Challenge to leadership

As one of the activities at the University of the Philippines in celebration of its 100th year as an educational institution, Washington SyCip was invited to give a speech. Not having graduated from UP, he had the advantage of an outsider looking in, a position that allowed him to raise a number of issues that begged some serious thinking and answers from the current academe’s administration, faculty, students and alumni members.

We are reprinting excerpts of SyCip’s speech as a gentle reminder of the challenge that the respected businessman leader posed that day. This is relevant even to those who did not graduate from UP but today exert some influence in shaping our nation’s future. Here goes:

On declining stature

“Over 50 years ago, we were told that with our advantages of being a Christian nation and a democracy, we will be, next to Japan, the leading nation in East Asia.

“Today we find ourselves in a steadily declining position regardless of what measure we go by: poverty index, per capita spending on education, crime rate, corruption ranking, peace and order, rural health, the list goes on.

On population

“When we had Rafael Salas, a brilliant graduate of UP in 1969, fresh from managing the transformation of chronic shortage into an astounding Philippine rice sufficiency breakthrough, Salas accepted a United Nations offer to head a fledgling fund. He believed at the UN there would be a possibility of making a contribution to solving what he thought was becoming one of the world’s major problems – population.

“In 1984, 30 years after he had graduated from this University, he returned here to receive an honorary doctor of laws degree from his alma mater. As Salas thanked the University for the honor conferred on him, he also took leave by asking the question: What can the scholars of this university do to solve the problems of the Philippines when it will be a country of 70 million people?

“His widow, Carmelita R. Salas, the highly respected Philippine Ambassador to the Czech Republic, speaking at the World Population Day Forum in Manila this last July, pointed to this very same concern.

“Today, she said, the Philippines is a country of 89 million, and in 2030 will be close to 140 million. Again, Rafael would have asked the scholars of this university the same question today.

“I ask: What would be their answer?

On lost years

“Post EDSA I, in February of 1987, when freedom in the Philippines had been won with what the world would know as ‘People Power,’ Salas was keynote speaker at the district meeting of Rotary Clubs in Manila. In a speech that one Rotarian referred to as the best SONA he had ever heard, Rafael spoke on ‘Managing the Aftermath.’ Let me read to you part of what he said:

“’But this freedom cannot be fully exercised unless there is order. Governments are instituted to insure peace, stability and continuity; to enable the citizens to plan their future and insure the survival and growth of their children. The resumption of hostilities with the NPA and the constant threat of rebellion in Mindanao and a very high incidence of crime are pointers of the lack of order I speak of. Insecurity stifles productivity. No long-term investment and high productivity can be encouraged when businessmen feel uncertain and insecure. The administration has exerted a sincere effort to resolve these problems. But time presses. Order must prevail. A free society cannot be mobilized for development unless there is feeling of safety and confidence in the future.’

“The same speech would have been relevant post EDSA II.

“How prophetic and unfortunate that things have not changed the past 20 years!

“But ‘why’ we must ask ourselves.

On poverty and declining education standards

“We tend to unfairly blame every current administration for our problems. But can’t we see that the steady decline of education standards is the cumulative effect of the neglect of many administrations and the unwillingness to adopt long term solutions to problems that cannot be solved by a ribbon cutting event!

“We praise these institutions of learning but as a nation we seem to accept the scandalously high national dropout rates of students in basic education. The figures are worse in Moslem areas and in poor communities.

“Has UP studied how neighboring countries have dropped poverty levels?

“The Asian Development Bank just released a report pointing out that the Philippines and India, who claim to be democracies, lag behind East Asian countries in reducing poverty. China and Vietnam, both authoritarian states, are the two countries that have rapidly reduced poverty. Are there lessons to be learned here?

“Why have Singapore and Thailand developed hospitals for ‘medical tourism’ while we send our excellent doctors and nurses to developed countries? Should we not advocate some system where destination countries compensate us for training these professionals?

On agriculture and food production

 “With the Catholic Church’s campaign against a sound government population policy, which in turn hampers the country’s capacity for addressing its population growth rate, perhaps UP’s contribution to increasing rice production, can prevent a recurrence of the problem that we had this year!

“Since agriculture is still the most important part of our economy, shouldn’t UP then, in cooperation with successful farmers, put particular focus on the study and implementation of efficient food production to bring food costs down?

On the price of leadership

“Maybe some of the questions I have raised may be expecting too much from an educational institution, with limited funds, to solve all of our national problems. But it is the price of leadership.

“It is my profound hope that against all challenges, this great university, with an inspired administration, a strong faculty and an alumni conscious of its responsibility to the nation, can, together with the Secretary of Education, take the lead in the implementation of major reforms in our public schools, without which poverty reduction will be difficult. And without which, equal opportunity for all its citizens to benefit from economic growth will not be attainable.

 “UP alumni closely identify the oblation with their alma mater. But how many of them really know that when the sculptor Tolentino created this figure of a young man whose arms are outstretched in a gesture of sacrifice to his country and humanity, the artist also placed at its feet a cluster of katakalanta leaves, a plant that rapidly multiplies to symbolize, as Tolentino tells us the ‘undying stream of heroism in the Filipino race.’

“As this university celebrates its hundredth anniversary I ask a final question: Can we expect from U.P.’s leadership this heroism the country begs for?”

Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 25th Floor, 139 Corporate Center, Valero Street, Salcedo Village, 1227 Makati City. Or e-mail me at [email protected]. For a compilation of previous articles, visit www.BizlinksPhilippines.net.