BRITISH AMBASSADOR Asif Ahmad engaged media members recently in an extensive dialogue at his Forbes Park residence, touching on many topics considered to be “flavors of the day.”
In between bites, we talked about the Ebola crisis; the radicalization of some British Muslims in the United Kingdom; the local economy; aviation; solutions to the maddening vehicular traffic; how Spain ruled the Philippines from Mexico; UK businesses in the country; and food. Closest to the ambassador’s heart is the ongoing “This is GREAT Britain” campaign, which received increased funding from his home country following the successful staging in 2013, which lasted for five months.
This year the event runs for seven months, a testament to the successful staging by Ahmad and his staff at the embassy.
PHL-British friendship
In 2008 Malacañang declared October 20 of each year as the Philippine-BritishFriendship Day to celebrate the growing relations between the two countries. Each year the British Embassy and other organizations with UK links organize activities to mark the day, eventually extending it to several days. Hence, what was declared a day became Philippine-British Friendship Week. Since 2013, the event has been extended to several months.
Dubbed the GREAT Campaign, this year’s seven-month celebration is divided into monthly categories, such as the outreach activity, led by the British Alumni Association and other partners on October 19. Volunteers spent a day painting houses in Gawad Kalinga Village in Taguig City. There was also a golf tournament on October 23, which was dubbed the Ambassador’s Cup. Meanwhile, the British Council has its own event, the “I Am a Changemaker” social enterprise. The month was capped with the GREAT Ball on October 25.
The months of November to December is dubbed the GREAT British Shopping Contest, with other events to be held within these months. In January 2015 the campaign moves to the Visayas, and in February there will be an education fair in Makati City. From February 27, 2015, to March 1, 2015, the campaign will conclude with the GREAT British Festival, featuring food and drink, music, exhibitions and an auto show.
An emerging power
How this celebration came to be held for a couple of months rather than just a couple of days was gleefully related by the ambassador.
“It’s almost like success building on success,” the British envoy said. “The first is what we told you about when we came: we find the Philippines an emerging power. The embassy [here] was upgraded to one grade higher,” he said, adding that he now has a bigger staff and a bigger budget on projects.
He said that even after the tragedy of Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan), Prime Minister David Cameron and the UK civil service have a higher profile of the country than before.
“Who would have thought that the third-biggest investment made by a Philippine company ever in its history would be going to Scotland,” Ahmad pointed out, referring to tycoon Andrew Tan’s purchase of United Spirit’s Scottish-based (USL) Whyte & Mackay whiskey business to the tune of £430 million. USL acquired Glasgow-based Whyte & Mackay seven years ago for £595 million, but eventually sold out to Tan, chairman of Emperador brandy.
“The fact that Emperador is spending more than £430 million and is now about to announce signing a deal for a new headquarters in Glasgow, because the old one lease is running out, and lawyers doing papework [should be reason to celebrate],” he said.
“So you add all these things together, and our reputation in London grows. So when we go back and ask for extra budget for the GREAT Campaign, we were given more,” he revealed.
An advocate against sexual violence
He also said that the Philippines is one of the first countries to respond to their campaign to end sex abuse and violence against women in conflict, which was launched by Foreign Minister William Hague. Angelina Jolie was the face of the campaign, receiving the title Honorary Dame Grand Cross, which is the female equivalent of a knighthood. Queen Elizabeth II bestowed the honor on her during an audience at Buckingham Palace.
Ahmad said that after the launch of this campaign, the Philippines sent to the UK Secretary Teresita Quintos-Deles, presidential adviser on the peace process, to show the country’s commitment to the cause.
“That puts our stock very high. It’s a country we can say is a reliable friend when you need it,” Ahmad described the Philippines. He related how Deles led a whole delegation and told stories of how the Philippines “was able to cope with its conflict resolutions [that] resonated with many people there.”
Ahmad said it was his good fortune that every time the home office sent him something to do, “Nine times out of 10, we’d come back and say, yes, not just yes, but yes plus.”
He explained there was one issue that the UK embassy here had been struggling with for the past six years before his term. This is the extradition treaty between the UK and the Philippines, so that “British bad guys who are hiding under a stone somewhere here [could be found and arrested].”
“It took me one meeting with [Foreign] Secretary [Albert F.] del Rosario, one long meeting with Sen. [Miriam Defensor] Santiago in her house, and she said, ‘I’ll do this for you,’” he recounted.
Muslims in the UK
Switching topics, we asked why it appears that several UK-born Muslims appeared to have fallen victims to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria/Islamic State of Islam and the Levant (ISIS/ ISIL).
This is how Ahmad looks at the situation.
He said the first generation of UK-born Muslims, calling them the “first wave,” settled in various parts of the country, and religion was put to one side, while they tried to establish a firm foothold in the newfound country. This first wavers had to contend with many issues, such as the lack of “correct” food to purchase (probably referring to halal), the absence of mosques, and the focus to get jobs and education.
The children of these first-generation Muslims, such as Ahmad, “was a mixture of the first and the second wave,” he said. “When we were growing up, there were a sense of community, a stronger number of about 2 million Muslims in the UK,” he said. “You don’t feel alone or isolated. While in my parents’ time, you might be the only Muslim in the entire neighborhood. Suddenly, there was a sense of community,” with the children of first wavers involved in the formative period.
Suddenly, he said, the nature of the community changed, followed by their proficiency in the English language.
“In the old-style religious education, Arabic was taught, like Catholic that preaches in Latin during Mass. You know it’s holy, but you don’t understand what was being said. The modern discourse, particularly through the Internet, has been that the discussions now take place in English,” he explained.
He said having learned English, there was now awareness among the UK Muslims, together with grievances that range from history, politics, etc., that are easily accessible through the Internet.
Discussions have become polarized. Academic discussions and lobbying, which is legitimate, are now being discussed in Parliament, which includes debating about Palestine.
Ahmad said it’s not a modern agenda that has turned into something negative, since the UK has duly elected Muslim members of Parliament, counselors and businesspeople, pointing to himself as an example of what is possible: for this writer, an envoy of the first water, who became ambassador to Thailand and Lao PDR before his current assignment as ambassador to the Philippines and Palau.
“Like the ‘Wizard of Oz’”
“Against all that background, there are these groups that have been drawn to the ideology of violent overthrow, some of these to restore the Ottoman period, [in the hopes] that the dominant culture of the world will once more become the Muslim one,” he explained.
The ambassador said others think the end of the world is coming, so they better prepare by this sort of violent cleansing.
As to the present crop of ISIS followers, Ahmad said they are “young impressionable people who wanted become somebody.”
He said the social media have somehow contributed to making the ISIS/ISIL bigger beasts than what they are, “like the Wizard of Oz with the big booming voice.”
“These are very small groups of people, and some of these people are turning, because the peoples’ understanding of religion is strong than it was before,” he added.
“So, if they are not reading stories of women being taken into prostitution, of kidnapping, of beheading people like fellow Muslims, of Muslim-Muslim fighting, I think many people would begin to think, ‘That is not what we signed up for.’”
On the other hand, Ahmad believes they are dangerous because some of them are former members of Saddam Hussein’s military who were able to get their hands on some valuable assets, whether via illegal oil trading or refining, or taxing the communities where they live.
“So now, I think they’re stuck on what they signed themselves. But believe it or not, this ISIS/ISIL, this is not one group. It’s also some of Hussein’s regime, some of the people who have access to military training, but following the US invasion, were marginalized or defeated.”
“Just bandits, kidnappers”
Luckily, Ahmad said he had not seen a similar phenomenon in the country, where citizens would be waving black flags and propaganda for ISIS/ISIL, noting that an Australian convert found hiding in the country was immediately arrested and deported.
He said the country is dealing only with traditional issues, like the Abu Sayyaf, which seems fully engaged in kidnapping.
“I don’t know how the kindest person here could describe them as jihadists. They’re just bandits and kidnappers,” he explained.
He said the local followers appear to have pledged their allegiance to ISIS/ISIL, “just to make them look bigger than they are.”
There might be more Muslim followers of ISIS/ISIL in the UK than Americans because, “in the American thing, you are American first before you are whatever it is you want to be: to be Irish-American, German-American, African-American, but the stars and stripes is your whole schooling. There’s a default that is American, and all the differences, native, young, adults. They are not core for what you are,” he said.
What it means to be British
“Whereas in the UK, going way back when the Huguenots came, the Commonwealth came, we nurtured all the differences. You carry on as you were. You can partake of what is the UK, but you don’t lose your own sense of identity and culture,” he added.
The ambassador said that in the UK they’re trying to get people to have a sense of belonging, and the citizenship question that people have to ask is rooted in Britain.
“In some sort, we’re also trying to catch up. We define who we actually are, and we may have a better future if we said we are British first, and then all the other varieties.”
He said, despite these differences, the UK has never agreed to push down people’s throats their ideologies in school: “We never had a curriculum where the government says you must teach in terms of ideologies.”