Wednesday, August 22, 2007 Carvajal: A vote for federalism By Orlando P. Carvajal Break Point
IN a structural approach to social analysis of Philippine society, the center-periphery relationship between Manila and the other parts of the country basically determines the latter’s economic development. Manila is not only the economic but also the political center, a congruence that allows for a more effective mutual defense, the politics of the center defending its economics and its economics underwriting the politics.
In a center-periphery relationship, the dominant and dominating center of economic activity, Manila, is fed by its periphery, the outlying provinces.
Major economic and political decisions are done at the center. Major portions of the country’s resources are spent for the development of the center. Major portions of the country’s produce, primarily food, are sent to feed the center.
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with a center-periphery relationship. It is what is at work in most, if not all countries, simply because it is the most natural thing to happen. In fact, it is good in that it shows us the way towards a fairly even development of a country which is to develop more centers so that the periphery can become not only smaller but closer and easier to take care of.
It makes for very sound economics but it is threatening to politics because the other centers to be of any help must enjoy a higher level of autonomy than the present Local Autonomy Code allows. The regions need more autonomy like its own regional laws, its own regional priorities, its own finances, with the national government providing support but neither dictating the ways the region should develop nor controlling all the resources for that development.
It is not by coincidence that the developed economies of the world are federated states, like the United States, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Russian Federation, etc. whose political centers are not their economic centers. China is not a federation but the government, albeit a dictatorship, is developing many economic centers which are different from its political center, Beijing.
There is nothing religious about the so-called Muslim-Christian conflict and we cannot just blame ideology for the communist armed struggle. Both are extreme expressions of every other region’s disgust at the long-term historical neglect by the center of its periphery which violence cannot erase but only deepen. Historical sins of the center towards its periphery must be recognized and atoned for.
One opportunity to do that is through a shift to federalism.
Parliamentarianism will maintain imperial Manila’s political and economic dominance whereas federalism has the potential to change both our economic and political landscape.
