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‘Reformists’ Instigate Anti-Red Spin
Bulatlat is posting the
“Open Letter” of Walden Bello and Etta Rosales denouncing an alleged
communist hit list carried by major dailies in the Philippines.
Accompanying it are replies from the subject of their letter – Jose Maria
Sison.
By Bulatlat
An alleged “hit list”
of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) hogged the news headlines
on Dec. 26 - the same day the CPP itself marked its 36th
anniversary. The alleged “hit list” against “counter-revolutionaries” was
denounced by Walden Bello, director of the Bangkok-based and well-funded
Focus on the Global South and Etta Rosales, Akbayan party-list House
representative. Bello is himself “chair emeritus” of Akbayan.
Their denunciation
sprang from an article that came out in the Dec. 7, 2004 issue of Ang
Bayan (The People), the central publication of the CPP. The article is
half-page with a diagram showing the links of reformist and
pseudo-revolutionary groups with international Trotskyite and social
democratic formations. The term “hit list” attributed to the diagram was
coined by Bello and Rosales.
Bello and Rosales
used the AB article to launch an offensive on Jose Maria Sison,
founding chair of the CPP, accusing him of, among others, using the CPP as
a “fascist harbinger of violence, hatred and murder.” They issued an “Open
Letter” – a copy of which was never sent to Prof. Sison himself – and
delivered it personally to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, which headlined
the story, and other dailies. The letter is now circulating worldwide.
Reacting to the
charge, some political groups denounced the letter as a spin, timed with
the anniversary of the CPP. Others said Bello and Rosales – and the groups
they represent – were blowing up the issue beyond the intent of the AB
article and hence, should be considered as engaging in psywar and
“character assassination.”
Kilusang Magbubukid
ng Pilipinas (KMP or Peasant Movement in the Philippines) dismissed the
two as “KSP” (kulang sa pansin) which in the Filipino language
means craving for public attention. KMP’s affiliates figured in the Nov.
16 Hacienda Luisita land-labor strike where hundreds of military and
police forces violently dispersed thousands of plantation farmers and mill
workers, resulting in the death of eight strikers.
Assassination plots
Forced to live in Holland, Sison has
been the target of assassination plots by government authorities including
top military and police officials during the Estrada presidency in
connivance with some self-styled revolutionaries. The CPP founder in his
reply to Bello and Rosales, cites receiving information about a new
assassination plan hatched this time by elements of the Arroyo
administration.
Bello considers
himself a “pluralist” and is known in international circles as a
“reformist” on the issue of globalization at the time when more and more
groups are calling for the disbandment of the World Trade Organization and
the Bretton Woods Institutions.
Rosales’ Akbayan, on
the other hand, was accused by progressive party-list groups of receiving
support from the national police and military in the last May presidential
elections. At that time, Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Anak ng Bayan, Anakpawis
and other progressive electoral parties were the targets of the Arroyo
government’s demonization and physical attacks. At least 40 of their
electoral organizers have been slain.
Bulatlat is
publishing the “Open Letter” of Bello and Rosales on the alleged CPP “hit
list” as well as the two replies by Prof. Sison the Inquirer story and the
letter itself. Bulatlat
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