Wednesday, January 17, 2007 Carvajal: Credit where credit is due By Orlando P. Carvajal Break Point
THE Asean and East Asia Summits are finally over. From the looks of it congratulations are in order for the national organizers and local hosts who epitomized the good old tradition of Filipino and Cebuano hospitality.
The heavens cooperated with rain just enough to cool the air and no acts of terrorism occurred. Above all, beneficial (to all member nations) landmark agreements were signed and Cebu was placed in the map of international conventions centers, tourist destinations and investment areas.
We can heave a big collective sigh of relief now because of the controversy surrounding the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC), the adverse travel advisories due to terrorist threats and the attempts by the Left to disrupt the proceedings of the summit. The travel advisories, however, turned out to be blessings in disguise because they made the hosts review and beef up security arrangements.
Regarding the controversy that hounded the CICC, it was always obvious to many that its detractors were doing it in an effort to advance their hidden political agenda. As I have often said, in this country no opposition will ever give credit to the administration for anything because that does not help them win elections. So now after seeing and admitting that the CICC is a thing of beauty they worry about its future use.
The same is even truer in the case of the Left-leaning groups. They are not even for democracy. Their centerpiece strategy for social change is the creation of what they call a revolutionary situation that would give them the opportunity to take over power and install not a democracy but a dictatorship. Their outdated and stale ideology calls for them to disrupt anything done by the establishment.
Hence, it was not surprising, although very disappointing, to see them march in protest during the Asean meetings. It was no less surprising that the main streamer read: “Arroyo #1 puppet of the US.”
They are right, of course, about US imperialism. But the way to fight US imperialism is to create internal unity and strength. Another is to form alliances. So, why embarrass our people before guests who are interested with us to gain collective strength against any domination? As it turned out the delegates focused their attention on the growing dominance of China, the Left’s political idol.
We need internal unity and regional unity to face with strength any imperialism of the right or left variety. We must give credit to our Asean neighbors for their effort to gain such unity and strength. And if they gave our hosting a rave review, then let us give credit to President Arroyo and Gov. Gwen Garcia, representing the host nation and host island respectively, for a job well done.
