Definition: Terrorism is Organized Crime for Political and Ideological Ends

efine terrorism. That is the challenge often heard from people who actually want to deny that the Philippines and the rest of the world have a real problem that is NOT the fault of America or "Western-style" democracy. But even if many people are unable to wrap their brains around the problem of the Communist insurgency and the global Jihad, most are sure they are against both. But the complexity of both phenomena and the supposed intractability of their "root causes" have bred a mentally lazy kind of rhetoric among pundits and intellectuals. They argue that we cannot outlaw terrorism because it cannot be defined with some kind of metaphysical certitude. This gets them stuck in the intellectual quagmire of how to define TERRORISM when it is applied to groups that by their very nature want to remain inscrutable, mysterious and little known. Groups that none of its members or adherents will publicly admit to supporting or being a part of and therefore have no face or persona or any real accountability. Today, I propose to help end that disingenuous pretense at conceptual incapacity or mental dysfunction by this simple definition of terrorism:

TERRORISM is organized crime in the service of a definite political and ideological goal to overthrow, supplant or prevent the formation of democratic regimes .

As such, jihadi terrorism has in common with movements like communism and fascism the immoral principle of justifying violent, nihilistic and indeed criminal MEANS by professing altruistic and even noble-sounding ENDS. Thus, the disingenuous liberal argument that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."

In the case of the CPP-NPA and its leftist front organizations that only pretend to participate in Democracy so as to destroy it, that goal or end is crystal clear: the seizure of state power and the establishment of a totalitarian system of government and socialist command economy. Never mind that Humanity spent most of the last century debunking, defeating and eventually rejecting this concept of human society and its extant models--its last few brain-dead adherents survive in the Philippine Archipelago and in the care of Dutch welfare. Unable to win victory in a half century of trying because the Filipinos are just too smart to be won over by their empty promises of a socialist paradise under their diktat, they are content to be the sociopolitical equivalent of HIV or cancer on the body politic. Like the Mafia bosses of Hollywood fame, their leaders are legends in their own minds who are constantly deluding their soldati and comrades in the broader protest culture about their true natures and intentions. Although they cannot gain political power through normal democratic processes, they are adept at exploiting democratic freedoms and civil liberties to expand their influence, to survive while plotting and promoting revolution. Sophistication in the use of both armed strategies and parliamentary tactics has been the product of the long protracted struggle. The Maoist dictum of "surrounding the cities from the countryside" has become a cover for a permanent enterprise that involves extortion, protection rackets, collection of revolutionary taxes and campaign permits, kidnapping and assassination of local government and law enforcement officials, and indeed the terrorization of the populace into a submissive co-existence.

The Islamic Global jihad is also a form of organized criminal syndicate very similar to the communist movement, that promotes and feeds off legal front organizations in the form of madrassah schools, Muslim "charitable" organizations and fund-raising fronts that mask the deadly agenda. Far more in-depth analysis of this type of terrorism can be found on other blogs, like the Belmont Club.

I am not sure how my definition will go over in the local blogosphere, where indeed Manuel L. Quezon III has expressed "deep disagreement" with my views on the Human Security Act of 2007 the anti-terrorism bill still to be signed into law by the President. Since I called it a weak and dumb bill, I hope he will explain further what he does think of it. (How serious is this law if it is to be suspended for three months around every election period? I mean, what if we catch Dulmatin the day before the suspension? It's like decriminalizing murder and mayhem during summer vacation.)

It is an original definition so far as I know, though I am sure others have proposed it or similar ones. The main reason I have come up with it is to address the need for at least one working definition to promote discussion of why law is need to address terrorism beyond the fact that existing laws already deal with the "component crimes" that terrorism employs to further its goals. I would suggest that just like organized crime statutes have been found to be necessary and effective at suppressing La Cosa Nostra and similar organized crime syndicates, a similar law is needed to deal with groups like the CPP-NPA and its allies, as well as Al Qaeda and its affiliates.

Liza Masa tells Korina Sanchez that she and the other party list members of Congress will question the law before the Supreme Court. But the Filipinos are not going to be supporting her or the Leftists until they unequivocally reject the CPP-NPA and its violent means to a terrible end. Which they categorically and suspiciously decline to do. Why?

UPDATES:

(ABSCBN) NPA Terrorists Burn Down Mt. Province Schools:

BAGUIO CITY – New Peoples Army guerrillas burned three school buildings in Natonin, Mt. Province last month after the principal reportedly refused to give in to their extortion, the military said.

Lt. Gen. Bonifacio Ramos, chief of the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command, said the insurgents had demanded P300,000 from Belena Gamonac, principal of the Tonglayan Elementary School, and a stop to the teaching of anti-communist doctrines to the students.

Ramos said Simon Naogsan Sr., spokesman of the Cordillera People's Democratic Front and leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA in Mt. Province, raised their demands to Gamonac sometime last November.

The principal, however, refused to give in, saying the education department lacked money, besides the fact that the whole deal was illegal.

Gamonac also explained to the CPP-NPA leader that she could not stop lectures against communism because these were part of the subject Hekasi or Heograpiya, Kasaysayan at Sibika, Ramos said.

"You will regret this if something happens here," an irate Naogsan was quoted as threatening the principal in the dialect.

This is the sort of organized criminal activity, clearly motivated by ideology and politics, that ought to be prosecuted under the the Human Security Act of 2007. Such atrocities by the NPA terrorists goes on all over the Archipelago as part of their large-scale extortion rackets, which of course the Left and partylist apologists will never, ever condemn!

Seems to me even the DepEd has a lot to explain about the intellectual infiltration of the CPPNPA into its textbooks.

Of course the leftist media covered what big story from the Mountain Province this past week? Why, it was the testimonies given by CPP NPA front organizations to Philip Alston, UN Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings. I bet Prof. Alston doesn't know anything about NPA atrocities in Natonin! Which makes me wonder how balanced his report will actually be.