neblus
10-04-2005, 12:45 AM
:mad:
This story was taken from www.inq7.net
http://news.inq7.net/viewpoints/index.php?index=2&story_id=52111
How Gloria is like and unlike Marcos
First posted 02:52am (Mla time) Oct 03, 2005
By William Esposo
INQ7.net
FRIENDS and kin were frantically texting me last week to ask my reading of the news about an impending imposition of martial law. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo used complex jargon but this was seen only as euphemism for the bad M word. This did not temper anxieties, particularly since it was no less than the Philippine Daily Inquirer and INQ7 who had bannered the story. The subsequent events (the curtailment of freedom of dissent through the Calibrated Pre-emptive Response (CPR) policy and the infamous Executive Order 464 that now prevents government officials, including military officers, from attending congressional investigations without prior presidential approval) all fueled and heightened people’s fears.
Martial law or ‘calibrated pre-emptive response’ or even ‘emergency rule’ is by no means a daily fare of freedom-loving nations. Anyone imposing it must have very strong justification and must be able to carry it out most effectively. Even more basic than that – the leader must have the character and personality to maintain control. Otherwise, it will be like riding the back of the tiger only to end up inside its stomach as its repast.
Pakistan’s Musharraf and Egypt’s Mubarak govern by authoritarian regimes under the guise of ‘constitutional order’, similar to the one propagated by our own Ferdinand Marcos whose martial rule covered the country’s dark years between 1972 and 1986. Based on common conditions and circumstances, it is easy to see how Musharraf, Mubarak and Marcos managed to operate under authoritarian conditions. To determine therefore if indeed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo can imitate Marcos and impose martial law, we must study her personal qualities as well as the conditions under which she governs. We then have to run all this against the personal qualities of Marcos, the man, and the conditions in 1972, the year he declared martial law.
>>continues...(INQ7) (http://news.inq7.net/viewpoints/index.php?index=2&story_id=52111)
This story was taken from www.inq7.net
http://news.inq7.net/viewpoints/index.php?index=2&story_id=52111
How Gloria is like and unlike Marcos
First posted 02:52am (Mla time) Oct 03, 2005
By William Esposo
INQ7.net
FRIENDS and kin were frantically texting me last week to ask my reading of the news about an impending imposition of martial law. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo used complex jargon but this was seen only as euphemism for the bad M word. This did not temper anxieties, particularly since it was no less than the Philippine Daily Inquirer and INQ7 who had bannered the story. The subsequent events (the curtailment of freedom of dissent through the Calibrated Pre-emptive Response (CPR) policy and the infamous Executive Order 464 that now prevents government officials, including military officers, from attending congressional investigations without prior presidential approval) all fueled and heightened people’s fears.
Martial law or ‘calibrated pre-emptive response’ or even ‘emergency rule’ is by no means a daily fare of freedom-loving nations. Anyone imposing it must have very strong justification and must be able to carry it out most effectively. Even more basic than that – the leader must have the character and personality to maintain control. Otherwise, it will be like riding the back of the tiger only to end up inside its stomach as its repast.
Pakistan’s Musharraf and Egypt’s Mubarak govern by authoritarian regimes under the guise of ‘constitutional order’, similar to the one propagated by our own Ferdinand Marcos whose martial rule covered the country’s dark years between 1972 and 1986. Based on common conditions and circumstances, it is easy to see how Musharraf, Mubarak and Marcos managed to operate under authoritarian conditions. To determine therefore if indeed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo can imitate Marcos and impose martial law, we must study her personal qualities as well as the conditions under which she governs. We then have to run all this against the personal qualities of Marcos, the man, and the conditions in 1972, the year he declared martial law.
>>continues...(INQ7) (http://news.inq7.net/viewpoints/index.php?index=2&story_id=52111)