Arroyo declares war on "the Left"

From Randy David, on Arroyo's War with "the Left":

“THE fight against the Left remains the glue that binds,” Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo told her Cabinet the other day, after ordering the budget secretary to release an extra P1 billion to boost the renewed effort to crush the communist insurgency. Whoever fed Ms Arroyo this wrong and dangerous line is setting the stage for fascist rule. In equating the “Left” with armed rebellion, she effectively sanctions the use of death squads to silence political dissenters.

Though the likes of Gen. Jovito Palparan pretend not to know it, there is a huge difference between being Left and taking up arms against the government. To be Left is to be constantly concerned with the basic issues of justice and human freedom. It is to question the existing social order, to assail its assumptions, and denounce its oppressive outcomes. To be a leftist is to be committed to the long-term goal of structural change. In contrast, to be a rightist is to find nothing fundamentally wrong with the structure of society; it is to justify and defend its rules.

To take up arms in the pursuit of one’s political beliefs is an altogether different matter. The armed option is employed not only by leftists and rightists, but also by religious rebels and some millenarian cults. Not all leftists advocate the violent overthrow of the State, and not all armed groups are leftist. To be Left is to think and speak radically about social problems; to be an armed rebel is to participate in the forcible overthrow of government. Our Constitution outlaws armed rebellion, but it resolutely protects freedom of thought and of speech.

Having once flirted with leftists when she was a graduate student, Ms Arroyo ought to know these distinctions. That she has uncritically permitted herself to mouth a Cold War mantra betrays the dominant influence of militarists in her administration. These militarists are not just the former generals in the Arroyo Cabinet; they also include former leftists who, having tasted power, now disdain their ideological past. Former Party members usually become the most virulent rightists. Only the ideology has changed; the dogmatism remains.

Read the whole thing. Okay pa sana kung all-out war with the Communist rebels. Pero all-out war with "the Left"? Uubusin nya yung mga taong maka-kaliwa na "destabilizers" katulad ng Bayan Muna, Gabriela, at Sanlakas?

Prof. David is right. I'm not a Lefty myself, but I don't support Arroyo or the military rightwingers in her cabinet/gov't either.

My views and positions are different from Bayan Muna or Sanlakas, but I don't see them as a threat to the stability of this country. Only a president with questionable legitimacy and credibility will feel threatened by Teddy Casino, Satur Ocampo and Lisa Maza.

More from the PDI editorial:

Since Edsa People Power 1986, however, the national government has always sought to encourage communist rebels to abandon the armed struggle; an ex-insurgent is one less enemy hiding in the hills. From this perspective, the success of leftist groups in party-list elections (to which President Arroyo contributed in both the 2001 and 2004 elections) offered proof that the policy could work.

But during President Arroyo’s watch, the gains of this enlightened policy have come with increasingly prohibitive costs. Hundreds of leftist activists -- legitimate participants in the post-Marcos democratic space -- have been harassed, tortured or killed. Leftist leaders have been demonized; a few, granted amnesty in the aftermath of Edsa People Power I, have found themselves facing decades-old charges. Many have heard Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez’s intemperate taunt, that they head back to the hills, and wondered about the wisdom of their choice.

In the last week, the news that soldiers under the command of Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan have been deployed in the towns and cities of the Central Luzon region have sent chills down many a spine; it seems an omen of inevitable human rights violations to come.