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Saturday, April 08, 2006
Editorials: Fair warning to Malacañang
Before raving and ranting about the April 5 editorial of the New York Times entitled “Dark Days for Philippine Democracy” that noted the “increasingly authoritarian tendencies” of the Arroyo administration, consider a few points first.
For example, that the New York Times is not the United States government and, as one US official pointed out, its views are its own being a private entity---meaning, it does not necessarily reflect the official view of US policymakers.
More appropriately, the editorial, if it’s any consolation to the Arroyo administration, is but an interpretation of one segment of the American public of recent developments in the Philippines.
Not new
Besides, there is really nothing new in the contents of the New York Times editorial that has not been hurled against the Arroyo administration not only by the forces ranged against it but also by well-meaning citizens and a chunk of the local media.
Policies like the calibrated preemptive response and acts that were consistent with the declaration of the state of emergency in February, like the raid on a national paper and arrests of militant leaders, have sparked concerns of a drift to authoritarian rule.
The only difference probably in the New York time’s case is that an American newspaper was the one that sifted through Philippine developments and that its analysis was peddled to readership foreign to Filipinos, meaning the American people.
The Arroyo government’s reaction, then, could be a result more of the shame of being caught naked rather than of being offended by the criticism.
Fair warning
As expected, Malacañang’s defense of its recent questionable acts did not stray away from its previous claims about protecting democracy from those that threatened it, like the so-called destabilizers and coup plotters.
But that is precisely what well-meaning sectors of the Filipino populace and now the New York Times have pinpointed, that in the supposed effort to defend Philippine democracy the Arroyo administration chose to follow the authoritarian path.
Whether that choice was a conscious or a knee-jerk one can be anybody’s guess, but apparently civil libertarians and democrats feel that the more important thing is to raise the warning about the authoritarian drift and make Malacañang realize that many sectors are against it.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (April 8, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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