Two different countries at different times may have more patterns in common than first meet the historian’s eye.
From the “Major Predicate” discussed in the Garden earlier, let us say that China knows that it has, as yet, no chance of victory in a military war against America. But taking a page from its own history, she knows that there are many ways to win a war. The most important angle is to demoralize the enemy populace. Everyone has heard about the classic “Opium Wars” of Britain against China. Well, China – unbeknownst to many – has its modern version of the narcotic offensive – one that it is waging against the US and its allies. Some, like the UNODC or the United Nations’ Organization on Drug Crimes, have noted what a big percentage of drugs reach the distribution cartels of Medellin, Cali and Sinaloa for delivery to the USA, compliments of China and its top transhipper – the newly discovered Chinese province of the Philippines. It hurts to have to put it this way but any less a description than that would not tell the truth accurately enough.
Even if only a small percentage of illegal drugs from China-for-America via the Philippines actually stays here in Pinas, it is still a big industry in the billions of pesos. One of the last shipments as recorded by both the Bureau of Customs and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency or PDEA was worth some Php 26-billion. Only about four billion pesos’ could be accounted for here by arrest-and-seizure actions. That’s still a hefty 15 percent commission for a transhipper.
Secondly, China, smart that she is, has acknowledged that the AFP or the Armed Forces of the Philippines is well-nigh an American institution: founded, financially backed, militarily equipped and mind-formed by the USA. It is as anti-communist (Chinese or Russian) as anti-communist can be and not hesitant, of course, to disregard even a Commander-in-Chief if he gives orders in furtherance of perceived communism or the Chinese cause. There are so many instances illustrating this “independence” of the military in the present administration.
Nonetheless, one must be aware that this is only the second time in the past 50 years that China has had a chance to establish a veritable “province” in Southeast Asia. The first and last time was in Bung Karno’s (Soekarno) Indonesia – where the Chinese terribly miscalculated. The result is another topic for discussion – a separate one regarding the massacre of a million people following the Chinese and Indonesian communist miscalculation. All that seems so long ago.
Who is there, if any, who remembers flamboyant Sukarno’s war against America and the West, and against the United Nations, which he yelled at to “go to Hell,” and his praises for and complete dependence on China. Accordingly, he accommodated China in every way she wanted. China advised, urged, commanded him to allow the China-directed PKI (Partai Komunis Indonesia or the Indonesian Communist Party) to have a crack at putting up their own army, which was referred to as the “Fifth Service” embedded in the Indonesian Armed forces or ABRI.
China was not playing for a day or the length of an administration but for keeps. She was quite serious in her pursuit of a lasting relationship with or dominance over Indonesia and knew that liberal democratic elections were not going to be a big help. She sought the type of permanence that she succeeded in establishing in North Korea – a family dictatorship propped up by the one and only communist party and armed force. In Indonesia she did succeed in making Sukarno “President for life,” which was not a joke. The joke, which turned out to be a cruel one on her, was the life of Sukarno that she closely monitored and cared for. Did China move too late, or too soon? In any case, as already mentioned, she miscalculated terribly. That was Indonesia then. Is the Philippines today radically different from that?
The present opportunity is one the Chinese cannot or do not intend to waste. In their view, the Americans have had it too long. It is time for change in the political set-up of the Philippines, time to have a strong ruler whose family, biological or political, can reign “forever” – dependent on China, strengthened by China and serving the goals of China. When read in this light, many of the funny things going on in the ill logic of current politics make clear, terrible sense. Was the President joking when he intoned not long ago that “no one can bring me down because China won’t allow it?” Maybe not. So, the oligarchy or economic rule-of-a-few, originally sponsored by Spain and subsequently by America, will have to go – after a few hundred years now – unless, of course, the few bow down to the rule-of-one.
The lumpen proletariat can be sacrificed forthwith. Killing them off makes the other sectors of society comfortable (“they deserved it”) and scared (“we may be next”). The extra-judicial killing of thousands and thousands is bad, immoral, inhuman. But something worse than the killing is this – a resultant killing organization. This angle is not easily seen. It is true: all killers know about the communion of sin; thus, they must stick together. Those equally guilty of murder must always help each other. The “chain-of-command” will be kept.
So, is the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) American? Who cares? There is a killing machine in its stead – the ruler’s own private army, complete with uniform and paraphernalia. Is there anyone who is not scared? So far, seemingly few. Who really knows for sure in an atmosphere of fear? So, the very many, when surveyed, can’t help it; they must uphold the regime’s unflagging popularity. The Chinese cultural revolution was very popular. So was the Gang of Four. And the thousand-year Reich of Adolf H lasted a few years, not a thousand years. In these times, it is good to re-member. FINIS (tbc)