Reincarnation of Rudolf Von Havenstein –

How will history and future generations judge us?

We talk how badly we are ranked in economic development and poverty, in competitiveness, in corruption, among others. Yet are we unwittingly justifying the status quo, our economic model – reminiscent of Rudolf Von Havenstein of 1920’s Germany, i.e., the road to disaster is laced with good intentions?

GDPs are driven by the products and services that a country produces – we must focus on innovation to become competitive and thus aggressively drive GDP!

The ADB has finally said it: “We’re suffering from Dutch Disease”! Our psyche needs to be soothed; and “feel-good”, positive words of encouragement are important. We need the spirit to deal with our economic challenges yet we must step up to the plate . . . of reality!

Despite generating record levels of foreign exchange reserves from OFW remittances and thus a stable peso, what do the dynamics of our economy yield? We remain underdeveloped and thus the number of hungry Filipinos keeps growing! Do we want to turn defeatist and be accepting of an economy that marginalizes a third of our population? Do we want an economy that rewards the few at the expense – or on the backs – of millions of OFWs? Do we want to be an elitist nation – no different from banana republics? And with such a big chunk of us being objects of charity?

Should we instead pursue an honest-to-goodness agenda focused on “nation-building” – where “honesty is the best policy” and “the honor system” is the rule?

There’s blame to go around in spades. We need every sector of society: government, industry, education and the Church to come together . . . and get the country to reset its course. “Que sera sera” will not get us where we ought to be – reality will?

1. We have to stop thinking in terms of incremental GDP growth; we can’t sustain the ideal rate – it’s failure predicted!
2. We have to think of expanding our economic pie or GDP to levels that meet needs of 92 million Filipinos – we’re “building a cathedral, we’re not just bricklayers”!
3. We can’t manage “300-odd doctrines” or prescriptions to achieve economic prosperity – let’s not even try to list them – economic development plans must be geared for successful execution!
4. We can manage and execute a very short list (focused on nation-building) or the industries and mechanisms that will give us the biggest bang to substantially expand our economic pie – the lesson of the Two Great Commandments!
5. Government and industry must knock their heads together to draw this short list, not a laundry list – this is where we need to direct our brainpower, not on justifying what we have. An OFW-driven economy is a dud – laizzez-faire is not absolute as demonstrated by the Asian tigers!
6. And education and the Church ought to support economic development efforts – in the history of nations, those who knew how to focus on nation-building became developed countries!

Our biggest obstacle: we haven’t done any of these before; we’re like adolescents groping how to develop and grow up – but we know that what we have does not work . . . and that’s reality staring us in the eye!