Tito G’s SONA: How to build the nation

I have mercifully forgotten the name of a past Secretary of Foreign Affairs who once declared that if rape is imminent, it is best that one should relax and enjoy it. But the admonition came to mind when I saw newly named Secretary of Foreign Affairs Blas Ople on television declaring to all that he is unabashedly pro American.

If it were Bobby Romulo or anyone of his type who said it, I wouldn’t be half as disconcerted. What else can anyone expect! But from the mouth of Blas Ople (the sound byte I saw), it sounds eerily cynical, something like what an aging, over made-up madam in the best little whorehouse in Pasay would have said. It probably is a realistic appraisal of the state of world politics today. But our principal diplomat must not give up the fight, even before he enters the ring.

All of a sudden I felt a great amount of sadness that we no longer have Vice President Tito Guingona to carry on our fight. There is, as you know, need for a continuing struggle to shame the developed world into accepting more responsibility for fighting world poverty and instituting greater fairness in the relationship between the north and the south. You get the feeling that it is a losing battle. Indeed, we will certainly continue getting gang raped by the G-7, but they will have to drag us kicking and screaming. I imagine there is no way rape can be enjoyed by the victims.

Sayang. Tito G in his capacity as our foreign secretary, has started to attract attention and respect for precisely, presenting the perspective not just of our country but of the developing world. I remember reporting in this column how he was identified and quoted in a Washington Post report not long ago for doing just that at a world food conference in Rome. Tito G is a Filipino, we Filipinos can be proud of.

Ironically, on the same day Mr. Ople was defiantly announcing his canine subservience to America, the former foreign secretary delivered what might have been his version of the SONA. It was covered by the evening news but the only question the clueless television news reporters asked of him was his opinion of Mr. Ople’s assumption of his former job. It was an idiotic question to ask, but one gets used to the fact that today’s broadcast reporters are incapable of asking sensible questions on policy issues. They found nothing worthwhile to ask about Tito’s speech.

In fact, the speech of Tito G is one of the more substantial speeches I have come across from a senior government official in a long time. Mr. Ople and even his new boss, Ate Glo should read it if only to get a better perspective of what ails us, and how we should go about doing something about our problems. It was even uncharacteristic of Tito G who is prone to deliver long sophomoric speeches like the one he did before MOPC on the night Malacañang announced but took back his supposed resignation.

This time, Tito G focused on the economy, pointing out that poverty alleviation is our number one concern. Nothing new with that, but he analyzed why we have failed to get anywhere on it. "What is the policy to eradicate?" he asked. "Foreign investments, Exports, Free trade... Why do we have poverty in the face of foreign investments? Why do we struggle with trade imbalances and deficits in the wake of our push for more exports? Why are we losing the competition in the looming fight in a supposed free trade?"

Part of the answer lies in the reality of a world economic playing field that is tilted in favor of the rich countries. This brings me to the latest book of Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, Globalization and its Discontents. Mr. Stiglitz observed that "the way globalization has been managed, including the international trade agreements... and the policies that have been imposed on developing countries in the process of globalization need to be radically rethought."

Yet, Stiglitz concedes that "globalization– the removal of barriers to free trade and the closer integration of national economies – can be a force for good and that it has the potential to enrich everyone in the world, particularly the poor." The job of the foreign secretary of a country like the Philippines in this context, is not to sit back and prepare to enjoy being ravished, but to fight and marshal world public opinion to ensure that the developed world behaves to make the positive potentials of globalization a reality.

On their own, America, Europe, Japan and soon China cannot be trusted to behave in a way that will ensure fairness with the rest of humanity. They have to be shamed by a strong sense of moral outrage from world public opinion or their peace and security threatened as in the events related to 9/11. Even then, it still seems that they don’t get it. The lack of progress following the agreement at Doha demonstrates that. Ask Mar Roxas. Or the rock star Bono. Or the economist Stiglitz.

"The critics of globalization accuse Western countries of hypocrisy, and the critics are right," Stiglitz observed. "The Western countries have pushed poor countries to eliminate trade barriers, but kept up their own barriers, preventing developing countries from exporting their agricultural products and so depriving them of desperately needed export income."

"The United States was, of course, one of the prime culprits," Stiglitz declared, "and this is an issue I feel strongly about... It not only hurt the developing countries; it also cost Americans, both as consumers, in the higher prices they paid and as taxpayers, to finance the huge subsidies, billions of dollars."

That’s precisely the point raised by Tito G in his SONA, the need for a level playing field before globalization can have a discernible positive impact on us. Tito G asks: "What is our strategy to win the battle for special and differential treatment? Should we align ourselves with leaders like India? Speak in every forum, lobby amongst every friend – specially the rich developed nations?"

Tito G asserts that we must fight for it and not just accept the say so of conventional thought "which will consign us to become service employees in the economy, servants in our own land." It is clear that the job of being chief diplomat for the Filipino people involves a lot of speaking up against conventional wisdom, including the one about America getting pretty much what it wants because it is the only remaining superpower left. How effective can Mr. Ople be if at the start, he declares himself subservient to America?

Being a GRO (for Guest Relations Ople) in the family of nations, is certainly not the way to achieve respect and gain greater equality among nations. With Tito G being replaced by Mr. Ople as the representative of the Filipino nation abroad, paano na tayo? Kanto boys have one word to describe what’s in store for us. But it’s not printable.

Stiglitz

Incidentally, everyone who deals with the IMF and the World Bank should be required to read the latest book of Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. Entitled Globalization and its Discontents, it details an insider’s view of how the Washington DC-based bureaucracies play around with our lives with heartless and mindless abandon. It is neo-colonialism, plain and simple. It is guaranteed to get you real mad, too, unless you have resigned yourself to being screwed.

It didn’t get a positive review from The Economist, but then again, the London-based reviewer couldn’t possibly appreciate the devastating impact of the IMF’s imperial attitude towards its client-states. I got my copy from a bookstore at The Podium in Ortigas. I can’t remember the bookstore’s name but it’s on the first floor. It reminds me of the cozy atmosphere of the old Erehwon bookshop in Padre Faura. The titles are fresher than Powerbooks. And the books are priced somewhat more reasonably than Page One. But no credit cards. I had to pay cash.

Choices

Here’s Dr. Ernie E.

The scene is a psychiatrist’s office. A patient is saying, "Doc you gotta help me. I’m 38 years old and I still wet my bed."

The psychiatrist said, "My good man, that is merely an acting out of a retarded ego development and a rejection of adult responsibilities. We can stop you from wetting your bed in two ways. The first is psychoanalysis; five visits a week, $50 a visit."

The guy says, "What’s the second way?"

The doctor replies, "Rubber shorts, $2 a pair.

(Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected])