Traveling P-Noy

Now that the travel-averse President Aquino seems to have caught the travel bug, perhaps he will empathize with what Filipinos who have seen much of the world in the past years feel: the Philippines is being left behind.

Too bad his recent visit to China was the first in his life (he’s been to Taiwan) and only the second for his foreign secretary (the first was earlier this year, in preparation for P-Noy’s visit). Only those who have visited China regularly for the past two or three decades can fully appreciate the astounding transformation of that country, how much it has changed (and how little in certain aspects), and how much it has achieved. The changes continue to happen at dizzying speed.

This week P-Noy visited Japan, starting with the areas devastated by the earthquake and tsunami. He then went to Tokyo for meetings with the emperor and the prime minister. I hope P-Noy liked one of the world’s most high-tech cities.

Less than half a century ago, the Philippines ranked second to Japan in Asia in terms of economic prosperity and other human development indicators. Over 60 years ago the Japanese were our enemies in a world war. Today Japan, fully recovered from the ravages of war and atomic bombing, is one of our country’s top five sources of official development assistance.

What did the Japanese do right? P-Noy can validly say that a president can’t do it alone; a sea change must involve the entire nation. The Japanese national ethic, their innate discipline, their honor code helped them rise from the ashes of war.

But the modern histories of several Asian countries show that leadership also plays a key role in national progress. Singapore had Lee Kuan Yew; Malaysia had Mahathir Mohamad. Even Suharto, over a certain period, brought stability and development to Indonesia, until he became more like Ferdinand Marcos rather than Lee Kuan Yew. China had Deng Xiaoping to undo the damage of Mao Zedong’s ruinous Cultural Revolution. Deng’s successors sustained his reforms.

Even Japan, in its post-war recovery, had a popular emperor to unify the nation in its hour of defeat. Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, beloved by his subjects, has also been a unifying and stabilizing force in his nation.

Perhaps P-Noy should include Seoul in his future itinerary. South Korea had a succession of strongmen after World War II, which its citizens probably tolerated since they remained at war with their next-door neighbor and it helped to have a militaristic leader. Those strongmen were also credited with putting South Korea on the road to industrialization and economic prosperity. And while Army General Park Chung-hee ruled with an iron fist for 18 years, he was not tainted by major corruption scandals like those that sent two of his successors to prison. Today his daughter Park Geun-hye is a strong contender for the presidency in the forthcoming elections, and could become the first female president of Korea.

In another part of the globe, P-Noy can visit China’s partner in the BRICs – the world’s leading emerging economies. The B is Brazil, where P-Noy can see not just the tall, tan and lovely girls of Ipanema, but also how much the country has progressed after emerging from 21 years of military dictatorship.

Brazil enjoyed eight years of effective leadership under Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Despite his immense popularity, Lula chose to abide by his two-term limit and hand over power as scheduled rather than amend the Brazilian Constitution so he could seek a third term. His handpicked successor, Dilma Rousseff, a twice-divorced woman who was brutally tortured when she was 19 by the military regime, is currently reaping praise for her no-nonsense leadership style.

After BRICs come the CIVETS – the countries expected to shine in the next decade – and the Philippines isn’t one of them: Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa.

What have all these countries done right to achieve so much despite the odds? Finding answers to this question should preoccupy P-Noy in his foreign jaunts.

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Consider tourism in our country. Last year, despite the hostage mess in Rizal Park, we had a record 3.3 million foreign tourist arrivals. This year, from January to July alone, tourist arrivals had reached 2,280,184 – a significant 11.83 percent increase over the same period last year, according to records of the Department of Tourism (DOT). Maybe resigned tourism chief Bertie Lim did something right? P-Noy won’t like that observation.

He also might not like the fact that even with the hefty increase, tourist arrivals in the Philippines still pale in comparison to those of several other Southeast Asian countries.

DOT officials said among the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Philippines ranked only sixth in tourist arrivals, behind Malaysia with its 25 million in 2010, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam.

In ASEAN, the Philippines had more visitors than Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. But if we continue to lull ourselves into complacency, Cambodia could soon leave us behind. Even Myanmar is eager to lure visitors, and several countries are starting to listen.

The world is passing us by. Those tourism arrival figures are just another indication that we are not doing worse; the nation has achieved progress and life has improved in the past decades.

Our nation’s problem, as P-Noy (we hope) is now seeing firsthand, is that others are doing better.