Is there a way out of the impasse between the
Philippines and China over Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal?
The
crescendo of power politics is represented by shrill reports of the presence of
various ships in the contested area, with almost a daily accounting of how many
ships have been added or withdrawn. Then, too, there are reports of Philippine
bananas being held in Chinese ports for some reason, and potential travel plans
of Chinese tourists to the Philippines being scrapped as a demonstration of
displeasure over the standoff.
Lost in
the morass are the non-threatening, low-politics areas of cooperation that have
been going on for many years and which may, in the long haul, be the most
important components of the relations between the Philippines and China.
Can we
simply dismiss the robust interaction and joint medical undertakings being done
by Filipino and Chinese scientists in Shanghai and elsewhere in China in search
of the cure for cancer?
Can we
close our eyes to the very active cooperation among our marine scientists,
oceanologists, geologists and other scientists as they continue to study the
waters called the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea), in which coral
formations, sea plants and fish species are all part of one ecological whole?
And how
can China reject the fact that the fish it harvests for its food security
spawns in our Palawan waters because of the ambient conditions therein?
And why
have we forgotten about the planned Trans-Asean Gas Pipeline, which aims to
link the gas reserves of the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore,
Vietnam, Brunei, Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand?
Isn’t
China’s energy needs linked to the vast gas resources of the Asean countries,
which will constitute one of the economic foundations of our Free Trade
Agreement with China? How can China close its eyes to its uranium needs for its
nuclear power plants, which the Philippines can easily supply?
And we
are not talking yet of our other precious ores, which China needs for its
burgeoning requirements as an industrializing nation half of whose population
is below 25 years of age.
What
about the active cooperation among our Filipino environmental lawyers and their
Chinese counterparts who would like to be guided by some of the best
environmental laws that we have crafted?
What
about the needs of China for our accountants whose expertise are well known all
over the world as China is being compelled to follow international accountancy
and auditing rules?
The
list can go on and on.
All of
these interactions engender habits of cooperation, which are deeply rooted and
which will matter in the medium to long run. We can all argue until we’re blue
in the face in every international forum or court of justice, and it is less
likely that the sovereignty and territoriality issues will be resolved at all.
Kashmir,
Kuriles, Arctic Ocean, Antarctica, Kurdistan, Palestine are just some of the
areas where sovereign entities called nation-states contest ownership of and
claim jurisdiction over the same piece of land, waters and air space.
Throughout
history, we have seen how the Treaty of Westphalia of 1648 had set the
principles of sovereignty and territoriality and decreed these as the
fundamental framework for how political entities would henceforth conduct
themselves.
Looking
at the map of present Africa, one is not surprised at how the mindless drawing
of straight lines to denote the limits of geography of nascent states and
colonially defined territorial boundaries had effectively divided tribes,
families, rivers, lakes and mountains with catastrophic results, many of which
we continue to witness today.
The
continuing rival claims that we see between and among various protagonists and
the relentless efforts to denote the limits of one’s national power in terms of
specific metes and bounds continue to inform our international politics.
What is
to be done?
I
believe both the Philippines and China realize that politics cannot be a zero
sum game where one wins and the other loses. Politics must not be a zero sum
game where one wins some and the other wins some, too.
To me,
pursuing the low-politics route to cooperation is the way to go—the ONLY way,
in fact, as the alternative may not be acceptable to both parties to the
dispute.
Our
hope as students of politics is that the continuing low-politics areas of cooperation
will increase in level and scope and will ramify or spill over into the
high-politics area later, and that the habits of cooperation engendered by the
nonpolitical, nonthreatening scientific interactions will serve to overturn the
dictum that “might is right.”
After
all, the energy, food, and environmental security of one nation cannot be at
the expense of the insecurity of the others.
Clarita
R. Carlos is a professor of political science at the University of the
Philippines and the only woman civilian president of the National Defense
College of the Philippines.
Business & Investment Opportunities
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Healthcare and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN. We also propose Higher Education, as a bridge between educational structures and industries, by supporting international programmes. Many thanks for visiting www.yourvietnamexpert.com and/or contacting us at contact@yourvietnamexpert.com
No comments:
Post a Comment