Fw: Why are we always lacking in national unity? - Wash Sycip
- From: "Pietro E Reyes, III" <pereyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2007 18:10:21 GMT
Why are we always lacking in national unity?
By Washington Z. Sycip
Inquirer
Posted date: February 04, 2007
MANILA, Philippines--JUST OVER 57 years ago, the great civic and business leader of the Philippines, Monching del Rosario, asked me to join him in organizing the Management Association of the Philippines.
I cannot decline an invitation when another distinguished diplomat and business leader, Ambassador Bert del Rosario asked me to speak on what MAP as an organization and MAP members as individuals can do to help improve the economic and social condition of our country.
Since most of you are professional managers, I thought I can be frank--and maybe too frank and naive--in my remarks today which will be in a series of questions where I may not have the answers.
We are off to a good start in 2007. International confidence in the Philippines has improved, budget deficit and interest rates are down, inflation is under control, the stock market, business profits and foreign exchange reserves are up. As a result of these favorable factors and, with the weakness of the dollar, the peso, together with other currencies, has strengthened.
Aside from consumer goods and tuition fees, remittances from Filipinos abroad are increasing and are now going into apartments and houses.
This, together with the office space requirements of "outsourcing"
companies, have created a minor boom in construction.
GNP growth rates in 2006 were satisfactory but, as in the US, the upper income and better educated citizens have benefited more in 2006 than the bottom group.
Credit should go to President Macapagal-Arroyo in being willing to push through economic measures that may not add to popularity! With the major Chinese financed infrastructure and agricultural projects signed last week, there is reasonable hope that, in the next four years, economic growth can seep down to the bottom group of our society. The success stories of China's fight against poverty, without lectures from Westerners on democracy, may usher in new ideas for our politicians and our NGOs.
With the present optimism, we must not lose sight of the unresolved problems that have plagued our country for the past 50 years.
Our political, business and social leaders have discussed endlessly our problems and proposed short term and painless solutions that are widely publicized but seldom implemented. In spite of attempts to reform the judicial process, we all know that the country is not known for speedy justice or quick punishment for wrongdoing. For the past 40 years, the common complaint of both domestic and foreign investors is "lack of transparency" in transactions involving the bureaucracy. The media, sometimes free and wise, sometimes captive and illogical, further adds to the confusion.
Kishore Mahbubani, former Singapore ambassador to the United Nations, who now heads the Lee Kuan Yew school for public policy, in a recent interview said: "Take the rule of law: no segment of society, especially the rich and powerful elite, should be immune from the rule of law. Asian societies have the external trappings of modernity: a parliament, courts, but the culture is very feudal. One of the saddest cases in Southeast Asia is the Philippines. On the surface, the Philippines is openly democratic, but culturally, it's still very feudal, with a few families still controlling the wealth of the country. The people at the very bottom have no avenue to grow and develop except to go overseas and work as foreign workers."
Roots of the problem
Are we refusing to see the unpleasant roots of our problem? As the leading managers of our country, let me raise these questions with you:
1. About 50 years ago most of Asia and the Western world thought that the Philippines, as the only Christian and democratic developing nation in this region, would forge ahead of our neighbors, with only Japan ahead of us! We were the most promising nation in East Asia.
If the success of a poor nation is judged by its being able to reduce poverty, improve education, provide decent health care and housing for most of our people, then we have miserably failed as compared to our neighbors.
With a talented and intelligent population, we see widening economic gaps between the rich and the poor, declining standards of education, a fairly constant poverty rate, and outward migration of the young to what they see as countries that have more opportunities for them.
What are the roots of our problem? Is it an overdose of democracy, Western style? When poor citizens sell their votes, do we not have a democracy of the upper class who have the money to buy the votes?
Economic freedom with effective enforcement of laws and long term planning for needed infrastructure has been the success story of East Asia. Political freedom gradually increased as income levels rose. The widely praised four "tiger economies" of Asia all had authoritarian governments that were able to eliminate hunger and increased spending on education. Elements of democracy came naturally with a growing middle-class.
Taiwan's growth was under martial law and South Korea developed under a military dictatorship. Prosperous Hong Kong and Singapore do not seem to be suffering from a lack of democracy. In fact both westerners and Asians admire the discipline of Singapore!
I want to make it clear that I am for democracy but food, education, housing and health care for the poor should have first priority.
Compare the Philippines with the US presidential system, and India with the British parliamentary system, with our neighbors and China. Both the Philippines and India are way behind in infrastructure--water, power, highways, airports, etc. India, in spite of Bangalore and Hyderabad, is way behind China in literacy rate, life span of its people, calorie intake, per capita income and any other economic indicator you can think of!
The Philippines was once ahead of our neighbors. Now we are behind Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, all of whom had not blindly followed the western model of development which puts its emphasis on political freedom.
Vietnam, certainly not a Western democracy, may pass us this year.
Indonesia's per capita income has declined after three weak presidents elected under a democracy praised by the West!
I ask you--has Western democracy been an asset or liability for poor nations in this region?
2. As you know, the success and failure of your organization depends on your human resource policies--how you hire your people, how you motivate them, how you train them and how you choose leadership. Isn't this also true of a nation?
You are probably aware of the declining per capita spending in our public schools--1/6 of Malaysia and 1/11 of Singapore. Are you not worried about public schools without desks and books with poorly paid school teachers?
Only a few of our dedicated teachers can be recognized by Metrobank's annual search for outstanding teachers. While scholarships to the poor are needed, should we not also donate to funds that will improve teaching? Should we not ask students from wealthy families to pay full cost tuition at state educational institutions where parking space for cars is often the problem?
Should we not encourage churches to be used as school houses in towns where many public schools have no chairs and even no books? Should law schools not be replaced by engineering schools?
Another Del Rosario, Ramon Jr., recently organized the Philippine Business for Education, to focus on the problems of education. Should all of us, the private sector and government, not spend more time and money on education?
Neglecting the many problems of education, of high dropout rates, poor teaching of Math, Science and English is like slowly committing national suicide! But can we solve our education problem, which affects your future and your children's future, without checking population growth? And isn't this also tied up with the problem of improving health among the poor?
3. Only recently you saw figures that our population has reached 88 million and where new jobs are behind population growth. In spite of more job-seekers going abroad, our unemployed and underemployed continue to increase. The population explosion cannot be taken care of by the school system and by our poor infrastructure.
Paeng Salas, who could have been a Philippine Lee Kuan Yew, was greatly respected for his work at the UN on managing population and economic growth. The world followed him--except his own country. Why can a man of integrity and great competence not find a place in the Philippine political setting?
Government data shows that poor families have more children than middle or upper income families.
4. Tony Meloto and Gawad Kalinga are doing what they can to solve housing and social problems of the poor. Phinma and others have shown that housing projects for the lower income groups can be financially successful by organizing the communities to help themselves. In spite of these efforts, the slums in Metro Manila such as those on Araneta Avenue continue to grow. Why have other governments been more successful in clearing slums and providing public housing for the poor?
5. The former Indian ambassador told me that there are about 20,000 to 25,000 Indians involved in the 5/6 business. This does not include local people in this profitable activity. At 20 percent interest a week or 1,000 percent a year, it is very unlikely that a poor borrower can emerge from poverty. Microfinance units drop interest rates in the communities they serve but a much more rapid expansion of microfinance is needed to help the poor. Are income taxes being collected from the motorcycle riding 5/6 people? Is their Philippine presence legal? Are you helping microfinancing activities in the country?
Marcos had a brilliant mind. The first two years (1973 and 1974) of what was described as "smiling martial law" saw the highest growth rates that the Philippines had ever experienced. Except for Singapore, corruption was also present in all our neighbors. Why did Marcos fail when other less gifted authoritarian leaders in East Asia were successful?
Why are we always lacking in national unity? Is it because we are an island nation with a Latin heritage that may be more at home among the Caribbean islands?
Can a western democracy solve the economic problems of a poor nation with a per capita income of about $1,500? Should we have an Asian model of democracy where economic and education matters are delegated to a group of technocrats that are insulated from politics? Can we expect an elected congress of politicians to respond to the rapid economic changes taking place in a flat world? After all, an independent central bank, with little interference from politicians, seems to work quite well for our banking system.
Should we not have one man one vote only in smaller political units like the barrios where there is greater transparency and where accountability is readily established? This was what US President Carter suggested when Deng Xiao Ping asked him about democracy for China. Why should we follow our present model of national elections requiring heavy election spending? Can poor countries with western democracy produce the type of leadership that is necessary to solve long-term economic and poverty problems?
As my friends know, I have always been optimistic about the country but a bit impatient about the slowness of changes needed to reduce poverty.
I agree with the forecast of President Arroyo and many reputable investment bankers, both domestic and foreign, that 2007 may be a banner year for the country.
Aside from the long-term measures that we have to take, can we learn some lessons from Ireland? Like the Philippines, it is a deeply religious Catholic country with sharp political divisions that made it one of the poorest countries of Western Europe, with a large outflow of its talented and light hearted people to the US and UK. To quote from a conference board agenda the question at that time was, how could Ireland manage a "dramatic shift in social and economic goals heavily influenced by the Catholic Church to an economic and political framework that promotes growth and development."
At a meeting with the Irish prime minister in June 2005, I was told that after business groups, politicians, church and labor leaders agreed on national objectives, investments increased, per capita income surged past that of the other European countries, and this growth has been sustained. Irish migrants returned to their native land to further contribute to the island's prosperity!
Can this be a Philippine scenario? My answer is "yes"--if we have national unity and a common program to reduce poverty and develop a larger middle class!
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