By JULLIE Y. DAZA
AND reds. If the military see red in our colleges and universities, they’re just doing their job even if colorblindedly. But then, as intellectuals (who’ve never worn a spiffy soldierly uniform ever, except maybe when ROTC was in vogue) will tell you, military intelligence is an oxymoron.
The word’s origins are Greek – “oxus” (sharp) and “moros” (dull). Oxymoron, as in oxygen-deprived brains of morons? Those 18 universities named by a general shouldn’t feel bad that they’re suspected of breeding a generation of subversives, rebels, dissidents. In the old days it was a badge of honor to be called an activist, the likes of Jerry Barican of UP’s First Quarter Storm and Kit Tatad of UST. In God’s time, Jerry joined the empire of Enrique Zobel, saying “I did not sell out, I bought in” and then became the Estrada presidency’s spox. Kit, on the other hand, was not allowed to graduate for challenging the Spanish friars who ruled the university, but he staged a grand comeback years later, forgiven for broadcasting FM’s Proclamation 1081 as his press secretary and eventually earning the title of Outstanding Thomasian. Chito Santaromana, another campus activist who enjoyed top billing in the intel community, is now the President’s ambassador to China.
Those were the days when activist-rallyists attacked crony-capitalists whose wealth was seen as unfair to the suffering masses and a cozying up to Marcos. Tagged as reds, pinkies, and lefties (leftists being a stronger word that rhymes with communists), whether they were Maoists or Marxists (or Leninists, Trotskyites, even idealists, eh wot?) they were interrogated, arrested, some of them killed under mysterious circumstances or disappeared, while others sought sanctuary abroad. (The case of Joma Sison, who seems to be enjoying political asylum in the Netherlands, belongs to a later time frame. When he fought FM and succeeding presidents, he was not a student but professor, and he chose to live in a First World democracy rather than in China, Russia, or Cuba. Look at China and Russia now, with lots of billionaire capitalists.)
If I were with military intel, I’d do my work without announcing what I know, lest my spies and lies drive the brightest students deeper under the underground (UG, we used to call it). As one general eloquently advises, “No talk, no mistake.”