Van Vugt: Gloria the teacher; PNoy the student

Saturday, January 21, 2012

PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III is criticized by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, of all people, for the bad state of the economy in our country today.

Gloria is an expert in the economy. She even has been teaching economics. Now she is writing her memoires and she remembers that Noynoy Aquino has been her student. If the economy today is in such a bad shape, it is mainly because we have inherited this from the past administration. Gloria claims that under her administration, there was an economic growth in the country. In reality, there was a scarcity of rise in the country and Arroyo had a policy of resting the entire future of the country on rice importation rather than production.

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Gloria one time got angry when a reporter dared to ask her why if there was growth, it wasn’t being felt by the poor, why if there was growth the poor were getting poorer.

Gloria writes in her memoires that she gave Aquino a failing grade. If I had been her student before, I am afraid, I would have gotten from her a failing grade also. I don’t know in what school Arroyo has been teaching economy but for sure, it must have been a school that still believes in the old American neo-liberal economic model. That is the model proposed by Adam Smith, who said that when an individual engages in business purely to make a profit for himself, he would, by the action of ‘an invisible hand,’ provide a benefit to society. That is the old free-market capitalism theory dating back to the time of the Reformation and inspired by the Protestant individualism. That so-called ‘invisible hand’ of Adam Smith actually does not work that way. It works the other way around and this is actually closer to the Marxist position, where unions and managements are intrinsically too much at odds to cooperate with each other.

When I studied economics during my seminary days in Holland in the late ‘50s, we were taught already an economy that was based on the Catholic Social Teaching, as summed up by Pope Leo XIII and Pius XI. That was the so-called social market economy. That is a real Catholic and Christian model of an economic market, one that is engineered to the service of the common good by common effort, not just geared exclusively towards profit and not just relying on an ‘invisible hand’ to provide general benefit. This implies also free trade unions whose representatives can sit also in the boards of major companies.

The problem in the Philippines is that the social doctrine of the Church is hardly known and therefore not put into practice. It is a failure on the part of the Catholic Church in the Philippines that she has treated its social doctrine as the ‘best kept secret’.

President Aquino has made the first step towards economic recovery by going after corrupt government officials. The second step is to implement this social doctrine of the Church. This is something he cannot do alone. He needs the help from all of us Christians and especially the help from the Church. The Church has to proclaim its social doctrine with full force. This is not an option, this is a must. The Church in the Philippines should become again a Church of the poor. Like the early Christians who took the teachings of Christ very seriously, they had everything they possessed in common. That is what Christians today should do also.

Whatever we possess is given to us by God our Creator and we should use this for the good of everybody. Otherwise, we cannot call ourselves Christians. In practice, this means that all Christians, rich and poor alike, should have a basic solidarity towards each other. In our present society, where it is common practice that the rich build for themselves big mansions, surrounded by tall walls, preferably with barbed wire on top, that is unchristian, especially in a country where there are so many poor people who are starving to death. This is something that we in the Church should prevent from happening. Instead of criticizing Noynoy for doing nothing to improve the economy, the Church should sit down with him and his economic advisors to discuss concretely how the social doctrine of the Church could be implemented.

The government should finish its business of the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Corona as soon as possible. What is important here is that the truth comes into the open and that justice is done. Everybody knows already that Corona is totally unfit to sit in the Supreme Court. He should be kicked out immediately.

That is what the public, the ordinary people say. The senators and lawyers should not waste their time getting involved in all kind of legal technicalities and dilatory tactics both on the prosecution and the defense side. It is time to move on to more important work: the economic recovery in our country.

(For your comments, email nolvanvugt@gmail.com)