Reply to Mr. Lee Kuan Yew - FROM A DISTANCE by Carmen N. Pedrosa

Democracy vs. authori-tarianism. There are two ways to view Lee Kuan Yew’s off-the-cuff criticism of EDSA 2. We can view it positively. Coming from Asia’s most respected statesman, his acerbic comment gives it welcome importance. The venerable Lee Kuan Yew would never understand people power anyway, being the guardian of authoritarian government. He belongs to that school of thought which subscribes to authority as the sole arbiter of what is good for a country. It will be recalled that this debate goes back to EDSA 1 and built up in the Ramos years with the two leaders representing the differing political tendencies in the region: Mr. Lee Kuan Yew representing the authoritarian model and Mr. Ramos propounding the more difficult economic success through the democratic route. To my mind, there may be no point for debate at all since authoritarianism might suit Singaporeans but Filipinos can only thrive in an open environment. Unfortunately for Mr. Ramos, the economic benefits of going through the democratic route take much longer than the six-year single term allowed by the 1987 Constitution, especially if the succeeding government has no notion of continuity. The ousted former President Estrada had neither the temperament nor the skills to see the country through the Asian economic crunch.

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How must a man live? The more important point as far as the two political philosophies concerned is how these answer the question on how a man must live. If a person believes that his destiny is best fulfilled in meeting his material needs, then he would be happier in organized and disciplined Singapore. But if a person is suffocated by the constraints of living in an authoritarian society like Singapore, he may be happier in the Philippines. I know that this is a simplistic way of putting it but this is the bottomline for comparing the two ways a country can be run as represented by the two countries. But I would take issue with the tactfulness of Mr. Lee. For someone with so little faith in free and popular politics, he cannot be expected to praise EDSA 2.

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What would Singaporeans have done if they had Erap for President? Perhaps the question we should ask Mr. Lee is what recourse Singaporeans have if they had Mr. Estrada as their permanent prime minister. In assessing EDSA 2, Mr. Lee also selected his facts, carefully omitting that Filipinos went through great lengths to go by the constitutional procedure for ousting a president. They went through the impeachment process but when they realized that officialdom itself or what Mr. Lee would call the governing authority would fail them, then they took up the only option available – people power, which is theirs by right as sovereign citizens in a genuine republic. I do not agree that EDSA 2 was unconstitutional. On the contrary, it is most constitutional because it recognizes that ultimately, citizens are sovereign. Readers might tire my saying this but as sovereign citizens and authors of the Constitution, the first responsibility of Filipinos is to make it work. The Philippines is superior to Singapore in this sense. If officialdom or the authorities themselves defy the constitutional process to oust a leader through impeachment, the people of the Philippines are not powerless. That is the lesson that EDSA 2 sends to the world. I doubt if that could happen in Singapore.

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Karl Popper on democracy. I finally got a copy of Karl Popper’s article on Democracy published in The Economist in 1988. It might be useful to quote directly from the article to amplify on our reply to Lee Kuan Yew. Popper says, "The Athenians were right: decisions arrived at democratically, and even the powers conveyed upon a government by a democratic vote, may be wrong. (Such as what happened in the Philippines with the election of Erap as president). It is hard, if not impossible, to construct a constitution that safeguards against mistakes." This is one of the strongest reasons for founding the idea of democracy upon the practical principle of avoiding tyranny rather than upon a divine, or a morally legitimate, right of the people to rule. The article is full of Popper’s wise and unorthodox views on democracy. For the moment let the above quotation suffice apropos Mr. Lee’s criticisms.

Random Notes: Billy Esposo of COPA bewails that their group is accused of sourgraping because members of their group have been left out of top appointments in GMA’s cabinet. He says they were in fact invited to be part of the selection committee but they declined because they wanted GMA to have a free hand. . . Also from Billy is a note about Canola oil. . . Canola is not the name of a natural plant but is made-up word, from the words "Canada" and "oil". Canola is a generally engineered plant developed in Canada from the Rapeseed Plant, which is part of the mustard family of plants. According to AgriAlternatives, The Online Innovation, and Technology Magazine for Farmers, "By nature, these rapeseed oils, which have long been used to produce oils for industrial purposes are toxic to humans and other animals . . . I did not make it to the signing of the Solid Waste Management Bill yesterday morning at Malacañang. It is the first law to be signed by President Macapagal-Arroyo. The bill sets guidelines and policies of waste management. This is the time to remind the public that most of the work that went into the making of this law came from private sector initiative both NGOs, and people like Narda Camacho, Odette Alcantara, Robert Guevara, etc. Those who are privy to information know that it was government who had made it so difficult to find solutions to the waste problem. For one thing, Odette A. reminded me, why do they keep saying "waste." There is no such thing as "waste." Indeed environmentalists will tell you that it is possible to have zero waste if we have a correct appreciation of it. Government officials should stop thinking that garbage is about collection and landfill. That is finished. Garbage is about segregation at source, at collection and at the destination. Once we keep that firmly in mind, we will not go around looking for landfills – Semirara, San Mateo or anywhere else. What we will have from home to destinations are clean scrap paper, etc. in the form of recyclables, discarded food etc. as compostibles and plastics, styrofoam etc. as residuals.

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