‘Simoun, the protagonist of Jose Rizal’s second published novel, correctly diagnosed the ills of Hispanic colonial Philippines, but why did he premise his platform of social liberation on acts of terror?’
SIMOUN the mastermind, fueled with vengeance, plotted some sort of uprising-cum-civil war: “‘Within a few days,’ he murmured, ‘when on all sides that accursed city is burning, den of presumptuous nothingness and impious exploitation of the ignorant and the distressed, when the tumults break out in the suburbs and there rush into the terrorized streets my avenging hordes, engendered by rapacity and wrongs, then will I burst the walls of your prison, I will tear you from the clutches of fanaticism, and my white dove, you will be the Phoenix that will rise from the glowing embers! A revolution plotted by men in darkness tore me from your side–another revolution will sweep me into your arms and revive me! That moon, before reaching the apogee of its brilliance, will light the Philippines cleansed of loathsome filth!’” [XIX: The Fuse]
His cohort was a bandit, a homesteader driven to the highlands by landgrabbers: “Matanglawin was the terror of Luzon. His band had as lief appear in one province where it was least expected as make a descent upon another that was preparing to resist it. It burned a sugar-mill in Batangas and destroyed the crops, on the following day it murdered the Justice of the Peace of Tiani, and on the next took possession of the town of Cavite, carrying off the arms from the town hall. The central provinces, from Tayabas to Pangasinan, suffered from his depredations, and his bloody name extended from Albay in the south to Kagayan in the north. The towns, disarmed through mistrust on the part of a weak government, fell easy prey into his hands–at his approach the fields were abandoned by the farmers, the herds were scattered, while a trail of blood and fire marked his passage. Matanglawin laughed at the severe measures ordered by the government against the tulisanes, since from them only the people in the outlying villages suffered, being captured and maltreated if they resisted the band, and if they made peace with it being flogged and deported by the government, provided they completed the journey and did not meet with a fatal accident on the way. Thanks to these terrible alternatives many of the country folk decided to enlist under his command.” [XXXVIII: Fatality]
Simoun, the protagonist of Jose Rizal’s second published novel, correctly diagnosed the ills of Hispanic colonial Philippines, but why did he premise his platform of social liberation on acts of terror? His linchpin: a lamp of very peculiar shape filled with nitro-glycerin and sitting on a house sandbagged with sacks of explosive powder and great quantities of cartridges. [The Reign of Greed: A Complete English Version of El Filibusterismo from the Spanish of José Rizal by Charles Derbyshire. Manila: Philippine Education Company, 1912]
Rizal’s political thriller is hereby recalled in the wake of the Second Counter-Terrorism Week (24-30 June 2021) of the United Nations, a biennial gathering of Member States and international counter-terrorism partners at the UN Headquarters in New York featuring the Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly to adopt the seventh biennial UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy review resolution and the Second High-Level Conference of Heads of Counter-Terrorism Agencies of Member States.
The 2nd Counter-Terrorism Week coincides with the landmark 75th anniversary of the United Nations, the 15th anniversary of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, and the 20th anniversary of the adoption of Security Council resolution 1373 (2001) (S/RES/1373), which established the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC). [https://www.un.org/counterterrorism/2021-counter-terrorism-week] And in the latest situationer: “Violent extremists and terrorists continue to exploit trends connected to the pandemic, including an increase in the use of social media and the internet more broadly. Those groups spread misinformation and propaganda for radicalisation purposes with the goal of recruitment. According to CTED, there is some evidence that more children and young people have accessed such content online. In Western Europe, extreme right-wing groups exploit woes related to the pandemic.”
[Security Council Report Monthly Forecast February 2021; securitycouncilreport.org]
What do these all mean? The world has been fighting terrorists for a long time: La Mano Negra, Asanuma assassination, Fenian Dynamite Campaign, Narodnaya Volya, Japanese Red Army and the Yodo-go Group, Boatmen of Thessaloniki (Assassins of Salonica), Gunpowder Plot, Baader-Meinhof Group, Chernoe Znamia (The Black Banner), Kampulan Mujahidin Malaysia.
How did pacifists view the acts of terror in the past? Mahatma Gandhi had railed against “The Cult of the Bomb” but this was merely rebutted with “The Philosophy of the Bomb” by Kartar Singh: “It will grow, this feeling of bondage, this infuriated youth will begin to kill the oppressors. Thus has terrorism been born in the country. It is a phase, a necessary, an inevitable phase of the revolution…Terrorism instills fear in the hearts of the oppressors, it brings hopes of revenge and redemption to the oppressed masses.”
[http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/kartar-singh-the-philosophy-of-the-bomb]
Terrorism of the present: Tigray People’s Liberation Front, Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, etc. The UN has a list: ABU SAYYAF GROUP (Al Harakat Al Islamiyya), Forces Democratiques De Liberation Du Rwanda, Haqqani Network, Riyadus-Salikhin Reconnaissance and Sabotage Battalion of Chechen Martyrs, Mujahidin Indonesian Timur, Rajah Solaiman Islamic Movement, among others. [United Nations Security Council Consolidated List Generated 30 June 2021] “There are two primary non-State groups, namely the Taliban and Al-Qaida, which have been designated ‘terrorist’ organizations by the Security Council…under Security Council resolution 2253 (2015), the Al-Qaida List was further extended to include ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-Da’esh) and Al Nusrah Front (ANF)…Although the recapture of Marawi City by the Philippine authorities was a military success, the ability of ISIL affiliates to maintain a temporary stronghold within the city was a propaganda victory with potential long-term consequences for the region.”
[https://www.unodc.org/e4j/en/terrorism/module-1/key-issues/UN-designated-terrorist-groups.html]
What is to be done? The UN has a Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy: first, addressing the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism; second, measures to prevent and combat terrorism; third, measures to build states’ capacity to prevent and combat terrorism and to strengthen the role of the United Nations system in that regard; and fourth, measures to ensure respect for human rights for all and the rule of law as the fundamental basis for the fight against terrorism…The US is the penholder on counter-terrorism. Ambassador Tarek Ladeb (Tunisia) chairs the CTC. Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative Trine Heimerback (Norway) chairs the 1267/1989/2253 ISIL/Da’esh and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee. The 1540 Non-Proliferation Committee is chaired by Ambassador Juan Ramón de la Fuente Ramírez (Mexico).”
[https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/monthly-forecast/2021-02/counter-terrorism-7.php]
The Global War on Terror continues.
