When she woke up from her long sleep the day after her 77th birthday, her eyes had the weariness of someone who had dreamt a lot but could remember nothing. “My mind is not clear,” she said blankly. “What day is it today?”  It was the 18th.  “And when did I enter the hospital?”  On … Read more

I used to think of my TV program “Public Forum”, later “Public Life”, as a contribution to political literacy.  When we launched the show in 1986, just after Edsa, our goal was simple.  We would try to provide our viewers enough information and context to enable them to follow discussion of public issues, and to … Read more

The basic ingredients are there: rising prices, worsening unemployment, protests in the streets, impatience and demoralization, the spread of smut as social anesthesia, corruption in high places, cronies without accountability, a Cabinet without power, a President without insight.  To top it all, a sense of helplessness born of the awareness that presidential elections are more … Read more

I had the good fortune of meeting him for the first time on my very first visit to Indonesia in 1979.  A group of young men orbited around the figure of Soedjatmoko, the erudite diplomat who became the first rector of the UN University.  I met Abdurrahman Wahid through this exceptional circuit of Indonesian intellectuals, … Read more

One would think that in a world where dictatorships are being toppled one after the other, a military coup is the last thing a nation needs. But a coup is what took place in Pakistan last Oct. 12.  And what a coup it has been. The public welcomed it almost with a sigh of relief.  … Read more

“Things fall apart,” Yeats famous poem goes, “the center cannot hold.” It is an apt description of Indonesia today, a graphic portrayal of the bleak future of this beleaguered nation.  The world’s eyes are on East Timor, but larger questions of national survival frame the Timor question. The Indonesian economy remains the shakiest in the … Read more

Mention Australia’s Northern Territory, and people will think of Darwin, its capital city.  Mention Darwin today, and people can only think of Dili, the ravaged Timorese capital just across the narrow Timor sea. In the wake of the mass killings in Dili, Darwin has become the jumpoff point for foreign journalists, peacekeeping forces, and humanitarian … Read more

I think we all knew he would go anytime.  But when Renato Constantino — husband, father, grandfather, loved one – did go on September 15, his departure still came as a jolt.  Through the night he battled against a relentless heart attack, whose ferocity was neatly detailed by the indifferent machines monitoring his body.  At … Read more

I would usually hesitate to write a column on an issue in which I am a direct protagonist.  But I am setting aside such reluctance in order to counter disinformation being peddled on the recent appointment of Prof. Raul Pangalangan as dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law. This decision, in which … Read more

When my friend Pierre told me he was coming to visit but mainly to birdwatch, I thought he had flipped.  In the literal sense, he had.  His previous visits had been thoroughly political: to let us know what European solidarity groups were doing to support the struggle against the Marcos dictatorship.  He was active in … Read more