Keith Martin C.
Quimno
Is the celebration of the Philippine – American Friendship Day a
reinforcement of Uncle Sam’s superiority?
The answer to this question lies on
how we understand the relationship of a former colonizer and a former colony. Postcolonialism, a theory generated through
Edward Said’s Orientalism and through
the observance of the political and cultural reforms made by anti-colonial
movements, offers a promising line of thought in the understanding of the Post-Colonial. The term ‘postcolonial’,
according to Rajesh James, refers to the unpresentable
in the colonial while the hyphenated term ‘post-colonial’ refers to a period
after colonialism.
The Republic of the Philippines
and the United States of America shares a ‘special relationship’. This means
that they are extremely close allies who have close historical, political,
economic, and military relations. The two countries shared numerous bilateral
agreements which significantly influenced the Philippine society. It was until
1992 when the last US military base completed its withdrawal from the
Philippines, but bilateral military relations continue with the existence of
the Visiting Forces Agreement approved on 1999 and the Balikatan exercises which occurs annually. The two countries also continue
to enhance with trade and investment; the United States has traditionally been
the Philippines' largest foreign investor and the Philippines is considered as
one of US’ largest beneficiary in terms of economic aid.
A Friend or a Foe?
Western influence made a change
on the Filipino way of life. Through the long history of US presence in the
Philippines, many US products, food, and other commodities have entered the Philippine
market and had been common on shopping lists of Filipinos. Nowadays, it is
common to see Filipinos craving to eat at foreign fast-food stores than on the
usual ‘karinderya’. Here we see how colonialism
paves way to what Frantz Fanon (1961) call as the colonialisation of the mind. That colonialism does not only provide
former colonizers the ownership of geographical locations but also the
psychological inclinations of those who became their former colonies.
Subjects of colonialism are made
to feel that they are ‘inferior’ in a society which is controlled by ‘superior’
colonizers. Because of this, Franz Fanon said, those who are titled to be ‘inferior’
creates the compromise of using the same things that their colonizers use and
doing the same things that their colonizers do to deal with the psychological inadequacy of their
society. This can be attributed to the structure of a strong US soft power.
Are the US bases really gone from the Philippines?
It is documented that the
Philippines is free from any foreign military base and that it holds
sovereignty. But Edward Said (1993) writes that “postcolonial independence involves not only the recovery of geographical
territory but also the reclamation of the culture”. US Military bases may
have long been gone from the Philippines, but the base which holds and thrusts
their culture into that of the Philippines is still very much in existence.
_______________________
References:
References:
(1)James, R. (2014). Postcolonialism: A Brief Overview. Retrieved: August 26, 2014 from http://www.academia.edu/2662908/Postcolonialism_A_Brief_Overview
(2)Simon, S. (2013). US-Southeast Asia Relations: Philippines – An Exemplar of the US Rebalance. Retrieved: August 26, 2014 from http://csis.org/files/publication/1302qus_seasia.pdf
(3)Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs - Fact Sheet (2014). U.S. Relations with the Philippines. Retrieved: August 27, 2014 from http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2794.htm
(4)Embassy of the United States - Manila, Philippines. Doing Business in the Philippines. Retrieved: August 26, 2014 from http://manila.usembassy.gov/doing-business-local.html
(5)Philippines: Foreign Military Relations (1991). Retrieved: August 26, 2014 from http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-10526.html
(6)Images courtesy of Google Images
relateable
ReplyDelete