Basket filled with rotten advice

By Al S. Mendoza

 

WHICH country threatens its citizens with suits?

The Philippines.

The United States, for all its cruel imperialist nature, protects its citizens up to the ends of the Earth.

Murderer or rapist, the US will do its utmost to save its citizens.

Did it not spirit one of its soldiers back to America only a while back, even as said serviceman is facing rape charges in the infamous Nicole case in Subic?

Did the US not also pluck its soldier from Clark prison not too long ago, ship it out of the country, even as said serviceman was facing murder charges for shooting a kid picking up junk at the old Clark Air Base?

“I thought it was a pig scavenging on American property,” said the American soldier of the boy he shot and killed.

Both soldiers now roam free as a bird today in America.

Can we speak of the same when it comes to some of our citizens saddled in distress in another country?

Sadly, not.

Take the case of our countrymen now in dire straits in Sabah, the troubled land being disputed by the Philippines and Malaysia since 1946.

After followers of the Sultanate of Sulu, the real owner of Sabah, got themselves caught in a virtual crossfire between the Sultan of Sulu and Malaysian police, what did our country do?

Come to the aid of our embattled brothers?

Wrong.

Our government sided with the Malaysians by ordering our brothers to come home and “face charges before Philippine courts.”

Where in the world can you find such action by a government to its own people?

Lincoln could be turning in his grave with this abomination.

Only in the Philippines, indeed.

Were our brothers really invaders as Malaysia had alleged—and said belief was, sadly, backed by the PNoy Administration?

Only a fool would say, yes.

There were merely less than 300 loyalists of the Sulu Sultan that went to Sabah, and not even all of them had a gun.

How can 300 or so invade a country of 70 million or so, with that country having an army of millions or more carrying high-powered guns, not to mention being equipped with APCs, naval ships and an air force powerful enough to topple an entire nation like Brunei or Bangladesh?

Instead of extending help to our brothers, who were merely misguided because of their canine devotion to their leader, our government had practically abandoned them by threatening them with criminal charges once they got home.

Instead of appease, afflict.

Instead of help, heckle.

Instead of peace, punch.

Who could have possibly given PNoy such basket filled with rotten advice?

I remember Vera Brittain’s brilliant line:  “Politics are usually the executive expression of human immaturity.”

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