Monday, January 29, 2007 Sanchez: Dialog and peace By Benedicto Sanchez Nature Speaks
WHEN I hear of the proposed dialog between NDF-Negros's Frank Fernández and Governor Joseph Marañon, my mind drifts to different interrogation techniques employed in CSI: New York and Criminal Minds.
In these TV series, interrogators encourage their suspect to talk about anything before they bore in to the nitty-gritty of the investigation. The point generally is to encourage the subject to open up, cooperate on the conversation. Small talk is better than no talk. And small talk can often lead to bigger-and substantive-talks.
There are of course interrogation variations. There is the good cop, bad cop tactic. If you're a suspect and you know you're up the creek, before the other bad hombre messes up your life with a twenty-year sentence in the slammer, better start talking to the good guy.
Obviously, the good guy is Marañon, never mind that in Maoist eyes, he's branded a bureaucrat capitalist, one of the triad evils. But Fernández had no qualms admitting to previous talks with "individual big sugar planters, businessmen, politicians and officials and members of the AFP/PNP and other individuals," people belonging to the category of "class enemies" and "fascists" high in the Maoist pantheons of bad guys.
Nor am I going to debate Fernández if he says he doesn't want to "turn a simple dialog into localized peace talks." No hair-splitting from me on whether the local talk should even be tagged a peace talk or a dialog. It could be called a conversation for all I care. As Shakespeare poetically asked, "What's in a name/That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." So long as both sides communicate, correspond, commune, impart, keep in touch-and whatever other synonyms slipped my mind.
Furthermore, Fernández says that "Any simple and informal peace talks with the governor shall be discreet in manner and that no public statement will be made."
I would prefer a public dialog, but if the precondition is backroom-or should I say, backwoods-talk, I can live with that. As I said before, shooting from the lip is much better than from the hip. The sooner they talk, the better.
So okay, Fernandez describes his proposed talks with Marañon as a "simple and informal exchange of ideas of possible cooperation for the interests of the masses."
If they want to talk about rural development for the interest of the masses in the NDF's guerilla fronts, I'd say, go for it. And don't take your time pussyfooting. I can trust that Fernández has other projects in mind, apart from the usual congressional pork barrel budgets for highly-visible but inane projects like basketball courts and waiting sheds.
Development is development is development. If poor rural and hinterland farmers get to improve their quality of life, send their children to school preferably up to high school and even college, improve their homes, establish agoforestry in steep mountain slopes, attain land tenure and resource instruments like CBFMAs or CADTs, get to eat three square meals, consuming safe and healthy-preferably organic food-holy molly, I'm totally all for it.
I won't even bother to argue over Fernández's contention that the NDF-Negros is against localized peace talks as a "sinister tactic of the national government" to split the revolutionary movement and force the surrender of the revolutionary forces while isolating the national leadership of the CPP/NDF/NPA.
While it's an ecological principle that a thing is connected to everything, there is still room for local development regardless of whatever happens at the national scene. With tangible benefits from local sustainable development, the beneficiaries-the organized peasants, the guerillas and paramilitary-will find it more profitable to keep the peace rather than risk losing hard-earned gains to the resumption of a shooting war.
Comments are most welcome. Please send email to bqsanc@yahoo.com
