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Honolulu Lite Charles Memminger |
Gutless Gloria mars
Cory’s Hawaii visitHOW ironic that while one of the Philippines' bravest citizens, former President Corazon Aquino, was here to accept an award for leading her country to democracy, the current Philippine president was embarrassing that country by caving into the demands of some punk terrorists in Iraq.
Sure, the 51 Filipino police officers and soldiers in Iraq were just a "token force." But by gutlessly ordering the detail out of Iraq at the command of al-Qaida terrorists who kidnapped a single Filipino worker, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo turned them from a token show of international support against terrorists into a token show of spinelessness against murdering cowards.
The move must have thoroughly confused Hawaii's large Filipino community -- comprising both American citizens of Filipino ancestry and so-called "resident aliens" here to work and send money back to their families. I know it confused me.
Here was Aquino, who, after her husband was brutally murdered by the henchmen of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, led an incredible "People Power" revolution that brought freedom to that country. The bravery it took her to take on the Marcos regime is staggering. But not only did she become president, she then had to take on the Muslim terrorists who have infested her country's southern islands for decades.
She was in the islands to accept an East-West Center award recognizing her courage and fortitude, and at the same time -- almost to the hour -- Gutless Gloria was displaying a backbone of tofu against terrorists. Incredible.
WHEN YOU THINK of the Filipinos who gave their lives fighting for freedom in World War II and fighting both Marcos and terrorist Muslims in their own country (not to mention the thousands who risk their lives performing menial jobs in some of the most dangerous places on earth), Arroyo's capitulation to terrorists in Iraq an act of gross betrayal.
My next-door neighbor is in Afghanistan fighting terrorists. He is part of the "token" force of National Guardsmen who left their civilian jobs to take on the great threat of our time. I can't even imagine how he must feel to see an alleged American ally like the Philippines shamefully retreat. I can't imagine what those 51 Filipino soldiers felt in being forced to withdraw after their country had promised its support. They know they are leaving others to fight, to rebuild, to restore democracy in a dangerous place -- a place not too unlike their homeland, once ruled by a ruthless dictator and even now fighting terrorists within its borders.
Here in Hawaii, Aquino, being the classy person she is, refused to criticize her president or her country while on foreign soil (a lesson a few traveling Americans should learn). Nevertheless, Hawaii Filipinos, and island residents in general, know that Courageous Cory, not Gutless Gloria, is what the Philippines truly is all about.
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Charles Memminger, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists' 2004 First Place Award winner for humor writing, appears Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. E-mail cmemminger@starbulletin.com