The test of the pudding

“Something seems really, really wrong in the way voters choose their political leaders. A candidate’s management acumen is not necessary for as long as he can sing, dance, make them laugh and give dole outs to get elected. That is probably why we have political leaders who are more interested in how to recoup the money they spent during the campaign than how to make sure that every peso of public money is judiciously spent for activities and projects with the most benefit to the constituency.” [Why are we poor (?), Tita C. Valderama, 10th May 2015]

“It is how the city government spends its revenues, including the P1.9-billion annual internal revenue allotment from the national government. How much of it goes to corruption should be pruned to the barest minimum, if it could not be completely stopped. If you go to the inner streets of Manila in Intramuros, Divisoria, Escolta, Malate, Pandacan, Sta.Mesa, anywhere, the city stinks, sidewalks are either occupied by hawkers or shanties. It doesn’t feel safe to walk even when you are not alone.”

The test of the pudding is in the eating. Translation: ours is a broken system. One way we can react is to play back the narrative that we are victims – of our past. Unfortunately, victims are losers not winners. Or we can step up to the plate. This blog has discussed the “power of the mindset” which is something that we have yet to embrace?

What does the science say? “To believe that if something is not working or is ineffective . . . we must ask, ‘What is it that I can do differently to change the situation?’” [Robert Brooks, faculty of Harvard Medical School; served as Director of the Department of Psychology at McLean Hospital, a private psychiatric hospital; he reinforced the 1970 work of Susan Kobasa, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the City University, New York.]

“It has been observed that if there is one factor hindering the Philippines from catching up with its dynamic neighbors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, it is the outdated mindset that has remained with us from the last century . . . ‘Customer orientation’ has long been the crux in business operations and it is clearly understood that failure to internalize this culture will result in a loss to competition and eventually the replacement of the boss.” [The 21st century mindset, Cesar B. Bautista, Mapping the future, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 10th May 2015]

“There is a new determination for quality execution of plans, conscientious monitoring of progress and achievement of deliverables. All these can only be done in coordination with other government units, which implies that a ‘conductor’ has to be in place. However, this approach has not caught fire yet, perhaps due to the historical silo mentality which prevents outsiders of an office from moving into the turf of others. Overlapping ‘legal mandates,’ bureaucratic terrain, desire for personal glory/fame dampen the enthusiasm of senior officials to pursue out-of-box modes in addressing strategic challenges . . .”

“. . . Sec. Petilla had other proposals for the electric power industry that would have been beneficial to power consumers, which he can no longer pursue because of his impending replacement.” [The toughest Cabinet job, Boo Chanco, DEMAND AND SUPPLY, The Philippine Star, 11th May 2015]

“But Sec. Petilla failed to obtain passage of the proposed law giving emergency powers to President Benigno Aquino III to purchase government-owned power plants. Apparently, that was a major income-generating measure for election purposes of the P-Noy administration. I speculate that this failure of Sec. Petilla is the main reason for his untimely replacement.

“If Sec. Petilla runs for the Senate . . . We could then place in the Senate an ally of the consumers against some of the private power generation companies, which are the main group of capitalists trying to make money by exploiting the political weakness of consumers, and corrupting government agencies, regulatory bodies and electric cooperatives in the process.

“He was said to have told a group of power generators they should be ashamed for raking in windfall profits at the expense of the consumers. Even if it is an independent agency, Ikot was vocal in saying the ERC must stop acting like a captive of the power industry it regulates. Ikot also feels there is something very wrong with the way the power industry pretends we have a free market in the power sector.

“By the very nature of the large capital requirements for putting up power plants, those who dare to be in it are also those who have a big influence in determining government policies overall. In other words, with power generation in the hands of the private sector, the most powerful of our social and economic elite are the guys a Secretary of Energy must deal with… very carefully. As is often the case, these folks are powerful enough to go over the head of the Energy Secretary, if he displeases them.”

Why are we poor? Is it because of: (a) “the way voters choose their political leaders”; (b) “we have political leaders who are more interested in how to recoup the money they spent during the campaign”; (c) “the outdated mindset that has remained with us from the last century”; (d) “the group of capitalists trying to make money by exploiting the political weakness of consumers, and corrupting government agencies, regulatory bodies and electric cooperatives in the process”?

But do we have the power of the mindset? “To believe that if something is not working or is ineffective . . . we must ask, ‘What is it that I can do differently to change the situation?’”

“[T]he thrust of the report, titled ‘Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity’ and scheduled to be presented at a panel discussion in Washington, is a scathing indictment of 35 years of economic policies . . .” [Report by Clinton Adviser Proposes ‘Rewriting’ Decades of Economic Policy, Amy Chiozick, First Draft, The New York Times, 12th May 2015] It is “an aggressive blueprint for rewriting 35 years of policies that he says have led to a vast concentration of wealth among the richest Americans and an increasingly squeezed middle class.”

“‘It’s not just a matter of redistribution,’ said Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics who has been an influential adviser to the Clinton campaign and will present his report on Tuesday. “Rewriting the rules of our market economy would reduce inequalities in market incomes.”

The US has Stiglitz, and in the Philippines we have the JFC and Arangkada. If indeed we believe that something is not working or is ineffective, Arangkada is asking, ‘What is it that we can do differently to change the situation’?

But where is Philippine society at large? We have to go beyond asking “why are we poor”. We have to learn and embrace the power of the mindset?