OUTGOING British Ambassador Asif Ahmad is that rare breed of diplomat who seems to disdain small talk and expounds on many subjects in full candor and passion.
His apparent aim is not to inject malice or pain, but to invite his listeners to look deep within themselves and, hopefully, find the real answers to the many conundrums bedeviling our geographically fragmented nation.
But after a four-year stint in the country, Ahmad is leaving our shores for the tropical paradise that is Jamaica, a Caribbean island nation and a former British colony. He invited last week members of three different religious denominations, some Chevening scholars, non-governmental organizations, friends and the media to celebrate iftar, the evening meal when Muslims end their daily Ramadan fast at sunset.
(Brutally frank, Ahmad once told the BusinessMirror that Metro Manila is beset by traffic problems “because mall owners, and not the government, choose where to locate their buildings.” He said that although the capital city is now populated by skyscrapers, “all of them are uniformly boring in design.”)
This time, the topic was the Marawi siege, as the envoy was asked whether it would be wise to negotiate with them.
“Negotiations solve all crises. Diplomacy comes in, whether it is happening in Europe, or the big battles in the Middle East. There is a time for fighting, but in the end, you can to talk to people. And people who are labeled as terrorists, in the end, become partners for peace.”
According to Ahmad, “these people, whether you call them terrorists or insurgents, they have families, wife and children, kith and kin. And if you poison that relationship with one, you will poison the community.”
Citing the UK’s experience in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, Ahmad said he sees the need for military intervention in Marawi to stabilize the situation, “[but] there comes a time, inevitably, for talks and settlement.”
When queried if ISIS now in the country: “In my view, [it] is a brand rather than a movement; it is not a corporation.”
“Everybody can carry a black flag and pretend they are scary, but I said, and my Prime Minister in the UK shares the same sentiment: ‘The best response is to carry on with your lives the way you live the freedoms that you have, with the religious beliefs of your faith. We will live how we want to live, and no one is going to stop us.” Asked whether foreigners have now come to aid the Marawi attackers, Ahmad said he sincerely hopes this will not happen.
Peace-loving people
HE noted that when he first came to Zamboanga, he saw something very similar going on, but the recovery work is still being done in restoring the affected community.
Ahmad was referring to the Zamboanga City siege, which happened in 2013, when government forces and a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front clashed as the group continued to recognize former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Nur Misuari as their chairman.
Seeing the many encounters between government forces and various insurgent factions, Ahmad noted that the Filipinos have lived in peace for generations in the presence of Muslims and Catholic schools, but said “[they] have not really turned on each other.”
The proper response to the Marawi siege, he said, is for a code of law to govern the deployment of the military on the civilian population.
“It must be done under a code of law. Now if we choose martial law, that is one way of doing it. It is not what mechanism to use; it is how the rules of that mechanism are applied.”
The discussion turned to alleged biases against the Muslims, coming to a head in the Marawi siege.
Mix of humanity, spirituality
AHMAD said: “There is no history of communal violence in the Philippines. There’s none of it. People have lived closed together [because] the missionaries have done great work socially, as well as in education. I did not see that there [in Marawi].”
“In the UK we have seen Muslims and Jews praying together for the bereaved in Manchester. You’ve seen communities come [as one]. No one has turned this into a Christian-Muslim fight. There is no interfaith conflict; it is one of people who are religious and spiritual only, [but] have no faith and no humanity, whatsoever,” he added.
Ahmad said the root of these biases comes from a lack of understanding history.
“People [who] understand Philippine history will recognize that Christians and Muslims in the Philippines, as well as Catholics and other Filipinos, have a shared history. They have a lot to learn from each other.”
Ahmad said the issue of Muslims in the Philippines “is not just about ‘that island in the south’; it is about Metro Manila, it is about the school curriculum, about history, about knowing who you are as a people.”
“Because, unless you know who you are, you will never be the country that you have to be.”
Elucidating, he quoted history books of the arrival here of Magellan in the country, and asked: “What was here before?”
He provided the answer: “There were indigenous people, [and] Arab seamen from Southeast Asia. In many respects, you are not different from the Malays and Indonesians because that is the neighborhood you are in.”
Then he posed a seeming dilemma: “How can you be alienated from all of that? All of your cities, including Manila, were mostly Muslim cities. It was only later on that it changed through periods of colonization that the push happened southward.”
He then concluded the idea that “[the Muslims] are an alien people and religion that have no place is history is a very modern thing.”
He said Muslims lived the same way as the Christians, [and] “now we have seen the beginnings of symbolism, whether it is a national event at Malacañang, and other cultural events, but the default position of the Philippines is that, although its Constitution separates states and church, in all respects, it is the Catholic Republic of the Philippines.”
“Which is not a bad thing,” he hastily added. “Because there is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and the UK, for example, where the Queen is the head of the church.”
“But honestly, it is out there, that is who we said we are,” he said, with the air of British forthrightness.
“And if you do that, you can make provisions to actually define the role of minority communities that have their rights. They can demand resources, and they can have respect for their culture and a commitment to history; that they are legitimate people. Rather than the subterfuge of imagining, that everybody is equal, these are not to be mixed.”
“It has to mix: It is part of humanity and spirituality,” he insisted.
“Most Distinguished Order”
Ahmad’s singular talent and passion did not escape the attention of the Queen, who appointed him as a Companion of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, one of highest forms of recognition by Her Majesty for service in foreign and Commonwealth affairs.
The Most Distinguished Order traces its history to 1818, with its motto, “Auspicium Melioris Aevi” (token of a better age). The ranks of the Order are: Knight/Dame Grand Cross, Knight/Dame Commander and Companion (CMG).
Thus, in his correct and complete title, Asif Ahmad, CMG, had served as Ambassador to the Philippines and Palau from July 2013. Prior to that, he was Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand and Lao PDR. In August 2017 he will take up his new, four-year assignment as High Commissioner to Jamaica, a statement from the Buckingham Palace said.
In response to the announcement, Ahmad said: “I am most grateful to Her Majesty, the Queen, for this honor for service. I owe this appointment to people who have nurtured and developed me over the years. As a member of the Diplomatic Service, my colleagues in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and in my teams in Thailand and the Philippines, have played a substantial part in working with me to deliver positive outcomes for the United Kingdom. In carrying out my duties, I have been encouraged and motivated by the impact we have on the lives of people, sometimes in very challenging circumstances.”
During his term in the Philippines, Ahmad witnessed the delivery of UK assistance to victims of Supertyphoon Yolanda. Two-way trade and investments had reached record highs, including being the second-fastest growing global market for British exports in 2015. The British Embassy in Manila also doubled in size. It now hosts global and regional finance and personnel functions for the UK’s diplomatic missions, as well as visa operations for 14 countries.
In Thailand, he dealt with violent political events surrounding the Embassy in 2010, and the response to severe flooding that encroached Bangkok a year later.
As the head of the foreign policy team that covered the Asean, Ahmad was involved in facilitating the relief operation for Cyclone Nargis in Burma in 2008. Both in Rangoon and from London, he was actively involved in the campaign for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Positive prospects
FROM his prognosis, Ahmad said in the next 30 years, the Philippines would be “an emerging power”.
“We only have 38 countries classified in that place. And what does that mean? [The Philippines] needs to be economically strong, and we have good reasons to believe that it will be.”
“That the Philippines will be a regional influence and part of the global system as an active player by this rules-based system tackling global issues like climate change and global terrorism, [among other] things, are more or less on track. It does not change from one ambassador to the next, or from one government to the next—whether it is the UK or the Philippines,” he noted.
“These are permanent things,” he said. “Although there are bumps along the way, there are areas where we agree [and] disagree; and then, there are unforeseen things.”
The envoy added that when he first came here in 2013, Supertyphoon Yolanda just ravaged the midsection of the Philippines, “and the UK responded in the usual way. And I was involved in the Bangsamoro process from the beginning in 2008 in London, when the UK was invited in this part of an international contact group, and we got so close getting the peace deal signed”.
He said he is optimistic that the peace talks are back on track. “If you look at the economic plans of this government, I had said it is ‘10 out of 10’. [Getting] on the inclusive growth program and the changes in the Constitution, the people feels the real benefit of what the economy can do and can produce,” he noted.
Message of inclusivity
ACCORDING to the British envoy, if the country starts from that basis of redefining what a Filipino is, including everybody who is part of the archipelago, “then you can define your future, where everybody is included”.
“You don’t have to demand your rights; they are rightfully yours. Nobody can give it to you; it is already yours to have.”
“And that’s my main message: It is [one] of inclusivity. And finally, what I want to say is, the horrible acts that we see happening today here in the Philippines, [and the] concerted attacks in Manchester, these things are shocking, and you are almost sort of stopping on your tracks. But the surest way to respond to these kinds of events is to do what Ariana Grande did: To come back and sing again.”
Which is what the British exactly did: They didn’t stop on their tracks, as he proudly noted.
“Yes, we lowered our flags; we had many people signing up expressing their condolences but, we said, this event would push through, or still celebrate birthday parties, because if we stopped and changed the way we want to live, they would have won.”
Ahmad asserted their rights to live the way they want to live: as decent human beings in a global community. Which, he added, is the main message of Ramadan: the main message of the gathering.
“But if there is one takeaway today, it is to open your hearts to who you are, and make this country one country, one people, creating one direction toward progress.”
Image credits: Jimbo Albano