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What Filipinos Can Learn From The Galactic Republic And The Galactic Empire

Trying to get more of Star Wars lore whether it's both the Legends storyline or the Disney canon (take your pick) one can see the differences between the two governing systems. In Revenge of the Sith, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine rearranges the Galactic Republic into the first Galactic Empire promising "long lasting peace and stability" but his promise didn't come true. By converting Coruscant into Imperial Coruscant, Palpatine's reorganization of the parliamentary into a unitarian government led to several years of failure and the eventual decay of his empire.

I.) Let's compare the Galactic Republic vs. the Galactic Empire's decision making structures

A.) All decisions of the empire now laid in Coruscant rather than encouraging other planets to get involved

The establishment of Imperial Coruscant meant Emperor Palpatine had nearly absolute power and other planets had no say to decision making. This meant the emperor didn't distribute any deciding power in his empire and kept it to himself and his cronies. Even if others would object to the Death Star's construction because it was too expensive and caused 20 years worth of huge funds that could have been used for development, nobody had the right to criticize the emperor's ever-growing senile mindset. What Palpatine said goes and this meant that no mistakes could be corrected. In Dark Empire, the revived Palpatine only caused his subordinates to rebel against him with his spoiled brat behavior. 

B.) Galactic Senate was used for real feedback while the Imperial Senate almost had no say to the Empire's affairs

It can't be denied that the Galactic Senate's successor the Imperial Senate was almost powerless. All Senators had to agree with the emperor or else. When Senator Leia Organa rebelled 19 years after the Empire's formation, she was sentenced to death and the whole Senate got abolished in favor of the emperor's cronies called the Grand Moffs. This was done to make sure the emperor could rule unopposed. With the Senate no longer in power to repeal bad laws such as Palpatine's enforcement of the Tarkin Doctrine or alien enslavement, this encouraged the people to join the Rebellion and deviate from the Empire.

C.) The Galactic Empire failed to consider alternatives which wasn't much of a case when the Galactic Republic was still around

It's really stupid how after the destruction the first Death Star that Emperor Palpatine himself decided to have another one made. Instead of consulting his subordinates about it especially with the loss of his ally Grand Moff Tarkin he decides to simply go ahead with whatever he wanted. The emperor could have discussed with the others on how to make other ways to curb rebellions than just another Death Star. The Rebels who sought to restore the Old Republic ended up destroying the second Death Star before it can even be completed. 

II.) What Filipinos can learn from the two fictitious republics

A.) Centering all decisions in Imperial Manila is bad for the Philippines

It's stupid to keep bragging that the Philippines has 7,107 islands but all decisions are centered in Imperial Manila. It's like as if the Philippines is either concentrated only in the National Capital Region and the rest of the Philippines isn't part of a republic but an empire. This has caused several slowdowns in development of the Philippines ever since the 1987 Constitution. The system has only strengthened cronyism and centralism leading to further neglect of other areas of the Philippines. This is pro-Tagalog and not pro-Filipino. The key is through decentralize the Philippines through a federal form of government. They can look to Malaysia for guidelines on how to decentralize the government of an archipelago to make sure it goes well. 

B.) A parliamentary senate would have more efficiency than a presidential senate

In a presidential senate, it's very slow and inefficient. Do you remember the whole Corona impeachment trial that decided to make too much of a fuzz on Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre Jr.s' rather minor offense than on bigger, weightier matters? The parliamentary senate is more involved in making sure that there are more alternatives. Should the head of state become incompetent he or she can be voted out through a vote of no confidence. Should the head of state be competent then a term extension can be done.

C.) We need a system that easily passes good laws and repeals bad laws

Is it any wonder why the Philippines can get stuck in so many bad laws? One good example is that the law to provide economic liberalization takes so long no thanks to a presidential system. Would have it been a parliament then such laws to encourage economic liberalization would have been easier to pass and laws that promote economic protectionism or destruction of any sort of healthy competition could be easily repealed. 

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