Ethics, peace, harmony, etc.

I found it quite ironic that while attending an academic conference on “Future Education: International Conversation” at the Singapore Management University from Nov. 2 to 4, it came to my attention that a summit had been scheduled in Manila almost on the same days, ostensibly to present the new administration’s policies and programs for education.

I had listened intently as philosophy professor Brian Mooney of Charles Darwin University in Australia, where he heads the School of Creative Arts and Humanities, and Vincent Anandraj, a consultant for Stonyhurst College and editor of a recent book on leadership, Lasallian Pathfinders, led the session on Ethics on the second day.

“When we think of justice, we think of it as external,” Prof. Mooney had said. He cited St. Thomas Aquinas’ consideration of the virtue of pietas (piety, the social context) as “a set of feelings and dispositions” such as awe, or veneration, while avoiding the term “obedience.”

For Aristotle, justice was a “state of the soul,” while Socrates argued that ethical conduct was “like tuning an instrument.” It was either in tune or not in tune. For his part, Plato emphasized the “impersonality inherent in justice, in lieu of impartiality in the claims people make.” The impersonal reverses the process rather than becomes the generator of claims. I’m not sure now how correct my notes are for that last statement.

What I scribbled down as quotes from Mr. Anandraj included the following: “Between you and your lunch is an ethical dilemma.” He took up seven points of interest re education, among these “Future life for our students” and “Taking the moral pulse,” while another raised the question: “Are schools still the best delivery mechanism?” He stressed that there’s “still a great need for schools to include Ethics in their curriculum,” that it remained “the teachers’ great moral duty to include discussions on ethical issues.”

He then screened a video for a glimpse of the future, of classrooms that relied on photovoltaic and other varieties of surface display glass serving as the boards and tables, of a Future World 2050 where no teacher stood in front of students but had them engage as groups with their specialty tablets of glass, or sharing a work-surface display glass, utilizing glass optical fiber and 3-D optimized glass components. Learning outdoors in digitally designed parks, students tap all-weather surface glass that produces virtual dinosaurs, etc.

All that glass: it’s always greener on the other side of space and time. To think that back home, a labor court was still settling the issue of improper dismissal of teachers due to the K-to-12 transition. No doubt this wasn’t discussed in our own Education summit; neither was Ethics, I’m sure.

What a world away it was, listening to education experts discuss the future, including the use of robot teachers (already tried out in Japan and South Korea). And dwell on the ultimate question: “Who owns learning?”

The two dozen participants included several Filipinos, from award-winning playwright Francis Tanglao-Aguas, convening director of the Asian American Studies Research Initiative at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, USA, to a contingent from Colegio de San Juan de Letran headed by Education dean Fr. Orlando Aceron, O.P. and vice president for Academic Affairs Cristina Castro-Cabral, with Graduate School dean Eunice Mareth Areola and Asst. Prof. Randy Castillo, who helped develop Letran as the first Microsoft Academy in the Philippines in 2003.

The “International Conversation” was hosted by Dr. Kirpal Singh, director of the Wee Kim Centre, SMU. As a sidelight, this old buddy of mine also allowed me to launch my third novel, The Music Child & The Mahjong Queen, with the conference invitees and writer-friends from Singapore in attendance.

The special guest of honor was our former senator, Dr. Leticia Ramos Shahani, who would then cap the academic and literary activities with her 2nd Annual Ikeda Peace and Harmony Lecture titled “Re-Thinking ASEAN: The Problems and Prospects for Regional Peace,” delivered at the fully-packed Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium on Nov. 4.

Welcomed and introduced by SMU president Arnoud de Meyer, Dr. Shahani gave a 45-minute lecture that outlined ASEAN’s history, from the “preliminary attempts at regionalism among some ASEAN members,” starting with “the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA) which was formed in 1961 and survived until 1967, composed of the former federation of Malaya, the Philippines and Thailand.” There was also the shorter-lived Maphilindo (Malaya, Philippines and Indonesia) in 1963, before ASEAN was founded by the original five member-states in 1967.

Dr. Shahani recalled how “the Malay principles of ‘Mushawarah’ (consultation) and ‘Mufakat’ (consensus) are deeply embedded in the foundations of ASEAN.”

(From left, front row) Noelle de Jesus, Philippine Ambassador to Singapore Antonio Morales, Dr. Leticia Ramos Shahani, Lila Shahani and Joy Albert, with this writer and the consular staff standing at the back, at the Ambassador’s residence, post-dinner

We lack the space here to cite invaluable points she raised, while revisiting the above-mentioned principles. Of course the South China Sea dispute figured much in her lecture, as well as questions on the continuing validity of “the ASEAN way” of consensus. But all we can do is quote her concluding passage:

“There is every reason to hope that the ASEAN of the future, along with its major partners, can successfully combine the avoidance of confrontation or undue interference in the domestic affairs of other nations by adhering to the rules of international law in an increasingly globalized and crowded world. Thus, we shall combine the best features of a rules-based, modern Southeast Asia which retains the best practices of our cultures as well as the guarantees of freedom and democratic dialogue, with our neighbors, and with the rest of the world.

“I want to end this lecture on a personal note. I was born in 1929 in the capital town of Lingayen, Pangasinan, a town right smack by the West Philippine Sea. As a five-year-old child, I was already aware that our local fishermen would go to fish in the nearby bountiful waters of Bajo de Masinloc, or Scarborough Shoal.

“Millions of Filipino households have depended on the sea for their survival, the Philippines being a quintessential archipelago and having the 7th longest coastline in the world. But my country does not have — is unlikely to have for a long time to come — the budgetary means to guard and protect this long, variously indented coastline.

When I reflect on the geopolitical implications of the conflict over the South China Sea islands, I cannot help but ask: what will happen to the sea of my childhood, the sea on whose beaches I played and waters I swam, where crabs were harvested to be turned into tasty delicacies after hours of picking through their fat, eaten with steamed rice and vegetables? Will these waters still be hospitable to the games and memories of not only Filipino but all ASEAN children? Will the seas continue to serve as a dependable family doctor for colds and painful insect bites or will they become militarized zones of conflict, colonized and contested for years to come? Will ASEAN be able to do something to lessen this possibility, or will it simply allow the great powers to decide the fate of these waters and the coasts of several of our ASEAN Member-States?

The open forum that followed featured attempts to elicit provocative statements on the matter, but as an observer noted, “She was elusive but firm in her diplomacy.” After all, as she quipped rather impishly, our Ambassador to Singapore, His Excellency Antonio Morales, was present in the audience.

Ambassador Morales hosted us to a lovely dinner on that last night, where we were joined by Singapore-based fiction writer Noelle de Jesus. Also present were Sen. Shahani’s accomplished daughter Lila, recently appointed as Secretary General of the Philippine National Commission to UNESCO, and her friend of old, Joy Albert, the daughter of former DFA Secretary Delia Domingo. Reminiscences of their times together in foreign countries where their mothers had served delighted the rest of us around the dinner table.   

I had time the next morning to meet up with fellow Philippine Star columnist Butch Dalisay, who was covering the Singapore Writers Festival. And to take in a session on writing and the diaspora that had Singapore-based poet Eric Valles moderating a panel composed of Jon Gresham, Filipino fiction writer and diplomat (now assigned in Germany) Catherine Anne Torres, and old friend Robin Hemley.

In three days in Singapore, I had my fill of enthralling futurism, philosophy, history, literature, fine cuisine and camaraderie. Of the last, throw in a Heineken beer session with artist-friends Dengcoy Miel and Orland Punzalan, as well as an hour’s tasting, courtesy of poet Alvin Pang, of cask-strength single malt whisky from Lark Distillery of Tasmania. Ah, harmony.