| Joma Sison Beats a Retreat By Antonio C. Abaya August 8, 2002 It was the natural thing to do, so nobody should have been surprised by it. After having dealt the Abu Sayyaf what appears to be a fatal blow, the Arroyo Government has ordered the military to re-deploy its forces to areas controlled or infiltrated by the communist New People�s Army. According to AFP estimates, the number of barangays infiltrated by the NPA has increased from 445 in 1995 to 1,969 in 2001. to 2,262 this year. The NPA has also increased its fighting force from 6,000 in 1994 to 11,000 this year. (Philippine Daily Inquirer, August 6, 2002). In response to what he interpreted as the government�s �all-out war� against his socialist revolution, Joma Sison, founder of the CPP and self-styled �chief political consultant� to the National Democratic Front, issued a statement through the Internet. Plowing through his purple prose can be tedious, but one can glean the following response from the communists: a) the moribund peace talks between the government and the communists are all but terminated; b) the new campaign against them will strain the resources of the government and lead to a new economic crisis; c) the NPA will intensify its tactical offensive on all its 128 guerilla fronts, including �new kinds of special operations that involve negligible cost to itself and high cost to the enemy. . For instance, it can destroy electrical towers and lines, like during the final years of the Marcos years, in order to compel the enemy troops to take the passive and futile position of guarding these positions and deliver telling blows to the regime in terms of calculated economic disruption and clear demonstration of the inability of the regime to provide a profitable environment to the imperialist corporate vultures�..� (See what I mean about his tedious purple prose?). d) the legal above-ground front organizations of the communist movement will do their best to frustrate the government�s war efforts and at the same time will prepare to be absorbed into the underground revolutionary movement and wreak havoc on the business environment in the cities; e) the MILF and MNLF will be encouraged to resume their offensives against the government; f) GMA is �whipping up the demand and paving the way for a �strong man� but will lose out to Generals Angelo Reyes or Panfilo Lacson�; g) an alliance of communist and middle-class forces will continue to isolate GMA and prevent her from running or winning in the 2004 elections. ***** His directive to topple electric towers and lines was met with howls of protest. The Inquirer quoted an unnamed member of the Lower House that �if Sison made that call, then what he said is a madman�s recipe for mayhem.� Another congressman said �it proves that Sison is not pro-people because his order would affect industries and cause massive layoffs.� Joma Sison has consequently retreated from his belligerent all-out war posture, to a meeker stance that he was merely analyzing the situation and was not issuing direct orders to his troops. There is a reason for this retreat, and it is not all due to the reaction of some unnamed congressmen, about whose opinions Joma could not care less. The Arroyo Government could file a legitimate protest with the Dutch government that a high-profile political refugee to whom it has given sanctuary is running a guerilla war by remote control against a friendly government and is thus violating the terms of his sanctuary and abusing the hospitality of the Dutch people. As far as I know, Joma�s appeal for refugee status was denied several years ago by the Dutch government; it is on appeal right now with the European courts. A clear violation of the sanctuary terms, by issuing orders to his troops on the ground, could accelerate the hearing of that appeal, and end in a judgment against him. In which case, he will be expelled as an undesirable alien from the Netherlands. ***** I understand Joma has actually chosen the next country where he will seek asylum: Belgium, where a miniscule Maoist party, the Labour Party, is friendly to him and its sec-gen, a Mr. Dekkers, was an honored guest in Manila when Joma and his comrades inaugurated their Partido ng Bayan in the 1980s. (Among the senatorial candidates of PnB were Nelia Sancho, Crispin Beltran, Boy Morales and one of Lenin�s Useful Fools, Jose Burgos, who all lost). Actually, if Joma were at all true to his convictions, he should seek asylum in a country where his socialist principles constitute the conventional wisdom and where he can commune directly with the workers and peasants that he idealizes so much. Unfortunately, his choices are down to two: North Korea and Cuba, both experiencing hardships because of chronic shortages of food and fuel. But that should not discourage Joma and his crew if they were true revolutionaries. What�s a little starvation between comrades? Besides, as Joma himself admits, he has turned vegetarian in order to reduce his monthly expenses. Have I got the perfect place for penny-pinching vegetarians like you, Joma: North Korea where those who, for some reason or other, do not partake of the food aid from South Korea, Japan and the evil USA are feasting on grass and tree bark! And all for free! Unlike the vegetables that Joma consumes, which are grown by capitalist farmers in Holland and the EU who must make a profit (a dirty word in your lexicon, Joma) on their labor and investments. Additionally, the Hermit Kingdom of North Korea does not allow persons with physical deformities to spoil the pristine urban landscape of Pyongyang. Hunchbacks, cripples, epileptics, blind people, people with club foot, harelip or missing limbs can inflict their grotesqueries only in certain designated towns, away from the gaze, however fleeting, of the Beloved and Respected Leader. But, judging from pictures of buck-toothed generals sharing the podium with the Beloved and Respected Leader, buck teeth are allowed. So Joma should find a warm socialist welcome in Pyongyang. But, of course, Joma prefers to spend his exile amid the creature comforts of a capitalist and former imperialist bourgeois country, receiving a stipend of a couple of thousand dollars a month from the filthy, exploitative government and enjoying the abundance of food, access to the internet, easy sex with European women, and an endless supply of Gouda cheese. Neither Pyongyang nor Havana can match that. Long live the Revolution! ***** This article appears in the August 26, 2002 issue of the Philippine Weekly Graphic magazine. |
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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to Joma Beats a Retreat August 20, 2002 JOMA is a poseur, all wind and little substance. He will never agree to peace with the government because then he becomes a useless non-entity. He prefers to strut on the world stage, a half-baked Lenin. Bob Hanan, Australia. No email address given. MY REPLY: Joma will agree to peace with the government, but only on his own terms. He does not want to come home as a failed revolutionary, which he is, but as a conquering liberator who has forced the government to institute �reforms� he thinks he has forced it to make. He may yet realize his ambition if and when the ideologically na�ve but overly ambitious Loren Legarda-Leviste becomes president. ***** JOMA Sison beats a retreat? It�s about time. That terrorist and societal pest has no place in a civilized society. Fred. Wilfredo Derequito, Dharan, Saudi Arabia. [email protected]. ***** OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |