On Rizal’s 150th birthday, we honored our premier national hero with recollections of his life and accomplishments. Rizal’s ideas on government, politics, society, religion, morality, colonialism and freedom are well known. But his views on economics are not. Because of our enduring poverty, these views may help us.
In his novel, “El Filibusterismo,” Jose Rizal describes a well-attended party hosted by a rich Chinese businessman in Binondo, in which “several merchants … were complaining about the state of business. Everything was going badly, business was paralyzed, exchange rates with Europe were exorbitant. They asked a jeweler, Simoun, the principal character, for guidance. Simoun hinted at a few ideas…. Every time [they] proposed a solution, Simoun responded with a brutally sarcastic smile. ‘Bah! Idiocy!’”
Until one exasperated man asked for his opinion.
“My opinion?” Simoun asked. “Study nations that have indeed prospered and do what they are doing.” It is clear that Rizal was speaking through Simoun. Rizal, like Simoun, had traveled to Japan, the United States, England, Germany and France, then as now the leading industrial nations of the world. He had studied them and learned how the United States had copied England, its mother country, and how Germany, France, Belgium and other European nations had learned from each other’s experiences the means through which they could industrialize and become powerful.
The Philippines, however, under both colonial Spain and America followed no policy model except that imposed by its mother countries, which was to remain feudal and agricultural. After independence, it was the same, the Philippines adopting policies dictated by US development agencies and the international financial institutions. Among such policies are globalization, liberalization, deregulation and dependence on foreign aid and investments. These policies have not worked for our people even after more than six decades of independence.
Rizal’s advice on economic development can be compared to that of Deng Xiaopeng, the architect of China’s miraculous climb from the bottom of the world’s economic ladder to No. 2. Deng famously said, “It does not matter whether the cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.” In short, pragmatism. When policies do not work as expected, change them. For too long we have followed policies recommended by foreigners. It is time we follow not the path shown to us by them, but the real path taken by developing countries that have become rich—like our neighbors Japan, Korea, China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, which started from the same level of poverty and backwardness as our country’s.
In Rizal’s story, Simoun was further asked by a persistent listener, “And why are they prospering?,” referring to the rich nations. Simoun replied with a shrug. Obvious ba?
—MANUEL F. ALMARIO,
spokesman,
Movement for Truth in History,
mfalmario@yahoo.com