Shanghai’s success should inspire us, not discourage us

It’s disheartening to come home to the same ridiculous quarrels. The Opposition is yelling that GMA will soon declare martial law and crack down on them and all dissenters. The Palace is protesting, "No way."

The only totalitarian thing I see is the fact that National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales is still under Senate "arrest" with the twist being that Senator Joker Arroyo is angrily defending before the Supreme Court the Senate’s "right" to hold Gonzales in contempt and in detention unless he rats on his "donors" in the stupid Venable LLP "lobbying" contract.

How the world turns. Joker was our lawyer – meaning he represented us "martial law" jailbirds, namely Ninoy Aquino, this writer, Nap Rama, Pepe Diokno, Monching Mitra, Chino Roces, Teddy Locsin Sr., Soc Rodrigo, etc., in the Supreme Court in our demand to be released from military prison under habeas corpus. From libertarian to custodian in just a few decades. Gee whiz. It’s not true as the adage goes that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Rather, power corrupts and is absolutely delightful. Senatus sic intellegit, as the great Roman Senator of old, Marcus Tullius Cicero intoned in his Third Catilinarian Oration.

For his fiery tongue which told the painful truth, when his enemies finally caught up with Cicero, they slew him, then cut out his tongue and nailed it to the wall. Or did they cut out his tongue before killing him? In any event, that’s where too much tongue-wagging could get a man – and there’s a great of that going on right now.

It’s discouraging to see the UP Law Center, on top of the Senate investigation, filing a case in the Supreme Court to stop the Chinese-sponsored NorthRail project. It’s clear that the Senate inquiry was sparked by Senate President Franklin Drilon. Now one of the arguments is, aside from polluting the environment by its trains using diesel fuel, that the $395.22 million loan will bloat our country’s debt now at $55.4 billion, which Drilon’s Chief of Staff, Gov. Antonio Gallardo insists and will require our government to put up a counterpart fund of $107.82 million. But, of course: You can’t build a railroad without spending money and if some country or creditor is willing to lend money to this disputatious, bankrupt nation, risking Senate inquiry and insult, or being harried in court for its pains, by golly, let’s say "thank you" instead of thumbing our noses at them.

The bottom line is that our people NEED a railway line to the North, and lawyers and politicians cannot build it, only engineers, railway technicians, and somebody putting up the budget for it. As for the 30,000 squatters who’ll be displaced by the railway line, the government is working to relocate them with proper housing support. This can’t be done in a day – but, if they block the way, it will never be done, and perhaps 30 million Filipinos will be deprived of good, safe transportation, and access to school, workplace, and market.

The public welfare, even politicians have to know, requires the greatest good for the greatest number.

Do you know why Shanghai has such wide boulevards, leafy parks, and blocks of towering skyscrapers which threaten in architectural beauty, modernity, and efficiency to eclipse New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and every city in Europe, including London and Paris? And why the expressway to and from Pudong International Airport (PVG) some 30 km away is so smooth and lined with orchards and pastoral greenery – giving the millions of arriving tourists and businessmen the impression that they’ve landed in a land of prosperity, neatness, progress and forward movement?

The answer is that when the Chinese government says that things must be done, these must be done. If the government tells 60,000 families to move out in two days, they have to move out in two days, because the bulldozers are coming. That’s what happened when they built a huge industrial park, with a beautiful green park and an artificial lake in the middle, for Shanghai’s hosting the coming World Trade Exposition.

If you’ve ever admired the fact that Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the Gate of Heavenly Peace, in front of the Forbidden City is so immense and impressive, it’s not generally known that before the Communist takeover in 1949 this wasn’t so. In order to provide a square for parades and ceremonies, and emphasize the grandeur of its writ, the central government leveled houses, mansions, even a smaller palace or two, to create that wide sweep – bordered today by Kentucky Fried Chicken.

In short, in the People’s Republic of China, the government (for that read the Communist Party of China), tells the people what is good for them – and this time it’s working pretty well. China’s economy is booming at 9.5 percent growth per year, its clout increasing by leaps and bounds.

China, thanks to aggressive economic reforms, is seeded in a report issued by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to become the world’s biggest exporter and the fourth largest economy in the planet by the Year 2010. This report comes from the European Union, not the Beijing propaganda machine, mind you.

You can see how China’s engine of progress is accelerating. When I first visited Shanghai in 1964, heading a delegation of Filipino journalists (travel to "Red China" was prohibited at that time by the Philippine government, so our passports were afterwards confiscated), it wasn’t such a great shucks. The city still had the attractive Bund, the embankment on the Huangpo river built by the occupying Western powers, but the Shanghainese looked all alike – men and women dressed in dark blue, scruffy Mao jackets, with not a trace of lipstick on the girls’ lips as they strove to look as flat-chested as the males.

Today, Shanghai sparkles. The Bund throbs with life, the harbor teems with ships from all over the world. Across the river, was Pudong.

In the old days – it was entirely flat, only fields, mudflats and a few hovels. In Pudong (which means "East of the Huangpo") today as I’ve earlier written, they’ve erected ten Makati’s in just five years. Soaring skyscrapers and high-rises galore. The "world’s highest bar" is called Cloud 9 at the top of the Jin Mao Tower (1,381 feet high) – 88 floors, containing, from the 54th floor upwards the magnificent atrium of the Grand Hyatt Hotel. On the 87th floor observation deck they’re even exhibiting the huge basketball shoes of the NBA star, Yao Ming, China’s foremost sports "export" – they must be a gigantic Size 12 or more. The emphasis is: Big is better. They think big, and do big.

In contrast, in our petty little Republic of insult, paranoia and endless debate, we talk, talk, talk and get nothing done. If this is democracy, then we might have to try something else. Worst of all is that we don’t have the rule of law, but the rule of lawyers. We didn’t get this from the "first" democracy of Athens, we got this from the United States. In the US, sad to say, doctors have been getting so many malpractice suits in court that they may give up practicing medicine.

Remember those bumper-stickers in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco? They used to read: "If you have a headache, consult your lawyer." Doctors, in time, may be too afraid to tell you what to do to cure your headache – or even to take an aspirin.

Can lawyers build our railroad? Clean up our city? Make EDSA look good? Smooth out the bumps? Get us going to progress? Shanghai hired every expert in the world, and didn’t bother about getting uppity about "sovereignty" or pride. The Jin Mao Tower was designed by Adrian Smith. His name doesn’t sound Chinese, does it? But the world gawks in wonder and admiration at Shanghai’s and Pudong’s Great Leap Forward. There’s the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, and the other marvelous structures clawing for the sky in an orgy of fantasy architecture.

Maoism, of course, was never like this. But the world marches on – while we are still mired in dissension, political foolishness, spy nonsense, endless power-brokering and media debate.

The squatter, after all, may be the true symbol of the frustrated Filipino. We just squat: on every problem. And refuse to budge.

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On our last night, our "Tuesday" Club was hosted to a banquet by the editors of Wen Hui, the largest newspaper group in Shanghai and that corner of China.

It’s not difficult to realize that the daily newspaper, Wen Hui is the second biggest daily in China, next to – but, admittedly, far behind the official newspaper, The People’s Daily in Beijing, the capital.

Wen Hui has a circulation of 800,000 daily. (When it was a monopoly, it had 1.2 million, but still dominates from its 43-storey building). Imagine that: a newspaper group with a high-rise headquarters occupied by its staffers, and other publications like its English-language newspaper, the Shanghai Daily which has a circulation of 100,000 – bigger than most of our own daily newspapers here. (Except The STAR, the Inquirer and The Bulletin).

In short, Wen Hui’s 250 journalists are located not just in Shanghai but all over China, and in the world’s major capitals. In Manila, its Bureau Chief Xiaoyang Xia, a member of our Tuesday Club, helped arrange our Shanghai visit. (Xiaoyang was formerly posted in Washington DC, and later in New York City to cover the United Nations).

The dinner was tendered in the 43rd floor formal ballroom and dining room (can you beat that – a newspaper with a Penthouse floor to boot). Our host was the Editor-in-Chief Mr. He Jian Hua whose card also carries the title of "Senior Reporter." Also with us was the Foreign News Editor and Director, Lu Baokang, whom I had met when they had a dinner for me in another dining room last year.

It was a grand affair, and our members loved it.

Let me acknowledge another of our friends who hosted us in Shanghai – for one with a lavish dinner in the Dynasty, one of a chain of five restaurants, the best in the metropolis. The farewell dinner he tendered, included a chorale of 50 singers. He requested not to be mentioned, but I must defy him enough to say that we ought to be proud as a nation of our Filipino-Chinese entrepreneur Carlos Chan, who runs 10 "Oishi" factories in China, one in Vietnam, one in Thailand, and one, soon to be launched, in Indonesia.

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THE ROVING EYE . . . It was confirmed to me by Jaime L. Bautista, President and CEO of Philippine Airlines before I left Manila that PAL will be operating flights three times a week to Beijing, i.e. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (MWF). The aircraft used will be Airbus A-320’s, leaving Manila 7:30 p.m. and reaching Beijing at 11:50 a.m. daily, returning at 1 p.m. to reach Manila at 4 p.m. The Inaugural Flight is scheduled for November 11th, a Friday. It is not only fully booked, but overbooked. (Businessmen and other curiosity-seekers are offering every booked passenger P3,000 to give up his or her seat). Make it dollars or euros, and I know somebody will accept this "incentive." As for me, PAL’s Chairman Lucio Tan personally saw me to invite me to the Inaugural Flight. I guess it is, indeed, overbooked. When my secretary checked, my name wasn’t on the Manifest. It had either disappeared, or it never was there. Oh well. You can’t have everything.