It is encouraging that a RAM member believes we should not have another EDSA I – because the positive developments that we assumed would occur following People Power did not? What is our reality? We can keep to our assumptions and replicate the last 25 years? Our assumptions come from our history, culture and tradition? But we can weigh them against our reality and progress as a nation? Our reality of corruption and poverty is sinking us, pushing us down the abyss? While to pursue progress, like the pursuit of academic freedom, does not mean having a pact with the devil – i.e., we have to guard against ideology and extremism, and not parallel the Pharisees and scribes? Or of more recent vintage, Bush-Cheney’s: “If you’re not with us you’re against us?”
It is no surprise we continue to be defensive in our negotiations of FTAs (Foreign Trade Agreements) – because our industry remains uncompetitive? And until we ask the right questions, after another 25 years, our playing field would be narrower and we would still be uncompetitive and defensive in our FTA negotiations . . . and beyond? We have to overcome groupthink – unfortunately, a normal human phenomenon? Put simply, we are what we think we are. As individuals we know it instinctively, think like a winner and we are! And that’s why leadership matters, demonstrated by Kennedy in the Bay of Pigs; he had to overcome groupthink, the opinion of the military – his key advisers on questions of war and peace – and the Senate, whose role is to provide advice and consent. ‘Leadership means taking the enterprise from where they are to where they have never been before.’
Our playing field has narrowed that until we question our assumptions, it would continue to shrink and choke us – yet be in denial, e.g., OFWs? For example, if we think a handful of tycoons (with due respect to them) being gung-ho about investing in infrastructure is our True North, we better think again? It is simply a confirmation that our playing field is so small that a handful of players could be in every major undertaking? The Berlin Wall had to fall because people wanted liberation, not a narrow playing field – and it is happening again today, in the Arab world?
Until we pursue technology and innovation beyond the current state and capacity of our industry we would remain in our narrow world and be uncompetitive? The question we must ask is: what technology and innovation must industry acquire that are world-class, stand up against global competition, expand our market and make the investment pay? The cacique model – hierarchical and inward-looking – is passé. Competitive nations leverage the global economy and tap investments and put them to good use: in technology, innovation, talent, products and markets. But we raise issues against foreign investments and confuse acquisition cost from operating cost, for instance? In the private sector they recognize that competitiveness is driven by margins not solely by acquisition cost and thus invest in state-of-the-art technologies. We can’t be an island unto ourselves – and better mean it? Singapore did not have the capital to create today’s most competitive nation, but has been attracting foreign investments that they put to good use. Ditto for Thailand and Malaysia!
Like any undertaking, the new world order poses a new set of challenges, e.g., Toyota wanting the old rules of least investment or the debate around energy? Thus they demand creativity and resolve? We can’t keep to a model of a few tycoons and an inwardly-looking and uncompetitive industry on the one hand, and a big chunk on the other pushing livelihood initiatives to keep body and soul together? These two elements of our economy would equate to more disasters that even another 25 years wouldn’t cure – because they leave a gaping hole in our economy, i.e., the lack of revenues that could spread greater wealth around? And when we add how much we’ve messed up the environment, what would we expect?
It appears the opposition to the Aquino Administration is beginning to sound louder? Is their economic plan just a bag of air as they say? Is the campaign against corruption undermined by the administration’s inability to pass the Caesar’s wife test as they claim? What do we expect to see 25 years hence? If we don’t want to replicate the last 25 we better get our act together? But Bongbong says we would have been another Singapore? And he’s a future president – bringing old assumptions characterized by a very narrow playing field? God save us!
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