While the Philippine government is still busy pointing fingers as to who should take the biggest credit for this blunder, Hongkong forensic experts are currently in the country to conduct their own investigation.
After the terrible incident, protests and demonstrations against the Philippine government and its smiling president were held by the Chinese community. News of Overseas Filipino Workers being fired from their jobs and maltreated by Chinese people followed suit. Chinese government officials did their best to appease the citizens of both countries by releasing anti-hate statements. Unfortunately, some of their people ignored the plea for peace.
It’s bad enough that you got an entire region mad at you, but there are also pure Chinese and Fil-Chinese people residing in the archipelago. Most of them are powerful businessmen, if not, corporate executives or diplomats. And like the natives of their country, what took place in Manila last 23 August 2010 pissed them off. At this point, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how they handled their outrage.
I’d like to share this SMS message (Italicized below) I got yesterday. Just concentrate on the context and forget about color, race and nationality for a moment.
You hate Filipinos for the hostage fiasco earlier this week right? Then should I hate Chinese people for the lead poisoning and melamine contamination, wherein not only 8, but hundreds, even thousands have suffered?
Is it right to blame the whole nation for the mistake of one man?
If you do, then you are most certainly dense. No arguments. Just opinions.
Don’t get me wrong. The last thing I want to do is to reignite the flame in the hearts of the Chinese, but I’ll be playing blind if I say that the smoke from this carnage has cleared.
We can’t deny the error of our countrymen’s ways: from dismissed policeman Rolando Mendoza, to the local media, to the Phil. Government, fault can easily be traced. But, is it right to take out your anger on a person who for one, doesn’t have anything to do with the incident on the first place, and two, sympathizes with your grief?
It’s a big NO in my book. And I’m no rocket scientist.
Let’s take a similar case to better understand where I’m coming from.
27 May 2001 - Infamous terrorist group Abu Sayyaf abducted 20 people from the Dos Palmas Resort in Palawan, Philippines. This nightmare of an occurrence lasted for over a year and lead to the deaths of approximately 20 people including two Americans: Guillermo Sobero and Martin Burnham.
When the above incident took place, I don’t recall Americans holding rallies against Pinoys, moreover, maltreating OFWs or Filipino Nationals. You can say all you want about the USA being the Philippines’ ally, that Mindanao is always an isolated case or that Easterners differ from Westerners, but at the end of the day, we are all human beings. WE ARE ALL PEOLE, ONE AND THE SAME!
I’m not asking for the Chinese community to forget about this whole thing, because they shouldn’t. However, I’m asking them to clear their hearts and heads about this matter. We are not your enemies. Our enemy is crime.
No amount of loathing will bring back the lives of those who perished on the night of 23 August 2010. And by hurting our people, I don’t see how any problem related to this incident can be resolved. If you think you can make our government clean up their act by doing so, then you have a lot to learn about this country, because if we got a good one in the first place, we wouldn’t be sending domestic helpers abroad.
If responding to the Quirino Grandstand Hostage Crisis in such hateful matter sounds logical, then maybe Filipinos should start assaulting any random Spaniard on the street because Spain enslaved and killed thousands of our people for 300 years. Oh, and let’s not forget about the Japanese who raped our women and killed our men. Hey America, how about getting mad at the Saudi Arabians? After all Osama bin Laden is from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
I’m just wondering, if ever we could switch places with the Chinese people, would they like it if we acted the way they did? And that’s a big IF, because aside from the fact that we’re still years away from being the superpower China is today, generally, we’re not capable of doing such thing because we’re too hospitable, submissive and forgiving for our own good.
I’m not doing reverse psychology here, or asking the Chinese to just forgive and forget. But let’s just get one thing straight, China is not the only one hurting. Maltreat us or not, we are also hurt by this incident. Not only does it hurt our reputation, it will also hurt our economy and relationship to other countries as well.
So can please put a stop to all this misplaced anger?
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