“I have been portrayed to be a cousin of Hitler by critics. If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have …”
These were the exact words of Philippines President, Rodrigo Duterte in a rambling speech on his arrival in Davao City after a visit to Vietnam.
President Duterte remarks, likingg himself to late German leader, Adolf Hitler, triggered shock and anger among Jewish groups in the United States of America.
The Phlippine strong man stressed: “I will be happy to examine three million drug users and peddlers in the country. You know my victims. I would like them to be all criminals to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition.” Since he took office on June 30, more than 3,100 people have been killed, mostly alleged drug users and dealers, in police operations and vigilante killings.
However, the administration of U.S. President, Barack Obama played down the remark, but could create pressure on the U.S. government to take a tougher line with the Philippines leader.
U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner, today, Friday said that Duterte’s comments were “a significant departure” from America’s partnership with the Philippines “and we find them troubling.”
In Washington earlier today, Friday, a State Department spokeswoman, Anna Richey-Allen, had repeated concerns about reports of extrajudicial killings in the southeast Asian country but offered no response to Duterte’s comment referring to Hitler.
A White House official stuck to a strategy of stressing Washington’s long-standing ties with Manila, saying: “we continue to focus on our broad relationship with the Philippines and will work together in the many areas of mutual interest.”
How relations between the U.S. and the Philippines evolve will depend more on what Duterte does than on what he says, administration officials have said.
In Hawaii, U.S. Defense Secretary, Ash Carter met with the defense chiefs of southeast Asian nations, including the Philippines, and U.S. officials said they would use the forum to clarify comments by Duterte that throw into doubt his commitment to military ties with the United States, including joint exercises and patrols. Carter, speaking before Duterte’s remarks in Davao, said Washington had an “ironclad” alliance with Manila. Duterte, who was elected in May on the back of a vow to end drugs and corruption in the country of 100 million people, has insulted Obama and in a number of remarks he has undermined the relationship between Manila and Washington. Reacting to critical comments on his war on drugs by U.S. Senators, Patrick Leahy and Benjamin Cardin, Duterte said: “do not pretend to be the moral conscience of the world. Do not be the policeman because you do not have the eligibility to do that in my country.” Jewish groups quickly condemned Duterte’s Hitler comments. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Digital Terrorism and Hate project, called them “outrageous”. “Duterte owes the victims (of the Holocaust) an apology for his disgusting rhetoric,” Cooper said. The Anti-Defamation League, an international Jewish group based in the United States, said that Duterte’s comments were “shocking for their tone-deafness. “The comparison of drug users and dealers to Holocaust victims is inappropriate and deeply offensive,” said Todd Gutnick, the group’s director of communications. “It is baffling why any leader would want to model himself after such a monster.” Duterte has said there will be no annual war games between the Philippines and the United States until the end of his six-year term, and his hostility may make Washington’s strategy of rebalancing its military focus toward Asia in the face of an increasingly assertive China more difficult to achieve. Murray Hiebert, a Southeast Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, said Obama was “taking the long view” in dealing with Duterte. Obama leaves office in January. Malcolm Cook, a senior fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, said the U.S-Philippines alliance was not necessarily at risk, but Washington could seek to focus on ties elsewhere in the region. “We are all in some sense becoming, by necessity, desensitised to Duterte’s language,” he said. “Diplomatically, the U.S. would say they’ll continue to work with him and the alliance is strong. But it’s whether they’ll continue to strengthen that alliance or not.”[myad]
