Political Power and Sexism

Fury, anger and outspoken protest was registered by a group of French women politicians in France demanding an end to the sexual harassment and sexism among male politicians and government officials which they  themselves were subjected to. 

They directed their sharp criticism at an enduring attitude and what could be described as male political entitlement to sexually harass female politicians and journalists. 

A few weeks ago, they stood outside the French parliament with placards and megaphones and riot police on standby demanding a stop to the daily practice of male politicians- their colleagues- physically touching, groping, harassing them with sexist talk and in some cases, sexual assault by the male politicians. 

But that is not all. Last 2015, a group of female journalists spoke out in public demanding the same respect for their status, dignity and rights. Many have come out openly describing they were sexually assaulted by male colleagues. 

At least 40 of the female journalists wrote an open letter to the Libération newspaper to protest the abuse and outrageous sexism of French officials and politicians who tell them, “It was just a joke.” 

In 2011, French presidential candidate Dominique Strauss-Kahn was charged in New York for allegedly sexually assaulting a hotel maid. After weeks of humiliating court appearances, the charges were dropped by out of court agreement. 

The female politicians signed an open letter condemning the practice so prevalent as if it is a machismo right for males to behave in that way. In this day and age when we have recently celebrated International Women’s Day, this behavior in the presumably civilized and sophisticated French capital is truly outrageous. The abuse by male politicians of their positions of power challenges all of us to review our own attitudes and what values we hold regarding the respect for the dignity and rights of women in all of society. 

We need to reflect and find an understanding of what is behind male domination besides crass ignorance and disregard for the dignity and rights of women. The first possible explanation is not reason, not rational, but it is desire and the demanding nature by some insecure and appetite-driven men to have sexual gratification whenever they want. The sexist remarks, touching and harassment is a foreplay and crude invitation for the female to cooperate and satisfy their desires. 

When rebuffed child-like, they can resort to retaliatory measures and get what they want by assault and even rape. They tend to belittle and downgrade women as punishment for failing to gratify their appetites for sexual stimulation. The drive to gain political power may also be motivated by the same basic instinct to have domination  over others and women in particular. It’s more animal instinct, it seems, than human rational that is at work in the abusive politicians. 

Philippine Catholic Bishops and family life advocates were shocked and at disbelief when the presumptive president-elect Rodrigo Duterte, mayor of Davao City, announced that when he would be president it would cost the state nothing to maintain his three mistresses since he kept them in cheap boarding houses and took them to cheap hotels to have sex. That just gives the go signal and presidential approval to the Philippine male population “to do as I do.” It impact on an increase in broken families and abandoned children has yet to be seen. 

His next contribution to the joke arena did not go down so well. Some think that he is the hope for women’s rights in the country, others abhor his disparaging attitude and remarks to women when he told a group of women rights advocates, “You go to hell!” after they filed charges against him in the Commission on Human Rights. 

They did so after his remarks when he viewed the body of a murdered and raped Australian Missionary who died in a prison riot in Davao. “She was so beautiful, as mayor I wish I had been first,” he told a laughing crowd. But it was only a tasteless joke he said later and apologized under pressure. 

The protesting Filipino women did not appreciate the joke. They wrote a letter to the commissioner on behalf of all members of their respective organizations. They said in the letter of complaint that  “women (were) insulted, shocked and outraged” by the sexist joke of the mayor and that he was allegedly violating the Magna Carta of Women. 

This attitude, they said in their letter, put “in peril the future of many children and young women who are potential victims of violence against women.” They also wrote: “What protection and redress would they expect in a society where men tolerate such violation?” 

The Philippines and Southeast Asia is the target for the sex tourists the world over. The tolerance and cooperation of politicians is outrageous. They grant operating permits to thousands of joints, sex bars, massage parlors which are fronts for both child prostitution and human trafficking. Young women and children are forced into these establishments. 

The politicians have the power to stop it but do not have the interest, respect and political will to act against them. Instead they foster and promote them. Again the sexist attitude of the male species dominates and exploits. That’s what they want and that is what they get no matter who suffers. 

This we must oppose united and determined. Otherwise there will never be true gender equality but together we can help change it.  

Death Squads and Democracy

Why would Philippine judges hamper a human rights investigation into a killing field where many human remains are found in Davao, victims allegedly of the infamous death squad? Why would the members of the Commission on Human Rights be charged themselves? Human Rights Watch says local authorities are obstructing the course of justice and investigation into almost a thousand assassinations in the past decade. How can this be in an Asian democracy?

Most people in northern democracies presume that there is a democratically elected government in the Philippines and that human rights will be generally respected and upheld. It also presumes that the rule of law prevails most of the time and that the democratically elected government will respect the provision of treaties, conventions and protocols it has signed. In the Philippines that is not so.

Corruption is widespread and election fraud, cheating, vote-buying and intimidation are common, so democracy is far from real. The same powerful wealthy family dynasties continue to dominate the so-called election process and it’s not so much rule by the people or for the people, but the rule of the elite for their own interests. In the Philippines, traditionally, an oligarchy of a few very powerful families rules the country and control the economy. They place their family members into government positions to advance their own economic interests.

They thus control the congress and other branches of government. Many are incompetent to govern and they form a military and police force that is built around their own relatives, friends and beneficiaries. Therefore the forces are loyal to the patriarch or family head, not to the people. They are selected not on the basis of their professional merit and competence but on their loyalty to the head of the dynasty. Promotion in the ranks military or police depends on the power of their patron.

Thus, history of street protest shows police and military shooting dozens of protesters that challenge the ruling elite. The military will stand against the farmers and protect the interests of the powerful land owner. Human rights are cast aside in favor of protecting the politicians and the ruling families.

The “Democratic” Philippines is a myth and the enduring “death squad” and cover up is proof of that. The death squad existing in many cities is to create a culture of fear and control and suppress the people’s protest of injustice and unendurable poverty.

Davao City and the surrounding province is rife with inequality and land exploitation, injustice and widespread poverty and a few vastly wealthy families control the land and the banana industry. The military and police protect their interests against impoverished peasants or militant social and human rights activists demanding land reform, just wages and health care.

Davao is the most prominent example of murdering death squads that kill even street children, although it is a similar situation all other Philippine provinces. It arose they say in the 1970s and ‘80s and ground swell of protest by organized impoverished farmers and their supporters frightened the ruling families and they set up the assassination squad to eliminate them. The insurgents counter with their own assassination squads.

There was much killing and violence. The government-backed assassination squads triumphed and a permanent well paid “assassination squad” was established.

Men dressed in black clothes, equipped with radios, guns and knives and riding motor cycles calmly ride up to suspects and shoot them dead. Until the present, the squad operates with impunity. National and International Human rights organizations have continually called for an investigation and for the killers to be brought to justice. When Human Rights Commission Chair Leila De Lima did so this year, she was met with uncooperative justices, officials and citizens. The politicians and police commanders say that rival gangs are killing each other.

Politicians deny its existence but the discovery of many corpses makes that untenable. The authorities are desperate to prevent the truth from being revealed. The challenge and international pressure on the government to end the killings and disband the assassination squad is growing. If they do, the suffering poverty and injustice may against surface to challenge the “democratically” elected elite. Some strange democracy this is.