People to people

There is something amiss about the way we conduct our foreign policy especially as it refers to the South China Sea conflict. It seems that we have boxed ourselves into a position where diplomacy has become more and more difficult. The recent “testy exchange” between Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario is a good example of how personalities come in the way of finding solutions for the benefit of the peoples of their respective countries.

It is in this light that this column suggests a think tank that includes a wide variety of personalities (not created by the government but a private initiative) to enable ordinary people, especially the fishermen who are most affected by the South China Sea conflict to have their say.

Why should something as important as the source of livelihood be left to officials who never have to scramble for food everyday? To them the sea, whatever it is called and whoever claims ownership, is where they get their daily food.

It is time that ordinary people step in and have their say. By doing so they create a wider atmosphere more conducive to explore alternative approaches beyond “testy exchanges.’  It is clear that we cannot rely mainly on high government officials. After all, they are only human and would not be immune to flares of tempers. Imagine the thousands who will be affected if an official did not wake up on the right side of the bed. That happens.

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In a supposedly free and democratic country like the Philippines media is just as controlled with news on the South China conflict concentrating on news that generate a war frenzy. That was the reason for the “testy exchange” and then probably regretting a breach of polite diplomacy, Secretary del Rosario invited his Chinese counterpart to come and visit for talks. (At which it was disputed whether it should be called negotiations or consultation).

Vietnam is closest to the Philippines insofar as the disputed claims on the South China is concerned and for a while went along with Philippine initiatives. But that changed when Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang visited China.

The Vietnamese have come up with an alternative approach leaving the Philippines behind in what is looking more and more like a stalemate. The Vietnamese have moved forward, never mind what it has said in the past for the sake of the development of their country through cooperation with China.
I have some Vietnamese friends who tell me that even before their President’s visit to China, there were already private initiatives to look for alternative approaches. This is a wise move and does not necessarily come in the way of what its government or indeed the Chinese positions on the claims.

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I was surprised but welcomed a request from the prestigious Guang Ming Daily that they wished to reprint in Chinese my column “A visit between friends” that talked on the new approach between Vietnam and China about the South China Sea conflict. Why not? But it had to be translated in Chinese so that Chinese readers would appreciate that there was room for peace not war. If the Vietnamese can do it, so can Filipinos.

Chinese businessmen who might have wanted to invest in projects in the Philippines, reading only mainstream media have shied away from doing business here. We have to get to them to discourage this kind of thinking that all Filipinos are against the Chinese and threats that they should be careful because we have the Americans on our side that the Americans in any case promptly denied.  That puts us in limbo.

A think tank would be an ideal vehicle to take in as many views as possible including the real stakeholders ie the fishermen would be a good thing.

Most of us know only about TIME and Newsweek and of course the CNN and BBC. Whoever heard of Guang Ming Daily? Yet it has millions of readers.

According to Wikipedia the “Guangming Daily is an influential newspaper in China in the fields of science and technology, education and culture. It possesses a large readership and enjoys high prestige amongst state agencies, universities and schools, the armed forces and in intellectual circles.

As a newspaper with a long history in China, the Guangming Daily enjoys a high reputation among the media. Over years of development, the Guangming Daily has grown into a large-scale newspaper group that runs other three newspapers, four periodicals, a website and a publishing house. Also printed in the cities of Shenyang, Shanghai, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Xi’an, Lanzhou, Chengdu and Kunming, all copies of the Guangming Daily circulated in Beijing are offset laser printed. The Guangming Daily has correspondents resident in many countries worldwide and has a global circulation although it is written in Chinese.”
Below is the connection to the story in Chinese and how it looks in the newspaper: http://epaper.gmw.cn/gmrb/html/2013-07/01/nbs.D110000gmrb_08.htm


FROM A DISTANCE By Carmen N. Pedrosa (The Philippine Star) | Updated July 6, 2013 -