China should read this one;
Something to think about: Filipino and Chinese tourist
The known facts are these:
On August 19, 2005, Emmanuel "Bong" Madrigal, a Manila-based Filipino
executive of the multinational Shell, was visiting Beijing on vacation with
his wife Vivian, his daugher Regina Mia, and two younger daughters. That
day, they rode a tourist bus to Tiananmen Square, the heart of the capitol.
Upon arriving at the square, Emmanuel Madrigal was the first to descend
from the bus, followed by Vivian and Regina Mia. A Chinese man wielding a
scythe--in some reports it was described as a sword--suddenly appeared out
of nowhere and hacked Emmanuel across his torso. He died on the spot. The
man also attacked and seriously wounded Vivian. He then slashed at and
killed Regina Mia. By this time, bystanders were trying to subdue the man,
and Vivian shouted to her two other daughters to get away and save
themselves. Somehow the girls made their way back to the hotel. Vivian was
brought to a Beijing hospital, where she died several days later of her
injuries.
An Associated Press report still circulating on the internet states that
the killer was Wang Gongzuo, 25, a farmer from eastern China's Jiangsu
province. He was sentenced to death for the murder of the Madrigals and
executed a few weeks later, in September. The AP report states: 'Wang's
motive for killing the two is unclear. After the incident occurred the
Beijing Morning Post reported that he had wanted to 'affect society using
extreme actions,' but didn't elaborate."
Reflect on the parallels. A family of vacationers on a tourist bus: the
Leungs and the Madrigals. A killer out to "affect society using extreme
actions": Mendoza and Wang. A massacre in a public place of symbolic
significance: The Quirino grandstand, where the presidential inauguration
had been held just weeks before, and site of the civil society protests
against the Marcos regime; and Tiananmen Square, since ancient times the
symbol of the centralized power of the Chinese state, and site of the 1991
civil protests against the government.
In both incidents, the state failed miserably in protecting innocent
tourists.
And there the parallels end.
President Aquino has apologized to the families of Mendoza’s victims and
conveyed his sorrow to the people of Hongkong, Chief Executive Donald
Tsang, and Ambassador Lin Jian Chao. The Philippine National Police
acknowledge that they botched matters beyond comprehension. Philippine
legislators, ahead of their Hongkong counterparts, called for a full
investigation. Philippine media organizations are looking to their own
culpability in the affair. And masses of ordinary Filipinos, on TV, radio,
print, and the Internet, are expressing collective horror, remorse and pity
over the terrible fate of the innocent tourists, and bow their heads in
shame before the Hong Kong people's sorrow and anger.
That is how it should be, that is only right. But.
To this day, five years after it happened, there is no public record of any
Chinese official acknowledging the tourist killings in Tiananmen Square and
apologizing to the Madrigals, much less the Filipino people, for the murder
of Emmanuel, Regina Mia and Vivian. Not a single expression of regret that
the Chinese police failed in their duty to protect the lives of innocent
tourists in the very heart of Beijing, in the symbolic center of a state
that prides itself most of all for its ability to control and contain
disorder. There was a total blackout on the part of the Chinese press, and,
according to another news report, government censors quickly blocked many
internet sites where Chinese users had begun to post comments about the
killing. So we will likely never know what ordinary Chinese citizens had to
say about about the incident. Maybe some of them were actually sorry for
what happened.
The closest thing to expressed regret was in fact the final reported action
of the killer Wang, who waived his right to appeal the sentence of
execution, and got a bullet in the back of his head.
To add to the horror, it would appear that the Arroyo administration was
complicit in the silence. No public statement was ever made by the
Philippine government regarding the incident. Unlike in Hongkong, no flags
were flown at half-mast in Manila, and no three-minute silence was observed
to mark the deaths of the innocent Filipino tourists. No demand has ever
been made by any Filipino official for an apology, and for an accounting.
A full investigation of the Quirino Grandstand killing is ongoing. But what
of that other killing, also in August, five years ago in Tiananmen Square?
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