Although I don't agree with everything Confucius says but I agree with a lot of things he says. I decided to try and make an essay on applying Confucian principles to economic reform since it's Chinese New Year. We could start with the basics such as the quote above or the golden rule.
Here's the basic plan. There's the need to plant rice, plant trees and EDUCATE children. How can the Philippines be rice sufficient and tree sufficient if there are no laws against the overuse of natural resources as well as squatters are very well-tolerated? How can we educate children properly if the schools are plagued with so much PNoy Pride and there's not much done to strengthen the economic literacy of Filipino children? I support K+12 but it still needs to be accompanied by CoRRECT's three point agenda. It sounds simple but it isn't easy to implement.
Not satisfied with just the simple quote -- I decided to do some research and found some interesting information on what the Philippines can use to make it a great nation again. So what can be done? I found some interesting information from the Singaporean Institute of Management -- where I will also insert some of my emphasis in this essay.
Natural resources
Modernization is good but it can also be bad. I remembered watching the final episode of the sitcom Dinosaurs where their overreliance of technology brought the finale of the series -- the Earth ended into an ice age after they destroyed all of the nature in Pangaea. It resulted to the end of a civilization. So how should we manage our resources?
It's a shame how it's been a problem of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to be so corrupt. Bribe them and the mangrove sanctuary gets destroyed. Bribe them and evil Chinese poachers do what they want because poaching is more fun in the Philippines -- especially if you've got corrupt officials covering you up, right?
Labor resources
Education and training are badly needed. The problem right now with the Philippines is the plague called the #PwedeNaYan way of thinking. I mentioned earlier of the problem of PNoy Pride in the education system. It's time to mention the problem of how schools these days are more focused on getting your diploma than your life lessons. In short, it's like the story of the Scholars and Lion -- where three very intelligent scholars exposed themselves to how stupid they were by reviving a lion that they knew too well -- would eat them if they revived it.
I agree that there's the need for more literacy but that's not entirely enough. There's the need to improve the education system with what's being taught. How can we expect Filipinos to be better if they don't have a good education system? They need to be taught better English, start giving emphasis on foreign languages (Hangul, Nihonggo and Mandarin can be considered electives), the need to stop teaching ultranationalistic values in schools such as the "Sariling Atin Only" mentality -- as if nothing foreign is ever used and to clean of the Department of Education from the influence of the Dilawans would be a good start.
Yes, economic reform is good but we must also present the new compulsory education law. One of the biggest reasons why there's so many dumb voters is also because a good portion of them are illiterate. Why is the government allowing know-nothing squatters to vote? Isn't it any wonder why that the government is full of know-nothings? With this compulsory education comes responsibility. That means, there should also be a law that will expel students from school if they keep attending rallies instead of using their right to free education in the public schools.
There should also be a tax relief in the education system. How can underpaid and overworked employees expect to do better? The same can be true for teachers and policemen. Performance of government employees is so low because they are overworked and underpaid. That's why there's the necessary to have economic reforms so the government can pay them higher salaries to compensate for their super difficult jobs. This would also mean giving tax allowances and tax refunds whenever it's applicable.
Responsible use of capital resources
One of the many reasons why the Philippines has been sinking is through the pork barrel, the Disbursement Acceleration Program and the Priority Disbursement Acceleration Fund -- these are all major scandals not just during the time of Noynoy Aquino but also all those before him. One of the biggest reasons is because of the Manila-Centric ruling where disbursement of funds are all centered on Metro Manila. One could also think why China's rich-poor gap is getting even bigger in spite of economic growth is the Beijing-centric government instead of shifting to federalism to ease China's congestion woes.
This is all about transparency in the government. One of the biggest problems in the Philippines is the lack of transparency when it comes to spending. Filipinos pay their taxes but where do the taxes go? This is one of the biggest reasons why tax evasion and underdeclaration of taxes is a very common thing because of a lack of transparency. It's not just a matter of being overtaxed but also a matter of irresponsible handling of taxes. This would mean that the government will have to be strict with the withdrawals and deposits done as well as make sure everyone declares their Statement on Assets, Liabilities and Net-Worth or SALN while investigating false allegations of so and so having false accounts. What's even weirder is that some of those accusing President Duterte of "unexplained wealth" are also guilty of it.
One reason why the Philippines should shift to federalism is because it decentralizes the government. Don't believe even for a nano-second from the mouth of Neri Colmenares that federalism will make President Duterte more powerful. He and his kind are confusing federalism with feudalism. Those are two different words. If one has to think why Malaysia is doing better than China in terms of distribution is federalism. China's unitary form of government is also responsible to why Beijing is such a traffic zone. Having one to China once -- the traffic in Beijing will have days when it's even worse than Imperial Manila due to the population and lack of decentralization. Don't wait until the Philippines will be next -- shift to federalism now!
Fighting of corruption is another concern. But do you know that the Ombudsman is not enough? Sure, we need the Ombudsman but the performance of it under Noynoy's appointees has been questionable. That's why I prefer to use the parliamentary system -- the opposition appoints watchdogs to every office. Perhaps one reason why certain higher ups in that office can easily flip-flop is because the Ombudsman office is definitely not enough. It's easy to influence its agency to give you immunity while it's supposed to help monitor corruption. The office needs every help that it can get with opposition watchdogs. That would be one way to make sure that there will be much lesser cases of wrongly dismissed cases.
Attracting foreign direct investments should follow the golden rule that says, "Don't do unto others what you don't want others to do to you." This is the principle that you should follow. Do you want Filipino businesses to own 50% to 100% abroad? Then give foreigners their right to own more than 40% of investments. This would mean an equal exchange. Stupid proposals such as banning Filipinos from bringing home media abroad would be bad for business. This would discourage foreigners from ever seeing Filipinos in a positive light. If you don't want foreign businesses to mistreat Filipino businesses -- then don't mistreat each other. This means giving fair opportunities to compete. This is one rule oligarchs hate because all they care is themselves and not the welfare of others.
Encouraging entrepreneurship
It's more than time to stop, "But Pinoys aren't really wired for business!" because that's one of the most fatalistic mindsets ever done. Sure, some Filipinos are better in the arts but it doesn't mean they can't apply basic principles. If they made such a good career in singing, dancing and other related arts -- then they should at least apply some principles such as saving their earnings for a rainy day, learning how to invest their money responsibly and maybe even enter into small businesses to back them up should their career slide down.
What can be done right now? It's time to talk about how to do tax reform. Do you know that the old tax system is really punishing achievement instead of rewarding it? With the previous tax table that any individual income earning PHP 500,000.00 and above are taxed at 32% is too much. Not only does it encourage tax evasion or under declaration but it also encourages laziness. If earning PHP 500,000.00 means paying more then why bother to improve, right? That's why the tax reform laws have significantly reduced income tax while taxing some stuff that could be overusing resources. Income tax has been reduced while excise tax has been added to stuff like sugary products (due to diabetes), cigarettes, alcohol, gasoline (due to pollution though this may need to be modified) and vehicles (due to too many people buying cars causing massive traffic).
It's time to cut the red tape from the Philippines because it won't make business more fun. One of the reasons why the Philippines is not friendly for business is all the red tape. It takes very long to even get your business permit done. That has to be stopped. You don't want to be red taped in other countries? Then don't red tape anyone whether they are Filipino or foreigners. Singapore and Hong Kong are both anti-red tape which helps all businesses to get a permit as soon as it's needed.
It would be time to also focus on how to let Small and Medium Enterprises grow. How can the SMEs grow in the oligarchy ran environment? It does the opposite as they lack the resources to grow. But invite foreign investors then there are more choices to act as suppliers, service providers and customers. Sure, these businesses will have competition but their customers too will have competition. If your customers have competition then don't you think it's time to invite your customers' competition to be your new set of customers? This would be where innovative thinking is brought forth in the midst of competition.
We also need to strengthen Research and Development laws as well as laws against credit grabbing. One of the biggest problems why innovation is almost non-existent is because of credit grabbers. Innovators worked hard to innovate so why let someone who steals their ideas get away with it? This is all about protecting the innovators' right. In return, if you can't just steal someone else' idea then you'll have to find ways to innovate without stealing -- which in turn will produce more new ideas and failures to learn from in the long run. In turn, this will add to competitive value as everyone introduces new ideas while keeping everyone on their toes.
Reference:
The Economic Value of Confucianism
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