Societies and individuals should work and dream beyond mere economic subsistence and survival, but aim higher for excellence. After the European Jewish refugees and others fought a guerrilla war against the British colonial regime and resisted attacks by Arab armies, they went beyond survival and sought to build a vibrant free enterprise economy in their democratic state of Israel. When Lee Kuan Yew-led Singapore was kicked out of Muslim-ruled Malaysia in the 1960s, their leader shed tears on national TV but worked not only for survival of the resource-poor city-state but built it up into a world-class economic powerhouse.

After the South Koreans fought back the Communist hordes invading from North Korea in the 1950s with the US, Philippines and aid from other UN allied nations led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, they not only worked for survival of their war-torn nation. They dreamt and built up South Korea into a mighty industrial power rivaling former colonizer Japan in ship, steel, automobile and electronics exports globally. When the Chiang Kai-Shek regime was booted out of mainland China by the Communist revolution of Mao Zedong, resource-poor and backward Taiwan province under the Kuomintang/Nationalist leadership pursued a policy of national self-reliance. Taiwan not only survived Cold War era threats and diplomatic isolation, the dynamic free enterprise economy has prospered to become a globally competitive world leader in information technology (IT) and high-tech exports.

We should demolish our society’s age-old culture of pessimism, go beyond survival of the Philippine economy with dependence on OCW dollar remittances, but we should export more and woo more tourists into our shores! We shouldn’t just be fixated with log ban debates, but implement an aggressive reforestation campaign so that we can someday revive the once robust Philippine lumber export industry, inspired by the US example of efficient forest management. Instead of only shouting with sound and fury for less corruption and less pork barrel funds to solve the government budget deficit, let us woo more investors, encourage the launching of new enterprises, support existing firms, so that the state can collect more tax revenues!

Fearless and bold offense – not pessimism and fatalistic surrender – is the best defense against the onslaught of globalization. We do not have the luxury of time to delay far-reaching socio-economic reforms. We must shape up and compete, or we shall stagnate and be left inexorably behind. Let us make the Philippine economy more efficient and globally competitive!

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Article taken from the December 14, 2004 issue of the Philippine Star