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Estrada wants to see 'his friend'
- Subject: Estrada wants to see 'his friend'
- From: suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 03 Oct 1998 02:24:00
Politics
Estrada wants to see 'his
friend'
MANILA -- Philippine President Joseph
Estrada said on Friday he would attend
next month's Asia-Pacific summit in
Malaysia. He voiced dismay about the
hosts' treatment of his friend Anwar Ibrahim,
the ousted Malaysian deputy premier.
He also said that if ''allowed'' by the
Malaysian government, he wishes to see
Anwar, who has alleged he suffered a
police beating shortly after his detention
last month.
''I will attend Apec,'' Estrada told reporters,
backtracking from an earlier threat to
boycott the Nov 17-18 summit of the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum
in Kuala Lumpur.
He insisted on Friday: ''I just said I
sympathised with Anwar because he is a
good friend of mine.''
Estrada said his attendance was
''mandatory'' because the Philippines was
among the founders of Apec, an informal
group of 18 Pacific-rim economies,
including the United States, Canada,
Australia, and Japan.
But he said this should not deter him from
expressing his personal views on Anwar,
who is on trial for corruption and sodomy.
Anwar appeared in court on Tuesday and
Wednesday with a black left eye and
bruised arm, charging he was handcuffed,
blindfolded and beaten unconscious on the
night of his arrest on Sept 20.
''The president is communicating privately
with his friends in Malaysia, expressing his
concern about Anwar Ibrahim,'' Estrada's
chief aide, executive secretary Ronaldo
Zamora told reporters.
However, he said the president has not
talked to any Malaysian government official.
''Of course, I'm expressing my sympathy.
Anwar is a good man. He's a friend of the
Filipino people,'' Estrada said.
Zamora stressed: ''I don't think anybody
should be faulted for expressing his
concern about the fate of a friend.''
''After all, if you look at the circumstances,
he was looking at pictures showing very
clearly that the former deputy premier had
been beaten up.''
But he rejected comparisons between
Mahathir and Marcos, who died in exile in
Hawaii three years after he was toppled in
a bloodless popular revolt in 1986.
''Malaysia is in a very different situation,''
Zamora added.
Asked if the situation in Malaysia was a
concern for the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (Asean), Estrada said it was
an ''internal problem of the Malaysian
government [in] which I believe I should not
in any way interfere''.
Zamora said Estrada's original comments
on the Apec summit were ''a private
remark. He did not go on a public stage to
do this.''
Radio reports said some legislators were
dismayed at Estrada's turnaround, saying it
deprived him of the chance to assert the
Philippines' role as the region's beacon of
democracy.
Asean groups Brunei, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The
group has maintained a policy of
non-interference in one another's internal
affairs.
Zamora said Estrada and Anwar got
acquainted just before Estrada was elected
vice president in 1992, and have kept in
contact through the years.
''They always thought of themselves as
kindred spirits. They shared many
interests,'' he added.
The Philippine press pummelled Mahathir
on Friday, comparing him to the late
Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
The Today newspaper described Mahathir
as a ''fading caricature of the Third World
strongman a la Ferdinand Marcos'' and
Anwar as a man ''who represents the future
and who -- if he survives his present ordeal
-- will most likely succeed his tormentor.
''The brazen arrest and torture of former
deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim and
the suppression of the protest movement
that Mahathir Mohamad's shameless act of
tyranny sparked, should be condemned in
the strongest possible terms by Filipinos
and the Philippine government,'' Today
newspaper said in an editorial.
It urged Filipinos ''to speak out against the
brutal treatment that Mahathir's regime is
inflicting on Anwar and his supporters, if
only because we know only too well what
they are going through.''
Neal Cruz, a Philippine Daily Inquirer
columnist, compared the Malaysian political
conflict to Marcos' treatment of his chief
political foe, popular Senator Benigno
''Ninoy'' Aquino.
''What Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad is doing to his deputy and
principal rival Anwar Ibrahim was what
president Marcos did to Ninoy Aquino after
he declared martial law in 1972,'' Cruz
wrote.
Marcos had jailed Aquino for 10 years until
he was released for medical treatment in
the United States.
Aquino was assassinated by soldiers loyal
to Marcos on his return from US exile in
1983, sparking popular anger that
blossomed into the bloodless uprising that
three years later ousted Marcos and swept
Aquino's widow, Corazon, to the
presidency.
Agence France-Presse