AIM honors Washington SyCip

First we had John Gokongwei’s P200 million donation to Ateneo or even earlier than that but not wishing any publicity was George Ty’s P1.2 billion to Metrobank Foundation for mass education and medicine, which is, as the British would say ‘a jolly good show.’ But kidding aside, this kind of contest among the taipans or the superrich of the Philippines is a welcome change from beauty or singing contests that Filipinos have come to be known worldwide. Scratch a Filipino and you have a beauty queen or a singing star. This is not to look down on these common endeavors only to say that singers and beauty queens need not and ought not to symbolize Filipinos. We are capable of so much more. So I was keen to write on Washington Sycip. I readily agreed even I knew nothing about him except that he is Mr. SGV, the accounting firm. It is time to play up the important role of experts in our democratic society, even if it is only about such an unglamorous profession as accountancy. Indeed when I read some of the background materials on Mr. SyCip, I realized that there was more to the story of honoring him by naming AIM’s Graduate School of Business Management the Washington SyCip Graduate School of Business Management.

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For the story of Washington SyCip and the AIM is not about an accountant and a business school. It is the story of how Asia in general and the Philippines in particular might shape up in some distant future into an ideal world when experts, the best in their given fields would run government, albeit with democratic consent. This is a tall order that is why I have used my words carefully. Maybe it is not so much a goal to achieve as a standard to work by.

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AIM, the institution. I first discovered the international reach of AIM when on a visit to Jakarta more than five years ago I was told that there was an AIM in the Indonesian capital and that it was run almost singlehandedly by a wisp of a girl called Tina Fereiro. It was only later that I was to know how well regarded AIM’s programs were and that graduates of the school were in very high positions in both government and industry throughout the region. Before then I had the misconception that it was a local business school. Tina assured me that there were AIM branches in other countries of Asia.

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This is the AIM that is poised to start a yet another chapter of its illustrious history as Asia’s own international business school. It is bruited about that AIM graduates especially if they aim to work in the region finish superior to their Harvard and Wharton counterparts precisely because their knowledge is grounded in the region. AIM training gives specificity to theories that would otherwise have been rote knowledge. For the last thirty years AIM has produced 30,000 quality graduates from 63 countries with this Asian advantage. Visit the campus and you will see what I mean – there are Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Pakistanis bringing their home problems into a common pool of deliberation, argument and solutions that ultimately become ‘Asian expertise.’ This is probably what AIM President Roberto de Ocampo also refers to when he says ‘these activities form part of our direction to maximize on the institution’s deep bench of experts to serve as a think-tank for government policy makers, captains of industry and business leaders here and abroad.’

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Washington Sycip, the honoree. Apart from being known as Mr. SGV, the commemoration brochure on him enumerates his many prestigious positions that have made him an internatitional personality – Chairman of the Asia Pacific Advisory Comiittee of the New York Stock Exchange, Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Conference Board, New York, member of the Harvard University Asia Center Advisory Committee, board member of the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of International Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University,among others. But these are positions other eminent persons can lay claim to. What struck me is his elementary school background.

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I was pleasantly surprised that AIM would be honoring during a week-long of activities under the sponsorship of East-West Center in Honolulu, is a product of the Philippine public school system. It says that he attended the Burgos Elementary School and V. Mapa High School. This fact should be highlighted because of the wide gap that exists between what would be an AIM graduate and Filipino public school child of today. One is necessarily elitist and would come from our exclusive private schools while the other would not even dream of going into AIM’s graduate school. So much has happened between the time of Washington SyCip’s youth and the Philippines of today. If AIM is to play a key role in the shaping of our national life, that should be a first hurdle – that the gap between the rich and the poor among our young should at least be narrowed. Then it should be possible for a public school student to aim for AIM.

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What better symbol than Washington SyCip, not of Ateneo or La Salle but of Burgos Elementary School? What is more fitting, if the aim is to level the playing field, to call the top business school the Washington SyCip school. It would drive home the sincerity of the message he delivered in his opening speech before the distinguished audience of academics, government officials and businessmen:

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"We must now prepare ourselves for the next twenty years when the Pacific Rim countries will play an even more important role in world affairs. With the high educational level achieved by countries in East Asia, Asian investors, Asian enterepreneus and Asian managers will be called upon to develop our region and expand the activities of Asian enterprises to other parts of the world. Forums such as these are a great means by which we could learn and dialogue with each other. Governments have begun to cooperate more earnestly and learn from each other. But on top of all these, one goal must be constantly kept in mind if we are to have lasting peace – the reduction of poverty in Asia and in the rest of the developing world."

While this column salutes AIM for its achievements and congratulates Washington SyCip for the honor being bestowed on him by its board of governors, it remains skeptical that enough is being done to break down the essential elitism that characterizes our ‘best’ schools and I do not refer only to AIM. I do not think we have developed the lexicon of equality that will make learning expertise that is available in the corridors of AIM relevant to some of the more intractable political and economic problems of the country. Until that lexicon becomes part of the syllabus of graduate business schools in the Philippines, events such as the AIM celebrations will come and go without making a dent in the formidable towers of wealth and privilege that have been the stumbling blocks to real progress in this country. Let us drink to the boy from Burgos Elementary and V. Mapa High School.

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My e-mail address: [email protected] or [email protected].