Who can change this country for the better?

A week ago, The Philippine STAR editorialized a report on the 2009 World Competitiveness Ranking that ranked the Philippines a lowly 43rd out of the 57 economies, where we slid further down from our 40th rank in the previous report. As the editorial noted, “The survey did not include Southeast Asian neighbors Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Brunei… If Vietnam and oil rich Brunei had been included, they might have also rated better than the Philippines.” I fully agree with that observation because I was in Saigon only last year and they are already contracting Filipino workers in their special industrialized zones. Maybe we’re ahead of Myanmar, but not Brunei!

Let me reprint that portion of the STAR Editorial, “The Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development prepared the 2009 World Competitiveness Scoreboard based on the 57 economies’ business efficiency, infrastructure, government efficiency and economic performance. The Philippines rated badly in all but business efficiency, where it ranked 32nd. In the sub factors, the country reportedly rated poorly in business legislation where it ranked 50th, productivity and efficiency (53rd), education (54th), public finance (54th) international investment (56th) scientific infrastructure (56th) and basic infrastructure (57th). If there was a rating for gossip, we’d probably be No. 1.

That editorial started with the usual sob story about the Philippines that decades ago, we were second only to Japan in terms of economic progress and human development. But since the era of the conjugal Marcos Dictatorship, we slid down close to the bottom of the rankings . . . and Filipinos responded in supporting the EDSA Revolt to oust an unwanted Dictatorship that only brought this country down so we could correct this steep dive and recover our rightful place with our Asian neighbors . . . or so we thought!

I remember how it was 23 years ago at the height of the euphoria of EDSA when we were proud to be Filipinos! But today, when Filipinos meet in foreign airports, they often disguise themselves as Indonesian or Malaysian as we have gotten a bad reputation of not being able to fix the wrongs of this nation. It became worse when Chip Tsao, two-bit Hongkong based columnist, tagged us as a “Nation of Servants” and with Filipino pride and fervor, we demanded an apology for that offensive remark, although deep inside our hearts, we humbly admit that we are indeed a nation that services the needs of other nations, whether they are entertainers, desk clerks, cooks, hoteliers, seafarers and yes a lot of servants!

With the 2010 Presidential elections coming very soon, it brings a ray of hope that things would be better with a new President. But let’s not kid ourselves . . . a new President won’t change things in this country! Lest you have already forgotten, since we threw out the conjugal Marcos Dictatorship, we’ve changed our Constitution to one that’s worse than the one it replaced, we’ve had three new Presidents and look where this brought our country, back to the past! We’re worse today than ever because Filipinos placed their hopes in our present political system with our current crop of politicians who use the name of the poor people in vain to amass political power and wealth!

Mind you, I wasn’t a bit surprised to learn that only a handful of members of the House of Representatives are not millionaires. But I’m willing to bet you that many of those in Congress who are millionaires today were not millionaires before they were elected into office! So the big question Filipinos ought to ask themselves, who among the Presidentiables would be able to change the present course and give true reforms to this country and change this nation for the better? Right now, I can only think of two personalities among the crop of Presidentiables, but I won’t name any of them as yet.

If there is a message that we Filipinos should keep inside our hearts, it was the message Pres. Barack Obama made when he made his first visit to Africa as President of the richest and most powerful nation on this planet. His message to his fellow sub-Saharan Africans in Ghana was simple but a frank message that is just as good for third world nations like ours. Here’s a portion of his message to Africa. 

“Development depends upon good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long. That is the change that can unlock Africa’s potential. And that is a responsibility that can only be met by Africans. Repression takes many forms, and too many nations are plagued by problems that condemn their people to poverty. No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers.” Let’s put this message into our hearts and start finding ways to solve whatever is wrong with this country. Unfortunately, changing for the better means, we need Federalism!

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