Where do we want to be? (II)

“By 2040, Filipinos enjoy a strongly rooted, comfortable, and secure life.” That’s from NEDA.

And it continues: “In 2040, we will all enjoy a stable and comfortable lifestyle, secure in the knowledge that we have enough for our daily needs and unexpected expenses. We can plan and prepare for our own and our children’s future. Our family lives together in a place of our own, and we have the freedom to go where we desire, protected, and enabled by a clean, efficient, and fair government.

“AmBisyon Natin 2040 represents the collective long-term vision and aspirations of the Filipino people for themselves and the country in the next 25 years.

“AmBisyon Natin 2040 is the result of a long-term visioning process that began in 2015. More than 300 citizens participated in focus group discussions, and close to 10,000 answered the national survey. That was followed by technical studies to identify strategic options for realizing the vision articulated by citizens. The exercise benefitted from the guidance of an Advisory Committee comprising government, private sector, academe, and civil society.”

Benchmark. Benchmark. Benchmark.

That will not be new to those familiar with the blog.

In the meantime, Pandemic 2020 makes AmBisyon Natin 2040 a much higher challenge. Recognize that the economic slowdown that came with the lockdown can be the beginning of the end for countless enterprises, which will impact GDP.

On the other hand, if we are outward- and forward-looking, we would have – years ago – benchmarked against our neighbors. For example, AmBisyon Natin 2040 could have been AmBisyon Natin: To be the next Asian Tiger.

Let’s hold it right there.

Has it ever crossed our minds that we can be the next Asian Tiger? If it has not, it’s not surprising. Recall that our caste system is no different from a bunker mentality – “a state of mind, especially among members of a group characterized by chauvinistic defensiveness and self-righteous intolerance of criticism.” [Merriam-Webster]

In the meantime, here’s Investopedia on the Asian Tigers: “The four Asian tigers are the high-growth economies of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. They consistently maintained high economic growth levels since the 1960s, fueled by exports and rapid industrialization, which enabled these economies to join the ranks of the world’s wealthiest nations.

“Hong Kong and Singapore are among the most significant financial centers worldwide, while South Korea and Taiwan are valuable hubs of global manufacturing in automobile and electronic components and information technology.

“The four Asian tigers share common characteristics that focus on exports, an educated populace, and high savings rates. Their economies have proved to be resilient enough to withstand local crises, such as the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and global shocks, including the credit crunch of 2008.

“The International Monetary Fund (IMF) includes the four Asian tigers in its category of 35 advanced economies.”

In other words, “Sigurista si Juan de la Cruz.” “In 2040, we will all enjoy a stable and comfortable lifestyle, secure in the knowledge that we have enough for our daily needs and unexpected expenses. We can plan and prepare for our own and our children’s future. Our family lives together in a place of our own, and we have the freedom to go where we desire, protected, and enabled by a clean, efficient, and fair government.”

He thinks a safe bet is the best bet. Except for one thing: The universe we live in is not static but dynamic.

But let’s pause once more: Does “dynamic” even register, or is it too foreign to Juan de la Cruz? Without dynamism, we won't have the confidence to look to the future. Is that why we don’t forward-think?

Recall our instincts: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism that we rely on political patronage and oligarchy that ours is a culture of impunity.

There is no free lunch. That is why our elders created the characters of Juan Tamad and Bondying.

On the other hand, the blog never tires of recalling that Deng heeded Lee and Mahathir’s advice, “To lift the people of China from poverty, beg for Western money and technology.” And more recently, Vietnam borrowed the playbook and now poised to overtake Singapore.

If the four Asian tigers and China are way too far to reach, what about Vietnam?

Because of the bunker mentality, we did not recognize that our eight top companies can’t even equal one Vietnam enterprise, Samsung Vietnam.

And we expect a comfortable and secure life while being the regional laggard? Recall cause and effect. Poverty is the effect of our inability to develop rapidly. While Vietnam quickly overcame poverty by “begging for foreign money and technology.”

Consider these simple questions: Where are we? Where do we want to be? How do we get there?

If we don’t recognize the universal law of cause and effect, we will continue to bark at the wrong tree. We have to shift our perspective beyond poverty. 

Likewise, human as we are, we like to conflate our shortcomings with the problems of the world. In the vernacular, “sabog si Juan de la Cruz.”

That is why the blog has repeatedly raised the 3Cs of a hardy mindset. But the first “C” will already be a stumbling block because if we can’t “commit” to be the next Asian Tiger, we can’t accept the “challenge.” In the meantime, we settle for the status quo. But then we continue to witness our downward spiral. 

What to do? Conflate our problems with the rest of the world? And that brings us to the third “C,” “control.” We can control only ourselves. 

We cannot keep pointing at the speck on another’s eye. But given our hierarchical nature, we are above reproach. And why we struggle with “personal responsibility,” which is what self-government – aka democratic as opposed to autocratic – presupposes. Who cares if we’re the regional laggard with over 50 million impoverished Filipinos?

What to do? Benchmark and match the efforts of Vietnam, for example. Our biggest exports are in the same category as Samsung Vietnam. And there are other global brands and enterprises that we must actively pursue – so that we move beyond assembling computer chips.

But because the GDP gap we must cover is $200 billion – to beat the hell out of Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam – we need similar efforts for our other top exports. $200 billion is a humongous target. And replicating Samsung Vietnam brings us a quarter of the way.

And so, we need to sharpen our focus and learn more from our neighbors. That is why the blog raised the challenge to benchmark Central Luzon against the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone.

Here is a step in the right direction: “Taguig City being evaluated as potential agri-industrial site,” Revin Mikhael D. Ochave, BusinessWorld, 21st Jul 2020.

“Agri-industrial sites are expected to provide facilities, capital, and production know-how to small farmers, while also boosting their productivity and generating jobs to strengthen the economy. The DA is also hoping to develop New Clark City in Tarlac province as an agri-industrial center.”

It’s a step in the right direction because we move away from the crab mentality’s impulse. Undertakings, especially of the mega-sized kind, must be designed to enter, compete, and win in the global arena. Because that will give us a quantum leap in GDP and the resulting tax revenues, we need to develop the rest of the country.

But the caveat is we must do lots of practice in forward-thinking, prioritizing, exploiting Pareto. We must recognize that we have long mistaken “inclusive” with the crab mentality. 

Let’s get back to NEDA. And also, our economic managers and legislators.

For instance, we must recognize the grand plans of the DA but likewise understand that they are only a piece of a more ambitious vision to make Central Luzon the next Pearl River Delta Economic Zone.

In a very dynamic universe like ours, we Filipinos cannot assume a stable world in constant equilibrium. That is a lesson we learned from the creation story – of Adam and Eve’s banishment from the garden.

In other words, we must upend our instincts; otherwise, we can’t embrace personal responsibility, worse, ill-prepared for self-government: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism that we rely on political patronage and oligarchy that ours is a culture of impunity.

AmBisyon Natin 2040 must mutate to AmBisyon Natin: To be the next Asian Tiger.

Gising bayan!

“Here is a land in which a few are spectacularly rich while the masses remain abjectly poor. And where freedom and its blessings are a reality for a minority and an illusion for the many. Here is a land consecrated to democracy but run by an entrenched plutocracy, dedicated to equality but mired in an archaic system of caste. 

“But the fault was chiefly their own. Filipinos profess the love of country, but love themselves – individually – more.” [Ninoy Aquino, Foreign Affairs magazine, July 1968; Stanley Karnow, New York Times Magazine, “Cory Aquino’s Downhill Slide,” 19th Aug 1990.]

“Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow? Moreover, that they will be such is not to be doubted, for he who submits to tyranny loves it.” [We are ruled by Rizal’s ‘tyrants of tomorrow,’ Editorial, The Manila Times, 29th Dec 2015]

“True social reform has little to do with politics. To unmoor ourselves from the burdens of the past, we must be engaged in the act of continual and conscious self-renewal. All men are partially buried in the grave of custom. Even virtue is no longer such if it is stagnant.

“Change begins when we finally choose to examine critically and then recalibrate the ill-serving codes and conventions handed down to us, often unquestioned, by the past and its power structures. It is essentially an act of imagination first.” [David Henry Thoreau; American essayist, poet, and philosopher; 1817-1862]

“National prosperity is created, not inherited. It does not grow out of a country’s natural endowments, its labor pool, its interest rates, or its currency’s value, as classical economics insists. [A] nation’s competitiveness depends on the capacity of its industry to innovate and upgrade.” [The Competitive Advantage of Nations, Michael E. Porter, Harvard Business Review, March–April 1990]

“You have to have a dream, whether big or small. Then plan, focus, work hard, and be very determined to achieve your goals.” [Henry Sy Sr., Chairman Emeritus and Founder, SM Group (1924 - 2019)]

“Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” [William Pollard, 1911-1989, physicist-priest, Manhattan Project]

“Development is informed by a people’s worldview, cognitive capacity, values, moral development, self-identity, spirituality, and leadership . . .” [Frederic Laloux, Reinventing organizations, Nelson Parker, 2014]

“Now I know why Paul dared to speak of ‘the curse of the law’ (Galatians 3:13). Law reigns and discernment is unnecessary, which means there is little growth or change in such people. When you do not grow, you remain an infant.” [Faith and Science, Open to Change, Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, 23rd Oct 2017]

“As a major component for the education and reorientation of our people, mainstream media – their reporters, writers, photographers, columnists, and editors – have an obligation to this country . . .” [Era of documented irrelevance: Mainstream media, critics and protesters, Homobono A. Adaza, The Manila Times, 25th Nov 2015]