By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Jun 21 2005 (IPS)

South-east Asia lost its greatest symbol of ”people power” with the death Tuesday of Cardinal Jaime Sin, former head of the Catholic Church in the Philippines.

Few countries in the region shaken by a spate of pro-democracy uprisings since the mid-1980s had a figure to match Sin, who was 76 years at the time of his death after a struggle with diabetes and kidney problems.

It was his public statements in 1986 against the corruption and the dictatorial rule of then-Filipino president Ferdinand Marcos that served as the tipping point toward ending decades of oppression.

The success of ”people power” that the public tasted on that occasion in bringing down a despised ruler set the tone for Filipino citizens to turn to such measures to oust another corrupt leader in 2001: former president Joseph Estrada.

”Cardinal Sin was a unique figure in the region. He was an exception, the likes of which we do not have in other countries in South-east Asia,” Kavi Chongkittavorn, a columnist on regional affairs and a senior editor at the Thai daily The Nation, told IPS.

While there was much respect in the Philippines for the stance he took, few outside that country could identify with Sin completely, added Kavi. That stemmed from Sin speaking out against injustice from a Catholic point of view in a region that has large Buddhist and Muslim populations.

At the time of his retirement in 2003, Sin famously remarked, ”My duty is to put Christ in politics.” He then added: ”Politics without Christ is the greatest scourge of our nation.”

Sin, who came from a large family of Chinese and Filipino parentage – he was the 14th child in a family of 16 – headed the Manila Archdiocese for nearly 30 years.

For pro-democracy activists elsewhere, the absence of a figure with moral authority like Sin to confront authoritarian rulers was palpable on many fronts. Among them was Sin’s ability to galvanise large crowds to back the political stance he took, most notably during the Marcos dictatorship.

This was manifest in Burma in 1988, when students led a pro-democracy uprising to end more than two decades of military dictatorship. The military rulers in Rangoon did not have to fear a figure with moral leadership from the country’s major religion, Buddhism, to do what Sin had done in the Philippines.

It paved the way for the Burmese generals to crack down on that demonstration, resulting in hundreds of protesters being killed or injured.

Thailand witnessed a similar – yet successful – mobilisation of people taking to the streets to overthrow an unpopular military regime in May 1992. In the vanguard were members of the country’s middle class and enraged university students.

Here again, as Thai political commentators note, there was no figure from the country’s predominant faith, Buddhism, who took up the role Sin had a few years before in the Philippines.

Yet unlike Burma, such an absence did not prevent a triumph for democracy, since it marked the end of the military rulers’ dominance of Thailand’s political landscape going back almost 60 years.

This pattern was repeated more significantly in Indonesia’s popular uprising against President Suharto, who had ruled that country with an iron fist for over 30 years. Again, the people who took to the streets to bring down an oppressive regime could not find in that country’s predominant Islamic faith a religious leader to measure up to Sin’s role in the Philippines.

Yet in an ironic twist, the very political culture with which Sin’s name has come to be identified for pushing South-east Asia down the road to democracy is under review in, of all places, the Philippines.

It arises from growing calls among sections of the Filipino political class to mount another show of ”people power” to drive out of office President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo barely a year after she was elected.

The reason: charges of corruption and vote buying. Arroyo’s opponents are accusing her of rigging last May’s presidential poll, and to back their claims they are citing the contents of a taped conversation she is allegedly having with an election official about increasing her vote margin.

These calls for the third act in a political drama to oust a Filipino president have already triggered concern that it could earn the country more ridicule than cheers.

”The threat of mass mobilisation to topple an unpopular government has become a tyranny of people power, rather than a blessing to overthrow a dictatorship,” writes political commentator Amando Doronila in the Philippines Daily Inquirer this week.

Such a feature, he argues, makes the Philippines stand out in contrast to its South-east Asian neighbours within the realm of democracy. ”It is the only country in the region where leadership change has been driven more by people power than by elections.”

But the question remains: Will it be the same with Sin no more?

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