Keynote Address was given by Gen. Kakilala who represented Gen. Gregorio P. Catapang, Jr., Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippine (AFP). I came late and I was not able to catch his presentation. I saw the presentations on "Radicalism in Southeast Asia" by Dr. Sapto Waluyo of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Indonesia (above photo) and Asst. Sec. Oscar Valenzuela, Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC), Office of the President, Philippines.
The venue, the air-con tent on the 2nd floor of the hotel was full. Many from different foreign embassies in Manila (40+ in the list of participants), from the PH government including the PNP and AFP (about 30), NGOs (30+, me included), academe and media.
The most interesting presentations that day were made by these two guys, Rommel (left) and Abhoud Syed M. Lingga, Executive Director of IBS (right).
To be radical means to have some innovative, creative, revolutionary yet sensical ideas that were not proposed before, or were proposed by only a small minority in society. In this sense, to be radical means being useful, not harmful, to society. And this is not what we hear or read, especially from the government and mainstream media.
I like these quotes because they apply to what we are doing in Minimal (not zero) Government Thinkers -- advocating less and limited government, less taxes and mandatory fees, more personal freedom and responsibillity, rule of law -- without advocating violence. Zero tolerance for violence and physical attacks. To be radical means to have high degree of tolerance and respect for people's diversity and spontaneity. People can be very bright or very stupid in advocating something, fine, so long as no violence is used to advance such advocacies.
Rommel has a longer list of violent Islamic fundamentalist groups aside from the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and the BIFF. These include the Rogue MNLF Elements (RME), Jimayah Islamiyah (JI) and the Khilafa Islamiyah Mindanao (KIM).
During the open forum, I spoke and argued that the bloated
and pampered AFP and PNP bureaucracies are part of the problem why violence by
the local communists (CPP-NPA) and Muslim secessionist movement stayed too
long. Dealing with these violent local groups should be primarily a police
function (plus LGUs, civil society), not military function (their
constitutional mandate is external defense) hat generally uses heavy armaments and often, commit human rights violations, deliberately or not The police are not doing this job,
the AFP comes in to do what the police should be doing, and huge AFP annual
budget and perks are justified while the PNP also keep their huge annual
budget.
I asked Mr. Lingga if there is a substantial sector of Filipino Muslims who think this way too, of the negative impact of heavy military and police bureaucratism. Unfortunately, the impression I gave (or his impression) was that I was asking about overall government bloated bureaucracies. He answered that the new entity under the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) will determine what is the appropriate and optimal size of bureaucracy they will have.
After the open forum, I approached him and mentioned that I was referring to the AFP-PNP bureaucracies. The people feel unsafe while paying many taxes to sustain these two huge armed bureaucracies (plus many other bureaucracies). So they get many private security agencies to have peace of mind, or they arm themselves and put justice in their hands, common in many provinces in Mindanao.
I met many new faces there. Since I came late, all the seats in the middle and rear tables were fully occupied. A staff of one of the organizers looked for a vacant seat, he found one -- in the front table. So I was seated with some foreign diplomats, police and other PH government officials. I am sure the PNP officials beside me did not like what I said during the open forum, no problem.
Had a chat with two diplomats, Greg (?) from the Australian Embassy, and Mr. Ueno , First Secretary of Japan Embassy. He asked me about MGT, I said that we are just a small, independent free market think tank advocating limited government. The main function of government is to promulgate the rule of law, protect the citizens' right to private property, right to life, right to liberty, and many other functions like endless welfarism are secondary to unnecessary functions.
A photo with Rommel (right) and Steve Cutler (middle), a bright man whose ideas in fb I follow. Steve is now a private businessman and was a former US Embassy official here in Manila.
I asked Mr. Lingga if there is a substantial sector of Filipino Muslims who think this way too, of the negative impact of heavy military and police bureaucratism. Unfortunately, the impression I gave (or his impression) was that I was asking about overall government bloated bureaucracies. He answered that the new entity under the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) will determine what is the appropriate and optimal size of bureaucracy they will have.
After the open forum, I approached him and mentioned that I was referring to the AFP-PNP bureaucracies. The people feel unsafe while paying many taxes to sustain these two huge armed bureaucracies (plus many other bureaucracies). So they get many private security agencies to have peace of mind, or they arm themselves and put justice in their hands, common in many provinces in Mindanao.
I met many new faces there. Since I came late, all the seats in the middle and rear tables were fully occupied. A staff of one of the organizers looked for a vacant seat, he found one -- in the front table. So I was seated with some foreign diplomats, police and other PH government officials. I am sure the PNP officials beside me did not like what I said during the open forum, no problem.
Had a chat with two diplomats, Greg (?) from the Australian Embassy, and Mr. Ueno , First Secretary of Japan Embassy. He asked me about MGT, I said that we are just a small, independent free market think tank advocating limited government. The main function of government is to promulgate the rule of law, protect the citizens' right to private property, right to life, right to liberty, and many other functions like endless welfarism are secondary to unnecessary functions.
A photo with Rommel (right) and Steve Cutler (middle), a bright man whose ideas in fb I follow. Steve is now a private businessman and was a former US Embassy official here in Manila.
Overall, it was a great conference. Thanks again Rommel for the invite. Do invite me again. Defense security and terrorism research is not my cup of tea but I benefit from listening to the experts in this field, and imparting part of my ideas whenever they might fit.
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See also:
Pilipinas Forum 8: On the Abu Sayyaf, September 11, 2011
Pol. Ideology 53: Zero Government, Zero Taxes, Then What?, November 11, 2013
Pol. Ideology 54: On the Multiple "Death" of Capitalism, March 11, 2014
Pol. Ideology 55: Jules Maaten's Lecture on Liberalism, May 11, 2014
Pol. Ideology 56: Democracy and the Devils, June 11, 2014
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