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THE
Western style of government is no longer working for the
Philippines, after most of the Southeast Asian nations
have overtaken the country in the past years, and
authorities should start thinking of paring some of the
democratic powers of the people in exchange of boosting
the economy.
“Do we
have an overdose of democracy?” asked Washington Sycip,
founder of the country’s top accounting firm Sycip
Gorres Velayo and Co., in his lecture at the University
of the East on Wednesday.
Sycip
compared the
Philippines,
once a promising nation among the others in the region
during the 1960s to the 1970s and next only to Japan,
with other countries such as Taiwan, South Korea,
Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. All of these countries
did not embrace the Western style of government and did
the opposite such as martial law in
Taiwan,
or authoritarianism such as in Singapore.
“We
should have an Asian model of democracy,” he said at the
jampacked UE Theater.
“Why are
we not moving as fast as our neighbors when we were
ahead before?”
Although
he was cut short of advising that the government should
do away with the elections as this will curtail the
rights of the people to vote, Sycip said legislators
should be stripped off the powers concerning the
economic matters of the country.
This
would mean the rise of the technocrats, who should be
insulated from the politicians. These select people will
run the country’s economy and will have the necessary
powers to immediately effect change or react in cases of
emergency, such as the recent move of the US Federal
Reserve to cut its interest rates by three quarters of a
percentage point.
Sycip,
87, said these technocrats should be given powers like
those of the Bangko Sentral’s, that can either raise or
ease interest rates immediately without getting the nod
of Congress or consulting the President.
He said
with this type of system, the technocrats can even go
against the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church,
especially on family planning, in order to reduce the
country’s population of close to 90 million.
The
Church only endorses natural family planning method such
as the rhythm method, and frowns upon other artificial
methods such as the use of condom.
“The
government is afraid of the Church and do not teach
family planning in the countryside because the
politicians know that when election comes, they will not
win there,” he said.
He
listed overpopulation, which was partly caused by the
Church, and corruption in the government as the two
major problems of the country today that cripples the
economy.
Sycip,
who was one of the advisers of the Department of Finance
during the Estrada administration, admitted, however,
that corruption could be much tougher to solve because
of the separation of powers among the executive,
legislative and judiciary.
“Maybe
we should have a new Constitution to solve that,” he
said. |
