THE Philippines operates less as a democratic state than a plutocracy — a society structurally governed and controlled by the wealthy. In this system, democratic ideals are sidelined; even a candidate possessing elite credentials and accolades is routinely passed over for key government positions.
To be elected to a senior government position, whether national or local, one has to possess tons of money to launch a successful campaign. For a person to be appointed, he must be acceptable to the wealthy ruling class or is personally known to the appointing power as a staunch supporter. One’s educational achievement or scientific recognition is secondary.
In this country, the ability to accumulate enormous wealth is treated as synonymous with intelligence. Many politicians and policymakers condescendingly mock experts and scientists who criticize erroneous policy or decision with the age-old phrase, “If they are so smart, why aren’t they rich?!”
Note that it has become a practice in our so-called democratic system to appoint successful entrepreneurs to key government positions. Since they have made tons of money in business, the assumption is that they will be excellent public sector managers. A number of my friends usually laud the appointments as they believe the entrepreneurs can use their skills to push our bureaucracy to action.
There are three main reasons why this belief is flawed.
A private sector person, immersed in his entire life and career in making money out of selling goods or services, will undoubtedly possess enormous knowledge about the product he is marketing to consumers. But it does not necessarily translate into knowledge of the bureaucracy, which is a highly complex organization.
The dynamics of the bureaucracy are far too different from that of a private sector organization. A non-performing private sector employee can be easily fired and replaced by a more competent recruit. That is not true in government as employees are protected by the civil service law. A non-performing government employee’s strategy to stay in office is to simply outlast his boss as he knows that the latter’s term expires with that of the appointing authority.
Second, the bottom-line measure of success in the private sector is profit. This is not true in the public sector. In fact, a key good public finance principle is that at the end of the fiscal year, all the budgets for the period should be spent. The logic is simple. Unspent money means depriving the public of services that were already allotted funds for that year. It means school buildings or classrooms, hospitals, roads, etc. were not built despite the funds being available. Not properly spending the money is practically equivalent to a dereliction of responsibility.
The problem becomes more complicated because there is no robust monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system. It was Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel prize winner in economics, who stressed that an M&E system was indispensable in a functioning democratic government as it would determine whether government programs and projects were really benefiting the vast majority. He added that while profit is the ultimate measure of business success, the delivery of effective and efficient public service is the determinant of good governance.
Third is the conflict of interest that might arise with a successful entrepreneur’s appointment to a senior government position. This concern is usually addressed by requiring the candidate to divest of properties associated with the firm he used to be affiliated with, but everyone knows that this is a joke. The reality is that if any successful entrepreneur is appointed in a key government post, the value of the firm he was previously connected to significantly rises. Though he might no longer be directly be participate in the firm, he can still protect it by ensuring that government policies or decisions do not affect the corporation’s bottomline.
Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of American democracy, warned about the threat of plutocracy on democracy. He declared: “[W]e had come to the stage where for our people what was needed was a real democracy; and of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of wealth, the tyranny of plutocracy.” Undeniably, plutocracy is the main reason why our style of democracy has failed us.
Ube conundrum?
On the issue of ube (purple yam), I was amused to learn that a congressional hearing is being proposed to determine what the obstacles are in ensuring that the country will be able to take advantage of the boom in global demand. We don’t need another congressional hearing by media exposure-addicted legislators as a structural autopsy was performed years ago by agronomists and economists, and can be easily determined with just a cursory examination of existing literature.
Among the challenges facing ube development is the inadequate supply of planting materials as crop varietal improvement research and tissue culture technology were hardly funded in the past. It is only now that our politicians and policymakers are talking about it because of the huge demand for ube.
Two, ube is a perennial crop, which means that small farmers need cash during the 9- to 10-month growing period. As a result, they cannot entirely devote their land to ube production as they need to earn cash from crops like corn and vegetables that can be harvested every 3 to 4 months. Ube then becomes a marginal crop.
Three, while traders, food processors and exporters are raking huge profits as a result of the global ube boom, there is no guaranteed price for the farmers. Thus, there is little incentive for them to expand cultivation.
And four, climate change is affecting crop yield which explains the decline in the ube harvest last year. A technology that will allow ube to become climate resilient must be found and propagated massively.
Given our knowledge of these problems, do we still really need a congressional hearing? Isn’t it better to just formulate a strategic plan for ube development and implement it as quickly as possible with adequate funding?
fdadriano88@gmail.com
