Today we pause our fictional forays to focus on some happily factual news the visit last Thursday of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to the University of the Philippines, which conferred on him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
"In all honesty, I believe that non-interference is not a license for indifference," Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in a public lecture on Thursday.
Not only Filipinos heroize Jose Rizal. Malaysians, Indonesians, Bruneians also study Rizal as central to their histories. Scholars glean from Rizal’s life and works a Malay racial consciousness.
Academic freedom Boo Chanco
Even for this administration, the recent attack on academic freedom is a low point. It is a good illustration of “isip pulis patola” that minimizes basic principles that are the basis of civilized society. The end does not justify the short cuts they take.
I thought Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana is one Cabinet member we can depend on to defend basic principles of democratic governance. He seems sophisticated enough to recognize nuances that Duterte ignores, but matters.
Unilaterally abrogating a long-standing agreement that keeps the military and police out of our highest institution of learning was something to be expected from a Bato dela Rosa, but not a Delfin Lorenzana. But he did it anyway without even a dialogue with the affected community.