In 1948, George Orwell published a book, 1984, a cautionary fiction on the manipulation of facts and the truth . In this totalitarian ecology, words with opposite meaning e.g. peace is war or vice versa are tell-tale signs. “Orwellian” becomes an adjective and comes in handy propaganda and deception.
It seems every everywhere, especially today, with the rise of social media and their variants employed in double-speak to promote double-think, nay confusion, in societies undermined by authoritarians, not necessarily communists. The pandemic has occasioned the emergence of autocrats worldwide, abetted by social media, even in so-called democratic societies.
The so-called January 6 insurrection that assaulted the United States Congress in 2021 was allegedly “inspired”: by former President Donald Trump who wanted to turn aside the presidential election results that gave his opponent victory. The exceptional and leading democracy in the world, for once, stood on the brink, but still remains in danger. Trump, of course, had told his countrymen he wanted to make America great again.
Across the Pacific, our neighbor China provides a more compelling, if threatening, model . Time and again, this Middle Kingdom has assured us that she is our friend. Or so her officials keep telling us every time something shows up that has all the marks of unfriendliness. It also adds insult to injury each time.
Just recently, her officials virtually accused the Philippine Coast Guard of lying or making up stories. The coast guard reported an incident where their Chinese counterpart threw an intense blue light on the former’s ship. They were sure it was a military grade laser that temporarily blinded them.
It wasn’t, the Chinese countered. It was a simple hand-held laser device used for safety and navigational direction. After all, Filipino coast guard was a friendly ship that went astray into a sea territory supposed to be inside the fictional nine-dash line in the South China Sea that is China’s basis for claiming certain parts of that sea.
No such crooked line , said UNCLOS, except in Chinese officials’mind. That’s how the Philippines won its case before the Arbitral Tribunal at the Hague during the term of President Noynoy Aquino. The Chinese have soon stood pat and flat on the fiction and insisted the decision was just a piece of paper. They also started militarizing some islands in Philippine marine territories.
Unfortunately, Noynoy’s successor believed the Chinese hokum. He even praised them for their kindness, friendship and intelligence. That’s how the COVID virus entered the country must faster, with a Cabinet official kowtowing to the idea that it would be a big embarrassment to the country if a ban on Chinese tourists would be made at the time. The rest was tragedy.
Whether it was cowardice or gratitude that forced a Philippine leader pay a fawning obeisance to the leader of a rising world hegemon, one thing cannot be denied: more unfriendly Chinese activities in the territories owned by the Philippines have since ramped up.
Former National Security Adviser Clarita Carlos, the only hawk among the doves in President Marcos’ team, has counted more than 200 note verbale to China on their unbridled, unfriendly, intentional sailing into the Philippine marine territory. They were basically ignored, she said. She recommended degrading the diplomatic relations with China. She probably thought, after all, that the then presidential candidate expressed admiration for Machiavelli.
Whether that was the cause of her downfall or not, she vowed to write a book in the future. To be sure, she felt she was not a welcome company on day one in office. She knew her time would be short but not sweet. Carlos was a victim of her own political idolatry, if not naivete. She wasn’t the first nor would be the last.
Carlos is not only the one to call out on the Chinese’ Orwellian language. A few days ago, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo told the world in Switzerland that not a day passes without the Chinese harassing Filipino fishermen in the SCS. It happened several days after a suspicious huge balloon– spy it wasn’t but for science the Chinese protested- was shot down in the United States for violation of international laws.
Apparently, these harassments took place even during the state visit of Marcos to China to meet with President Xi JinPing, and continued even after his visit which tackled such issue, among others. Marcos was praised for his new brand of international leadership that makes him stand out among the world’s new leaders.
Wittingly or otherwise, Marcos may have upped the stakes and the tempo in the sea dispute. During his brief meeting with US President Joe Biden, he said he could not see the future without the US on his side. He almost said the same thing to China’s Xi Jinping later. A month or so after, the US has four new bases in the Philippines, and China hasn’t changed her attitude in the disputed sea territories. The stray balloon in the US Midwest and the laser encounter by the Philippine Coast Guard in the SCS were unmistakably China’s Orwellian message of peace and friendship to the two countries.
Marcos has lately assured his countrymen that he will not give an inch of the Philippine territory in the SCS. Guess who snickers at this pronouncement. In the meantime, he has said he’s not going to throw his predecessor, former President duterte, under the bus in the looming resumption of investigation by the International Criminal Court of alleged crime against humanity in his war against drugs during his watch.
The country’s politicians have a taken a cue from the pronouncement and have started to circle the wagon, so to speak, to save Duterte from the probe, rallying behind the flag of sovereignty led by the gang of four from Pampanga. Did not the Philippines signed the treaty with the rest of the world to rid the world of criminal leaders?
