Of tigers, ants and the Filipino dream

The Philippines has been aspiring to be a tiger economy, like the graceful jungle lord that preys and hunts, and one that roars and is held in awe by other more fearful inhabitants of forest lands and expansive savannahs.

For more than a century now since Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo hoisted the first Philippine flag on his ancestral home’s balcony in Kawit, Cavite, Filipinos have been dreaming of that day when the country could be included in the world’s list of developed economies.

And yet, the race to be the best has always been beset by “injuries,” blamed on one reason or another, all of which have held back our nation’s chance to cross the finish line first, or even to be among the top names on the list.

Sometimes, I think aspiring to be a tiger economy is not the fitting description.

Drive to become productive

Perhaps our aspiration should be to become an ant colony, where everyone works hard to be productive and to be of value to the whole community – or in more pragmatic terms, to have that drive to earn more money.

On several occasions visiting today’s Guangzhou, which is better remembered by some as Canton, the collective bustle of economic activity reminds me of a colony of millions of ants, each hurriedly moving with just one single focus: to be productive.

At the toll stops of Guangzhou, it is not the number of gates that will awe you. It is the line upon line of container vans crossing from inland China to the outbound ports of this city. At the harbors, ships are busy loading products that are destined to travel to almost any major port in the world.

To think that China was a closed economy at the start of Communist rule in the late 1940s, and it was only in the late 1970s when vestiges of capitalism were introduced and incorporated in the Chinese economic roadmap.

Consequently, the Chinese government then made public and consumer welfare the bedrock of its new policies. It became committed and resolutely focused on increasing the personal income and consumption of each and every one of its citizens.

China today considers its people to be still below the level of those belonging to advanced economies like the United States, Japan or Europe. There may be newfound wealth in its coastal cities where the government initially focused on, but its peoples in the vast interior territories remain relatively poor.

The Chinese dream

Last year, China announced its big dream under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping. The Chinese dream, now a nationwide slogan and rallying call, rests on two auspicious “100” goals that are easy to remember as well as endearing to its citizens.

The first “100” coincides with the 100th year anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party founding in 1921. Xi Jinping asked the nation “to dare to dream, work assiduously to fulfill the dreams and contribute to the revitalization of the nation” so that China would become a “moderately well-off society” by 2021.

And by 2049, which would be the 100th year commemorating the founding of the People’s Republic of China, this second “100” inclusive dream is to modernize the whole of China so that it will become a fully developed nation.

Critics say that the Chinese dream is not exactly an original, having been inspired by the great American dream that set the United States on its road to becoming an industrial power bloc. But who really cares?

Like the American dream, the Chinese dream strives for incremental improvements in the wealth of each and every individual, and with the government set in motion to muster all its resources and power to pave the way for this to happen.

The Filipino dream

Like the United States, China, or every great country in the past and today, our country needs a dream that every one of its citizens can relate to and be inspired by.

Hearing P-Noy say that we are his boss is fine and dandy, but Filipinos would also want to hear what his administration’s concrete plans are to bring the Philippines and its inhabitants achieve a better life.

If we will borrow the way of the Chinese dream, how exactly will the Philippine government encourage entrepreneurship that will spur grassroots productivity? How will farmers be able to live comfortably from all the hard work they spend on their fields?

How can we move products from factories and farmlands to the markets at the least cost, and at the quickest time?  How do we make sure that Filipinos are able to travel from home to work and back home in the most efficient and cost-effective way?

How do we encourage and keep foreign investors to help this nation grow? What jobs will be created to absorb the annual gush of graduates, and to bring down the levels of joblessness and under-productivity?

How do we harness all those resources created by our overseas and migrant work forces so that these are not just “lost” to purchases of non-productive and non-essential consumer products?

All of these questions and more need to be answered before our President and his minions can truly claim that they are doing something to bring about the most basic of Filipino dream – food on every Filipino family’s table and money in the pocket to ensure that other basic needs such as shelter, education and clothing are met.

Collective and individual effort

Yes, we need to want to be a tiger economy. But we also need to be like ants that tirelessly go about doing our own small individual share towards building a strong colony that is able to adequately provide shelter and food.

Not to belittle the “daang matuwid” of the current administration and its contribution to nation building, perhaps it is also time to think not just of setting a morally upright road, but also one that is a “daang tuwid,” a straight road that will lead Filipinos directly to the path of prosperity and progress.

Is this too much to ask?

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