only do so much without the participation by the civil society in the region.
The goal of ASEAN One, as others have put it, highlights the need to improve participation by the relevant groups in the region. It should be clear among stakeholders, including the government which Secretary Gonzales is serving, unless income gaps were narrowed; unless the disadvantaged were no longer disenfranchised; and unless the potential of women and the young were actively developed, the ASEAN member countries would lack the social stability that was so necessary to make regional integration a reality. In other words, as long as there are officials of the governments in the region who behave like Gonzales, as if this country is Singapore or Burma, the envisioned regional integration can never be attained.
There should be a tacit recognition among governments in the ASEAN that to arrive at truly “caring and sharing community” is to let our diversity be not a hindrance to progress. That to stifle dissent as expressed by the peoples of the region through their different legitimate civil society organizations is to negate the very purpose of a “caring and sharing community”. In this respect, the statement of the justice secretary is doing great injustice to the dreams of the ASEAN leaders for a united and vibrant ASEAN Community. And to suppress the people from expressing dissent would only invite division instead of unity, discord instead of harmony, and resentment instead of cooperation towards the common dream of One ASEAN.
APSOC, as a regional solidarity organization, calls on the civil society in the region to brave the cold waters of the creeping authoritarian tendencies of some officials of the governments in the ASEAN and to stand guard as we put forward our contribution towards attaining a truly caring and sharing ASEAN Community. Let our voices be heard both in the hallowed halls where the 12^th ASEAN Summit leaders will meet and in every imaginable avenue available to us even if the “sharks” of the Mactan Strait will eat us.
Many years ago, we knew of one Raul Gonzales, a human rights lawyer. We are not sure, however, if this Secretary Raul Gonzales at present is one and the same with that Gonzales we knew of before. Or maybe, the man has simply changed.
Asia-Pacific Solidarity Coalition (APSOC)
Media Contact:
Antonio M. Manaytay
Research Officer
Initiatives for International Dialogue (APSOC Secretariat)
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