Yesterday afternoon, in a posh hotel in Makati City, I heard Nesreen Mustafa
Siddeek Berwari speak about the challenges and opportunities for business in
rebuilding Iraq. Madame Berwari heads the Ministry of Municipalities and
Public Works in Iraq. She is the only woman in the 25-member cabinet
appointed by the Iraqi Governing Council. Minister Berwari spoke about the
poverty and oppression under the regime of Saddam Hussein, who she described
as THE weapon of mass destruction. Her country is in transition she said,
the security risks are still there but the situation is not as bad as the
media make it appear. The situation is good enough in fact to start
discussing prospects for Philippine-Iraq business partnerships in rebuilding
her war ravaged country. This demand for stronger Iraqi-Filipino partnership
and cooperation resonated throughout the forum in the speeches of AIM
president Roberto de Ocampo, Mr. Sostenes Campillo, Jr. of the Philippine
Task Force for the Reconstruction of Iraq, Undersecretary Manuel Imson of
the Department of Labor and Employment, Senatorial Candidate Ms Amina Rasul,
and Dr. Federico Macaranas of the AIM Policy Center. Parallels were drawn
between the war and post-war reconstruction experiences of Iraq and the
Philippines. All these distinguished people were saying that the rebuilding
of a new Iraq is already underway and indeed now is the perfect time to talk
business. But how can they talk business when the conflict in Fallujah
continues to escalate and the resistance to the US-led occupation grows
stronger? How can they talk business amidst news of torture and abuse of
Iraqi prisoners in the hands of their US captors? How can they talk business
in the wake of the death of Filipino truck driver Rodrigo Reyes?
Herbert Docena offers another, albeit more grounded view of the current
state of Iraq-Philippine relations. Whether we like it or not the cold
reality is that our two countries are at war and Filipinos in Iraq working
on the side of the occupiers are viewed as mercenaries and enemies and
obviously not as business partners.
Herbert is an analyst with Focus on the Global South and had just come back
from Iraq as a researcher for the Baghdad-based International Iraq
Occupation Watch Center. He has been closely following the occupation
authorities' policies and he was in Iraq when the uprising broke out.
This article first appeared in TODAY newspaper on 30 April 2004.
Why the Philippine Government Must Stop its War against the Iraqi People
BY HERBERT DOCENA
During the 12-hour long road trip across the desert from Amman to Baghdad,
the only English words my Iraqi companion and I shared were "Good" and "No
good." Without me asking him, he said "Saddam? No good!" Then he said,
"Americans? No, no, no, no, no, no good!" He was furiously gesticulating by
swinging his arm and giving the thumbs down signal with each "no." The
desert landscape was stunning but it got boring after a while. Just to
entertain ourselves, weąd go through all the coalition members in Iraq. "UK?
No, no, no good!" "Italy? No, no, no good!" "Japan? No, no, no, good!" At
first, I was reluctant to inform him that my country also had troops in
Iraq. But as we went down the list, I could not bear holding it back much
longer.
And so he -- one of Iraq's recently "liberated" men, said, "Philippines? No,
no, no, no, no, no good!"
After having spent two months in Iraq during the year-long occupation, I
could confidently say that the Iraqis are among the friendliest, most
genuinely hospitable people I have ever met -- and not just in a tourist
brochure sort of way. In a country where almost everyone smokes, taxi
drivers offer their passengers a cigarette before lighting one themselves.
Even the most humble of households will not let you go without gorging you
on liters of tea. You will not walk down downtown Baghdad without an Iraqi
smiling at you or trying to start a conversation with you. Despite their
limited English, you'd know that they'd be sincerely and genuinely
interested in what you have to say.
So it is always hard, having to tell them that my country is actually at war
with them.
Last year, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo justified his decision to be
part of the US-led coalition by telling us, in so many words, that we are
attacking Iraq because Iraqis are planning to kill us. Arroyo said Saddam
had weapons of mass destruction and had ties to Al Qaeda -- even to the Abu
Sayyaf. By the time I got back to Iraq, the weapons of mass destruction are
still nowhere to be found and the links with Al Qaeda -- much less the Abu
Sayyaf -- now sound more ridiculous than ever. The Philippine government is
now saying that our soldiers are there to help the Iraqis, that they are
part of a "humanitarian" contingent and that they will remain in Iraq, along
with the United States, to "liberate" them and give them the gift of
"democracy." In other words, Arroyo has been saying that the Philippines is
part of the occupying forces because, following George Bush's logic, it is
in the best interest of the Iraqis to be occupied. Our troops, therefore,
would be welcome because they think of us as friends.
I was there when the Iraqis finally made it loud and clear what they think
of us.
A few weeks after I arrived, the Iraqis, responding to clear provocations by
the United States, launched what is now turning out to be the most serious
challenge to the occupation since it began in May last year. So far, more
body bags have been sent back to the US this month, than during the entire
five-week combat operations during the invasion last year. The Los Angeles
Times calls this "the second war" of Iraq: on one side is the United States
and its coalition members, including the Philippines, on the other are the
Iraqis.
But while the first war last year was easy because it was against a widely
despised regime; this one, because it is against the Iraqi people, is
proving to be more dangerous. The Shia majority, whose anger at Saddam
Hussein the US manipulated and whose relief at his ouster they used to
induce collaboration, has turned on the United States. Rather than fight the
Sunni Iraqis in a civil war that would benefit the occupying forces, the
Shias are lining up in long queues donating blood to Sunnis and praying with
them in the same mosques. For the Iraqis, this is now the "war of
liberation" that the Americans had always promised them. The Iraqis are
liberating themselves from the "liberators."
"What the Americans donąt understand is that this is a revolution," an Iraqi
sheik told me. "Those who canąt fight give money. Those who canąt give
money, give food. Those who canąt give food, give blood. Those who canąt
give blood, give their children." Tribes and clans, he added, are now
choosing who among their sons and daughters will take up arms and fight.
Indeed, this fight is so popular that even women and children are involved.
And why not? Just for the past two weeks alone, in the town of Fallujah, the
occupying troops have indiscriminately killed around 900 Iraqis, many of
them women and children. Before I left Iraq, some of our journalist friends
who managed to sneak into that besieged town were able to rescue a two-year
old boy who had lost both of his limbs, both of his parents, and all of his
brothers and sisters. This is the boy that we, by virtue of our government's
decisions, are at war with. In our name, the coalition forces are killing
Iraqis. Little wonder that instead of throwing flowers at the coalition
troops, the Iraqis are now throwing hand grenades at them.
The coalition troops may yet eventually temporarily pacify the situation and
crush the uprising but they -- or we, if our government continues to invoke
our name -- are already defeated. They may win some battles here and there
but as one Iraqi said, "They have already lost the war." For what this
spontaneous, increasingly popular, and rapidly spreading uprising has made
very clear is this: the United States -- and therefore, all those who
support them -- are not wanted in Iraq, are not wanted by the Iraqis. The
Americans -- and therefore, the Philippine troops under their command -- are
not seen as liberators. They are seen as occupying armies, as invaders.
Worse: Trapped inside their base in Hilla, a city two hours south of Baghdad
and one of the areas where Iraqis have attacked coalition troops, our
soldiers are seen as nothing more than mercenaries. Paid to fight a war not
of their choosing, our soldiers are putting their lives on the line -- not
to defend us Filipinos, but to defend the interests for which the United
States invaded Iraq. The only military objective of the US and its coalition
now is to pacify the Iraqis -- to make Iraq safe not for the Iraqis, but for
the United States and all those who will profit from the occupation. Over
the past few months, the US has been organizing investors' conferences to
entice multinational corporations to take advantage of some of the world's
most investor-friendly policies as put in place by the occupation authority
in Iraq. Among those who have indicated their intention to open their doors
in Iraq is McDonalds. One way, then, to think of what our soldiers are
risking their lives for is to think of Ronald McDonalds. Our soldiers need
to make Iraq safe for him to sell BigMacs.
The Iraqis are among the world's friendliest people but they know the
difference between "good," "no good," and "no, no, no, no good." For while
Iraqis are most hospitable to guests, they apparently don't take kindly to
people who force their entry. They know that liberators, guests, or friends
don't do the things that the United States, assisted by a coalition that
includes the Philippines, are now doing to them in Iraq. Friends don't bomb
their hosts' house, only to rebuild them later, partly using their hosts'
money, using their own plans and designs. Friends don't sell off their
hosts' possessions, as the US is doing by privatizing Iraq's state-owned
corporations without Iraqis' consent. Friends don't kill their their hosts'
children, as the coalition forces have done in Fallujah. If the Iraqi
resistance succeeds and the day of reckoning comes, the Iraqis will go down
the list of countries that took part in the occupation, and remember.
And it will be difficult to convince Iraqis that the actions of our
government do not necessarily reflect our will. When the Japanese were
kidnapped, I spoke with an Iraqi resident of Fallujah who claimed to know
where the hostages were and pleaded with him not to harm the hostages since
they are anti-war activists and like majority of the Japanese donąt
approve of the Japanese governmentąs participation in the occupation. He
didnąt believe me. "But Japan is a democracy," he said, "and they said they
came here to bring democracy." "If the Japanese government support the
occupation and Japan is a democracy then surely it follows that the
Japanese people also support the occupation!" He was angry. Everyone thinks
I'm a Japanese in Iraq but when I told him I was Filipino, the first think
he asked was "Do you have troops here?" I said yes, and he said, "Oh, so I
could also kidnap you!"
He spared me. But if he did abduct me, it would be the Philippine government
and not the Iraqis who would have held me hostage. For if the Philippines
were truly a democracy and Filipinos have no reason to fight Iraqis, as the
Iraqi's logic suggested, then why is our government at war with them?
I guess the best way to understand how the Iraqis feel now is to imagine how
it was like to be Filipinos at the turn of the century, just as the
Americans began their occupation of the country. If the Americans invaded
the Philippines and American soldiers are patrolling Manila in their tanks
and helicopters and they are indiscriminately killing our mothers and
brothers wouldn't we as Filipinos also fight back? Didnąt we fight back
one hundred years ago when the Americans came? If Iraq were part of the
occupation troops and I happened to share a ride with an Iraqi, wouldn't I
also say, "No, no, no, no, no good!"
In Iraq, I walked the streets as my mind raced back to the Philippines circa
1899. For Fallujah, think Balanginga. Back then, we were the first Iraqis.
But now, the Philippine government is on the side of the occupation forces,
fighting against today's Filipinos.
______________
Focus on the Philippines (FOP) is an electronic newsletter on Philippine
news and issues put out by Focus on the Global South-Philippine Programme.
FOP has currently over 600 subscribers. The newsletter tackles broad
development issues like trade and finance, militarization, environment,
global governance, multilateral institutions, and US hegemony among others.
FOP is a venue for sharing perspectives and commentaries on the issues that
shape our country and inform our respective advocacy work.
We welcome articles, policy papers, commentaries on Philippine development
issues. We also welcome new subscribers!. Please send contributions (in word
format) and request for subscription to josephp@focusphilippines.org.
Focus on the Global South- Philippine Programme Suite 209 Burgundy Place,
174 Katipunan Avenue Loyola Heights, Quezon City 1108 Philippines
Telefax: (632)4330899
