Rebels Without a (Good) Cause

Finally, like manna from heaven, a day after I "wished" that Proclamation 1017 be rescinded, the President lifted the controversial Proclamation. Yesterday, news reports say that the opposition are planning to send a complaint to the United Nations regarding 1017. Whatever that should result with, I couldn't see the UN even take a second look at it when it had more pressing problems of its own like the recent corruption scandals that racked Kofi Annan's term. At a Columbia School symposium, United States Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton on Saturday declared the United Nations is hobbled "by bad management, by sex and corruption and by a growing lack of confidence in its ability to carry out missions.'' It also has to grapple with the mess in Iraq, the recent flagrant flaunting of International Atomic Energy Agency's Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of the Republic of Iran. There is Darfur, the AIDS crises and the avian influenza pandemic, the Hamas victory in the Palestine Territories, the persistent threat of global terrorism and the frequent unilateral response of the United States amongst others. The UN never did really intervene during the Marcos dictatorship did they? Not even ASEAN can interfere in the internal affairs of its members. How many years did it take ASEAN to finally publicly censure Myanmar's military regime? The generals kept Dame Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for several years now, and never allowed her National League for Democracy party to take power even if it won the elections. It took several years and thousands of deaths in East Timor before UN finally stepped in.

Taking the case to the United Nations is an exercise in futility and as far as I know it it is just another ploy by the opposition to gain media mileage as well as an air of international legitimacy over their much-discredited and scorned cause. What scorn is greater than having the general public, the middle forces, the real taxpayers ignore their political acrobatics? In the end, its the people that must decide. Thankfully (and hopefully) , with 1017 lifted, we can finally move on.