Chinese Filipinos: Hostages to fear

[SunWuKong]

Chinese Filipinos: Hostages to fear
By Marco Garrido

MANILA - Wrapped in a white shroud and stuffed in a garbage bag, the body of Betty Sy was unceremoniously dumped on a boulevard named after Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's late father. It would appear that Sy, a 32-year-old finance executive of Coca Cola Export Corp, had resisted her captors - she had refused to unlock her car doors and allow herself to be kidnapped - so instead, her kidnappers shot her through the windows.

Sy's kidnap and slaying last month marked the 156th kidnap-for-ransom (KFR) case against Chinese-Filipinos in the Philippines this year alone. Barely two weeks later, the number - already marking a 10-year high - mounted two notches with the kidnapping of 10-year-old Jenina Dy and two-year-old Jethro Chua in separate incidents. Both children were abducted outside their schools.

The Chinese-Filipino, or Tsinoy, community is scared and angry. Some Tsinoys are leaving the country; some are sending their children abroad to study; many are beefing up their security measures, adding another bodyguard, or, if they can afford it, enlisting the help of professional agencies (the kinds that retain ex-military types from Israel and South Africa). Most Tsinoys have confined their children to prescribed routines. All are demanding that something be done.


more... (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/EL24Ae02.html)

[AngryABCGirl]

I actually know some Chinese who emigrated from the Phillipines years ago, all for safety reasones because they feared for their children's lives. Sad it hasn't seem ot have gotten any better at all.

[mr. x]

so is it like they are being targeted? if so, is it a money thing (they have more) or like a discrimination thing....

[hooligan]

aren't chinese targeted in all asian countries? in malayasia, thailand, etc.

[moJo]

My guess as to why this community would be targeted was confirmed in the article:
Tsinoys are resented for their disproportionate economic power and exclusivity. While constituting little more than 1 percent of the population, Chinese-Filipinos control 60 percent of the private economy.
My ex's friend is Chinese-Filipino, and his father has money flowing outta his pocket.

My mother was born and raised in Manila until age 8, back in the 1940's. Her father was somewhat wealthy at that time, owning a few businesses there. But a fire burned down their businesses and so they went back to China. I asked her about her brief experience in the Philippines and she said she didn't really venture outside of Chinatown, and didn't befriend the locals, which could point to the superiority or self-segregation mentioned in that article.

[Blue dice]

This has shades of indonesia written all over it. Once they run out all the Chinese their economy will take a big fat nosedive (and never recover) like Indonesia. These people aren't competitive economically simply because native Filipinos are backwards. Most of the smart ones left a long time ago and the Filipinos left are mired in poverty and self destruction. Quite a few wish they were a U.S. colony again, that's how sad it is. A friend of mine is filipino and his dad was a professor at a UC. His family left before the Marcos revolution and his dad mentioned how all the intellectuals left to the U.S. or other countries. So what's left is a cesspool of corruption and a bunch of criminals trying to make a living by persecuting the 1% smart enough to do something with their country. China will probably swallow them up economically (along with SE Asia) in a couple decades anyhow.

[hooligan]

my mom was all like, chinese are the jews of asia.

[Blue dice]

aren't chinese targeted in all asian countries? in malayasia, thailand, etc.
Yeah the Chinese minority own Malaysia and Thailand too. Well not so much Thailand but there are a good number of very prosperous Chinese business owners in that country. The royals have a lot of pull in Thailand so it's hard for any Chinese or Non-thai for that matter to have too much economic might in that country.

I know in Malaysia they started some pathetic ultra discriminatory affirmative action program for malays.

A friend of mine called Chinese the "jews" of Asia. It's kind of true in a way..

edit: ^^^^^^^^

LoL, jinx.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

China will probably swallow them up economically (along with SE Asia) in a couple decades anyhow.
Except for the fact that Thailand and Malaysia have better corporate governance, far more developed property law, and don't waste as much public monies on projects whose sole purpose are to push up useless numbers like container volume (*cough* shanghai port *cough*). Also China probably doesn't want to trip over any of the ASEAN mutual defence pacts by trying to "swallow" anybody up (though I wouldn't mind if they take Singapore, as long as they put it somewhere else). Especially since, if push comes to shove, Australia would be pushing back with us.

By the way, Malaysia just ended affirmative action in college admissions.

[SunWuKong]

Except for the fact that Thailand and Malaysia have better corporate governance, far more developed property law, and don't waste as much public monies on projects whose sole purpose are to push up useless numbers like container volume (*cough* shanghai port *cough*).

*cough* Petronas Towers *cough*... :biggrin:

[AliBabaIncorporated]

at least they're not sinking at a rate of 3 centimeters per year :tongue:

[SunWuKong]

touché :biggrin:

[Blue dice]

Except for the fact that Thailand and Malaysia have better corporate governance, far more developed property law, and don't waste as much public monies on projects whose sole purpose are to push up useless numbers like container volume (*cough* shanghai port *cough*).

Be that as it may, China has a growing middle class and a growing reform movement that is becoming ever more compliant to the needs of foreign and domestic companies. That's not even taking into account the rapidly developing infrastructure, domestic industries, and growing service economy. No matter how you look at it China is still a boom whereas SE asia has been in a prolonged bust. I don't see it changing anytime soon simply because SE asia doesn't have the tools to compete. Do you honestly see Thailand competing with China in tech or manufacturing in the future?

Also China probably doesn't want to trip over any of the ASEAN mutual defence pacts by trying to "swallow" anybody up (though I wouldn't mind if they take Singapore, as long as they put it somewhere else). Especially since, if push comes to shove, Australia would be pushing back with us.

They'd dominate indonesia and the rest of SE asia economically noone said anything about military force. As it is most of the cheap labor that comes from SE countries is being outsourced to China. Also, I wouldn't count on Australia helping any nation that isn't part of the traditional "anglo brotherhood" of nations. Especially since the bad blood based on that night club bombing and recent islamic extremism surfacing there.

By the way, Malaysia just ended affirmative action in college admissions.
A rather pathetic gesture considering the discrimination still practiced in the workplace and Malaysian society.

[SunWuKong]

ok. this thread really isn't about the Chinese economy. feel free to start another thread if any of you want to keep discussing it.

let's stick to the topic at hand - Chinese people in the Philippines being kidnapped and general resentment against Overseas Chinese in SE Asia.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

A rather pathetic gesture considering the discrimination still practiced in the workplace and Malaysian society.
except that the M'sian government, by taking drastic means to maintain social stability, made Malaysia a middle income country and at least gave us a country a lot of people, Chinese and Indians included, think is worth defending and calling home, a country where we can exercise power without fear of communal violence. (Note Amy Chua's comments at the end of that article. In the presence of democracy, capitalism, and a market-dominant minority, one of the three usually gets stomped on hard. Better democracy or capitalism getting torn apart than people getting torn apart.) Now that we're rich enough that daily existence isn't a struggle, we can think about ending these policies.

[seanp]

let's stick to the topic at hand - Chinese people in the Philippines being kidnapped and general resentment against Overseas Chinese in SE Asia.

There are also discrimination of vietnamese refugees in Philippines, most of them are not permit to work legally, and their children can only attend elementary schools..

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Yeah, most Asian countries treat refugees like shit. Talked more about that on this thread:
http://forums.yellowworld.org/showthread.php?t=11849

But I guess the issue is different, since people aren't likely to resent poor refugees (unless there's a perception that the refugees get benefits which poor natives don't, or take greater advantage of government services than natives do, such as by having more kids). Though I wonder if some of the Vietnamese refugees in Philippines who look very Chinese get twice the problems; being very poor, but at the same time perceived as ultra-rich. Not to mention that many of them probably actually are Chinese. So the government and people might be unsympathetic to them as a result.

Same thing happened in Malaysia a while ago, but as I understand it, at least there were some local Chinese to try to fight for benefits for them. (Not too clear, this was a while ago, before my time, and I only read about it in the context of a recent article which was criticizing the government for giving citizenship to Bosnian Muslim refugees).

[Azn Retribution]

I guess i should have been more careful walking around manila..
<-- Filipino-Chinese-Japanese.

what can you expect though... from a country with a revolution damn near every decade now.

People Power III is scheduled for 2008.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo tossed from office amid a scandal.

[sqd]

i don't know about discrimination in the Phillippines against the Vietnamese people though. As a refugee who once lived in the Phillippines for 4 years, I found that Filipino people are the nicest people on earth.