By MARLEN V. RONQUILLO
On the day that the Philippines, by the reckoning of the World Economic Forum (WEF), leaped ten places in the global competitiveness rankings (from 75th to 65th), there was a general feeling of giddiness on the part of the political and the economic elite.
Guillermo Luz, chairman of the National Competitiveness Council, was ecstatic and triumphant, and told a news conference that he expects the Philippines to be on the upper one third of the countries ranked by the WEF in 2016. In 11 out of the 12 categories benchmarked by the WEF, the Philippines registered improvements, topped by the major gains on the “ institution” category. This means that government institutions improved by leaps and bounds under the Aquino watch.
On the same day the big leap in the global competitiveness rankings was announced, the World Bank issued a routine statement on the appointment of a new chief economist for the institution—Kaushik Basu, a Cornell University-based economist. Basu used to advise India’s finance minister on economic matters. Basu, the first Indian named to that prestigious job, succeeds Justin Yifu Lin, a Chinese. The World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim, is himself a Korean-American.
India may not be on the throes of triumphalism because of Basu’s appointment as WB chief economist. That piece of news may even be buried near the obit pages of Indian newspapers. It perhaps created a ripple in the professional and intellectual community but that was the only thing there was to it. But from my own parochial perspective, I would gladly exchange the big jump in the competitiveness ranking for the appointment of a Filipino economist to that plum WB job.
Not that the WEF nod to the stepped-up efforts to improve governance, macroeconomics, infra etc. are unimportant. They are important and we are truly proud of these achievements. But the epic stories in a nation’s life are told mostly through exemplary human lives. And most would prefer the powerful narrative of Basu’s appointment as chief economist of the World Bank to the hard-to-quantify story of the verdict from the Davos-centric group.
Here was the reaction of WB President Kim to Basu’s appointment. “Kaushik brings firsthand experience from a developing country and will be a terrific asset to the institution.” When will we ever hear such paean given to a Filipino economist?
The truth is this: Give us ten Basus and we can rock the world.
Our failure to turn out the likes of Basu is a national embarrassment. We are 12th on the list of the world’s most populous countries with a population of over 92 million as of the May 2010 census. For that prodigious procreation rate, we are a zero contributor to the intellectual enrichment of the world.
Yes we have a world-class boxer, we have world-class designers of bags and apparel, we have world-class industrial designers and we have world-class entertainers and we have super models. And we also have been turning out world-class chefs. That seems to be all.
We have no Filipinos leading global institutions, Wall Street financial giants, Fortune 500 companies. We have no first-rate thinkers on the global discussion forums. We are close to 100 million and we can’t contribute an intellectual mover and shaker to the world. We have no scientists and hard-science types who won Nobel prizes. Our international literary types are one-book wonders.
Can’t we get out of the doormat place in the categories that require the greatness of the cerebellum?
The failure to compete on the brain power categories was and still is mostly driven by economic issues. We need income now now now and what is a better way of earning money than training chefs, seamen, mechanics, engineers, artisans and nurses and sending them out into the world.
Or filling up the insatiable demand for Filipino merchant marine officers and ratings. And domestic helpers.
Training an elite cadre of hard-core science types, hard-core engineering types and hard-core finance types was missed in the rush to generate income the quickie way.
India turned out the likes of Basu and the likes of Vikram Pandit and Indra Nooyi because it did the reverse.
Jawaharlal Nehru, an unrepentant socialist, mobilized the scarce resources of post-colonial India to build a network of engineering and management schools for India’s brightest and most dedicated young men and women.
Study well, aim high and dream big. The Nehru-conceived university network has been serving as a training ground for masters of the universe and captains of Silicon Valley. And helmsmen of the thriving technology centers spread out from Mumbai to Bangalore.
It is routine for Indian undergraduates to score high on the GMAT or the GRE to gain entry into the elite business and engineering universities of the US, score their H1-B visa during the one-year period allowed for job search, then make big plans from there.
Meanwhile, we are just too pleased to have this niche: suppliers of F and B staffers and baristas to the world.
mvronq@yahoo.com
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