Trustee of the Nation: The Biography of Fidel v. Ramos by W. Scott Thompson

Author:W. Scott Thompson [Thompson, W. Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Political
ISBN: 9789712726323
Google: LTWWDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 15779143
Publisher: Anvil Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2011-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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374 Kennan, cited in Thompson, The Philippines in Crisis, op.cit.

375 See for example James Hamilton-Paterson’s mellifluent America’s Boy, written by a long-resident British author: a brilliant book but which misses the point.

376 We were to observe, through meetings with Ferdinand Marcos in the late 1970s, that he too got it—but had become too enmeshed in his own nets of complicity to act on his perception. He came to believe that American reliance on Philippine bases alone made him indispensable to American strategy, whatever his other shortcomings.

377 During visits to Boston and Washington in April 2001, Ramos saw every living ex-ambassador to the Philippines save one, mostly at a party at the present author’s Washington residence. A member of President George W. Bush’s cabinet, John Negroponte, stated that “It is practically unheard of in American diplomacy—that so many of our emissaries to a country would be so unanimous in their praise of one leader.”

378 In a hand-written note to General Colin Powell, ‘I appreciate your view of Jack Wickham—my buddy—and of Benning, Bragg and VN which I also experienced in a different way…’ Ramos to Powell, October 11, 1995, on receipt of a copy of Powell’s memoirs, “with such gracious dedication.”

379 See Senator Jovito Salonga’s celebratory study of the seminal vote by which the base terms were ended, The Senate that said No.

380 In the Filipino mind, utang na loob is central: the sacred inner debt by which relations with those stronger and weaker is managed. The game is always to have the other party have utang na loob to oneself.

381 For example, Harold Wilson admonished the great Tungku, Malaysia’s first Prime Minister, that if he locked Lee Kuan Yew up—this is back in 1965—it would be hard to welcome him in their midst in London (and thus to have tea at Buckingham palace). That worked.

382 Dr. Isabelo T. Crisostomo, “Toward An Effective Presidency: The President as Economic Diplomat,” Manila Bulletin, February 25, 2002.

383 Ibid.

384 José V. Abueva et al., eds, The Ramos Presidency and Administration, op. cit., p. 94.

385 Accordingly, the historical claim of the Philippines to Sabah had its roots in the lands of the Sultan of Sulu, which in colonial times extended Southward beyond the eponymous islands. The Sultans, who are Philippine citizens, thereby allegedly afford grounds to the government of the Philippines to assert these claims—mighty curious ones to be advanced by a Republican government.

386 British Intelligence maintained a higher profile in Malaysian government circles than the CIA in Manila’s; rubber exports played a role in keeping the Pound Sterling afloat. In interviews at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1969, the author found a far higher level of interest in Filipino affairs than one would expect. And it was not just because of Malaysian rubber—but world shipping lanes crossing Philippine archipelagic waters.

387 Which later was confirmed by the then Malaysian foreign minister, Abdullah Badawi. See Amando Doronila, “Good Chemistry” between Ramos and Mahathir, Philippine Daily Inquirer, July 21, 1995.

388 Syed Nazri, “KL seeking more joint ventures with Manila,” New Straits Times (Malaysia), January 30, 1995, p.

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