Is the honeymoon with President Aquino winding down? It appears there are efforts to offer him specific agendas from various quarters, and that he must deliver or put in motion within 100 days a la FDR?
Is that reflective of our frustrations? We’ve been a developing country for decades – and suddenly we want to impose a yardstick of 100 days, because we’re tossing mañana, finally? FDR had to find a way around Washington gridlock; and given the Great Depression he knew people were desperate for solutions. Thus he played strongman. And he sensed they were on his side – and true to his calculations, voted him three times, against the term-limit (but death would overtake him). Of more recent vintage is Bloomberg – New Yorkers voted him for another term, again beyond the term limit that had to be amended, because they thought he had solutions for their problems! The operative word is solutions – or one who can solve problems is what people want when a nation or a city needs to fix itself? And is that why Aquino is talking about solutions?
We’ve had our problems for decades – do we now expect an agenda that would give us a sense of their solutions in 100 days? If we do, are we prepared to support the vital few . . . as opposed to seek perfection? How do we define perfection? Do we equate perfection to addressing all the causes of every concerned group – sounds like the scribes or the Pharisees? Net, our problem goes beyond Aquino . . . and into our resolve as a people?
We can’t expect tangible solutions to our laundry list of problems – we need to recognize that even a president could only do a ‘couple of things’? So which things? While FDR overreached and pursued initiatives that fell outside his core program, he set out to drive what he thought were the vital few industries that were needed to turnaround the economy – winning friends and enemies in the process!
The PCCI (Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry) is pushing to make us an attractive investment destination. This is a welcome development if indeed local enterprises are opening their arms to foreign investments, 21st century technologies and systems – because we badly need them to attain competitive advantage and accelerate economic development? But which industries are strategic – how much investment ($75 B?) are we targeting to ensure that we raise our GDP substantially, like the JFC (Joint Foreign Chambers) model? It is encouraging that the new DTI secretary is exploring greater international trade and has teed up 6 priority industries – and hopefully would flesh them up and set more specific goals! A columnist talks about 8 sunrise industries aimed at global competitiveness! And a UAP economist is urging the review of foreign ownership rules! And a UPSE professor wants the Administration to focus on economic growth, not labor policies! Indeed we’re smart people and should be able to feed the hungry – if we keep the faith!
We’re also talking of a water czar; and everyone agrees we need to reduce the cost of power, become self-sufficient in rice, and upgrade our airport. Indeed our credibility as a nation has been greatly eroded given our inability to deliver them – thus our failure to attract foreign investments in a big way? The Administration will demonstrate leadership if it comes out with an industrialization plan that is clear, simple and execution-biased – for example, make those two sets of priorities (strategic industries and basic infrastructure) subject to the 100-day test?
Separately the Administration talked about raising the direct subsidies to the poor that would raise our deficits for the fiscal year. But at some point something has to give – and so we’re back to the imperative of aggressively driving our revenues.
The bottom line: It is not about perfection but the pursuit of success – characterized by clarity in our initiatives as well as simplicity, with a bias for execution? That our individual preferences give way to what’s good for the country? That Juan de la Cruz grows up fast – keeping the faith and tossing the ego?
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