An ‘oust oligarchs’ alliance

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/12/2012



The global “Occupy Movement” opened the struggle of the 99 percent disposed peoples of the world against the miniscule but powerful one percent that monopolize the globe’s wealth. That one percent is, of course, the oligarchy. Like the rest of the world, the Philippines has had its own share of oligarchs who mimic and implement the same paradigm of greed and exploitation that has dominated the world these past two and a half decades — since the time of Thatcherism and Reaganomics.

Even though the Philippines’ own oligarchs may have spats — real or make-believe — with one another once in a while, all of them will always stand united when it comes to exploiting and exhausting the wealth and resources of this nation for their fat bank accounts and megalomaniac egos.

At their core, these oligarchs are the centurions of the global oligarchy in the country, the local gatekeepers of finance capital holding rein through money politics and mass media control. And because of this, the people must recognize the need to oust this oligarchy in order to free this nation from the global masters determined to extract every bit of wealth and anima from us.

Just the other day, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) again had called for new taxes on the Filipino people. IMF mission leader to the Philippines Vivek Arora reasoned that it is required for “growth to be sustained over the medium term.” However, what they won’t say is that while the oligarchy revels at the government assets to be privatized for their benefit, as well as the taxes from the people that finance the bureaucracy implementing the global and domestic oligarchy’s will, the people suffer from over-taxation just so that both public and private sector debts can be financed.

As I picked up a copy of the credo of a giant bank’s training manual which says, “We believe in the central role that private enterprise plays in economic development,” it is pretty clear that minions are being brainwashed to execute an ideology of servitude to the oligarchy.

But pray tell us, is the United States of America, the Mecca of capitalism that allows Wall Street to be the central power in its economy, a shining example of economic development today? We have seen the US of A become an economic wasteland as neoliberal economists of the Reagan period transferred all power to private capital, which went on to seek profit for profit’s sake and against continuous development of that nation’s physical or “hard” industries, which then led private enterprises to shift to Third World labor to further increase their profits.

So, should the Third World celebrate this? Are people too naive to realize that the Philippine oligarchy has also tapped into the much bruited about business process outsourcing (BPO) sector?

Though prone to window dressing, there are times when correct views emanate from multilateral agencies, like that Asian Development Bank (ADB) study by F. Tech Tschang, Associate Professor of Strategic Management, stating that “the (Philippine) government should not rely on the (BPO) industry in dealing with the poverty situation in the country.”

Further, Norio Usui, ADB Philippines senior country economist, said the economy must “walk on two legs,” one being the services sector and the other, the industrial sector (particularly manufacturing) in order to achieve growth. Of course, we should add the all-important factor: Agricultural development toward food self-sufficiency.

Yet the Philippine oligarchy will have none of these since they are averse to investing in long gestation projects with substantial original capital (as opposed to borrowed capital using government “sovereign guarantees”).

Hence, private enterprise can never be the central engine in economic development. As the state (i.e. the people and their territory) is the genuine agent of the people’s aspirations and will, it is the ultimate source of all capital.

Witness several state-led economies (such as China, India, Venezuela, Brazil, Vietnam and Argentina) that have shown the way since the advent of the 21st Century: Have they not successfully established their own nation-state leadership paradigms, which the Philippines can learn from? So then, how do we make this work given the local oligarchy’s control of all institutions of state and government, not to mention its control of all mainstream tri-media instruments, as well as the educational system that shapes the minds of our youth?

Ironically, the greatest ally of the people and the nation-state centered leadership will be the oligarchs themselves. As their ideology of greed inflicts greater and greater suffering on the population, intra-oligarchy rivalries will soon arise.

In the interim, the challenge to the genuine leadership agents of the people is to maintain the audibility and visibility of their nationalist ideology and its promise of genuine change and benefit to the general welfare.

The first priority, therefore, is to consolidate the diverse forces that represent the nationalist ideology into an alliance. From there, a consistent message, image and leadership must find constant projection in all forms of national media.

Those alleged “retired military officers” plotting a supposed ouster of PeNoy would do well to consider not just booting out a single trapo but the entire oligarchy. They must also ensure that in the ensuing vacuum, all their efforts are in support of a nationalist leadership. Otherwise, the same domination from PeNoy and the oligarchy will remain. But no matter the great effort and sacrifice needed for this, we must remember that the time is now ripe. As the global and domestic situation mature toward an explosion of the people’s rage, we will hear more and more exclaim, “Patria o muerte, venceremos!”

(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “Anti-large scale mining is pro-people;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)