SO tiny Brunei is creating a firestorm among civil libertarians and the LGBTQ community due to its new law that condemns adulterers and homosexuals (and thieves as well) to punishment reminiscent of the Middle (or Dark?) ages.
Thieves will have their limbs cut off, gays will be stoned and adulterers will apparently suffer the same fate. Not that Brunei is the first country to adopt these forms of punishment, but others have had them in their statute books for decades, maybe even centuries.
Brunei’s adoption of these forms of punishment in the year 2019 is why George Clooney, Ellen Degeneres and other celebrities are up in arms, calling for boycotts of the businesses of the Sultan.
They’ve issued a list of hotels, for example. None of which we can afford in the first place so our boycott comes naturally!
I know that once upon a time Enrique Zobel (EZ) and the Sultan of Brunei were co-owners of two or three hotels. One was the Hyatt in Singapore, another was a boutique hotel in LA and a third was in San Francisco right at Union Square. When the Sultan told EZ he wanted to fully own the businesses, of course EZ sold out.
It used to be said that the Mandarin Oriental in Makati (gone now) was also owned by the Sultan but I never had a chance to verify. Though I have good memories of our HS prom there on the very year (don’t ask) that it opened.
The furor caused by Brunei is no different from the furor caused by other ASEAN countries like Singapore and Malaysia when the draconian elements of their criminal laws are applied. Applied equally, mind you, on locals as well as foreigners. Years ago a bratty American teen - Michael Fay was his name - went on a vandalism and stealing spree and was then sentenced by a Singaporean court to six strokes of the cane. The US tried all it could to get him a more lenient sentence but Singapore barely relented, reducing the caning from six to four. My thoughts at that time were that had he done that in the Philippines, he could have gotten away with it easy. “My driver did it!”
You see, while other countries for better or worse see their criminal laws as black or white, we in the Philippines seem to look at our criminal laws as black or white on the outside but beneath the surface - and for better or worse - it’s fifty (million) shades of grey. Things can be discussed. Talk to someone who knows someone who knows someone. If you’re a foreigner get your embassy involved; if you’re of a certain Asian nationality (don’t ask) even much better.
I use fifty million because – and I may be wrong – that would be the number of Filipinos who in my estimation should already be competent enough to know what’s right and what’s wrong. I have to admit that sometimes I think the number isn’t even ten million!
We can boast that we have ousted and jailed ex-presidents. Fired cabinet members. Publicly shamed local officials even. But then what happens? The shades of grey take over. Jail cells open, those fired are rehired, and the shamed officials bet on the Filipino’s non-elephantine memory to remain in politics and await redemption at the next polls. And are they redeemed! Over and over again.
You’ve heard it before: We are too forgiving. We are too forgetful.
It was the great Malay who said it best albeit in the language of an imperialist: tal pueblo, tal gobierno.
If our system is all fifty million shades of grey it must be because that’s how we are, deep down inside.
