A Complicated SCS Status!

By Erick San Juan

In the world of social networking, netizens have several ways of interpreting what does ‘complicated’ means. But in geopolitics, when the situation is complicated, greater tensions may arise and regional conflict is not far from happening.

What complicates the South China Sea issue is the continuing provocations and word wars. The nagging rhetoric of ‘finding a peaceful and diplomatic solution’ to the matter coming from the lead players and those who are outside looking in, seems to be in vain.

We all want to ease the tension and at the same time solve the problem peacefully. But actions speak louder than words and it all ends up to creating more problems than solutions.

The effort that is being done by the PNoy administration via the United Nations is actually a big no-no to Beijing and yet the move for UN’s arbitration in solving the territorial disputes pushed through sans China.

The mere fact that some countries have extended their support for Manila’s move for arbitration, Uncle Sam’s ‘unwavering’ support for such move has added on Beijing’s irritation on its firm stand for bilateral negotiation with other claimant nations. As some pundits see it, the so-called meddling of Washington in the SCS territorial disputes is a direct threat towards China.

From the words of a longtime senior U.S. diplomat J. Stapleton Roy in his Feb. 13 address at the East-West Center in Hawaii – “With China now “locked in a web of disputes” with its neighbors over small but potentially resource-rich islands in the region, the United States finds itself in the awkward situation of trying to reassure our allies at the same time we try to restrain their behavior, because we don’t want tiny little islands in the western Pacific to end up bringing us into a great-power confrontation with China.

The threat of such hostility is real, and these disputes are having direct impact on U.S.-China relations – but it’s an asymmetrical impact, because Americans basically don’t care about these islands. But, in China it is an issue of great nationalist importance, as it is for Japan, the Philippines and other claimants.”

Sadly, our country lacks an ideology that will unite us and fight for our sovereignty and worst of all, our leaders are obviously kowtowing to the whims of a perceived master. With any significant amount of nationalism left in the country’s populace is not enough to help fight a goliath. That is why the stigma of a faithful ally will never leave us despite the fact that we are always shortchanged courtesy of our past (and present) leaders.

So the policy that is governing this region in relation to China is American-inspired and dominated in exchange for the so-called military modernization but in reality there is nothing ‘modern’ about it but pure military junks.

In the end, such dire situation will leave us in the mercy of the Big Brother because “China’s rise has benefitted all of the countries around it, and as a result they don’t want a containment policy; they want responsible behavior by China so they can expand economic and trade relations, which already dwarf their relations with other countries. But when China behaves badly, then they want the United States to be present because they can’t deal with China on their own. It’s a dynamic that skillful diplomacy should be able to take advantage from.” (Ibid)

Even in the area of skillful diplomacy, the present administration lacks the people with such expertise because we have some ‘foreigners’ manning our government that is why we always end up at the losing end.
And why register your punches? Why do we have to announce in the newspapers the procurement of war materiels? Given the premise that we have the funds, but it will be too late for such purchases coz it will not be delivered asap.

When it comes to fighting for our territories, let’s forget it, until this country will have the backbone to stand on its own by having patriots in the government and will not just follow orders from the outside, we will end up as Phili-finished.

“Diplomacy without military force is like music without instruments.” – Frederick The Great