Estrada wants to see 'his friend'

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

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