By JESSICA ZAFRA
THE FOUNDER OF THE SGV GROUP DOES NOT CONCERN HIMSELF WITH POPULARITY OR POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. WE DON’T HAVE TO AGREE WITH HIM. BUT WE SHOULD LISTEN
The fourteenth floor office is perhaps smaller than befits such an important personage — or maybe it only looks small because there are so many things in it. Every square inch of space is taken up by books (economics, history, biography), periodicals, reports in binders, newspaper clippings in folders, a wide assortment of bric-a-brac and memorabilia collected from half a century in business. There is a handcrafted wooden toy with a tiny car zigzagging down a tall frame, and a large abacus made of jade. Also a profusion of mangoes rendered in glass and metal. There are framed photographs of the office’s occupant with the former Indonesian president Suharto, with Suharto’s now-imprisoned son Tommy, and with the South Korean president Kim Dae Jung. I am tempted to describe the decorative style as “organized chaos,†except that that would imply clutter, and I suspect the occupant is pained by untidiness. The office is orderly, but busy; it is the headquarters of one who works with large amounts of information, and requires that it be within reach.
“In some ways, it was almost like accounting?’
“The Japanese were under strict orders that in case of capture, the captain or highest-ranking officer had to destroy the codebook. Fortunately for us, one codebook was not destroyed.†The work was not as perilous as the movies tell us, but it was of vital importance. “For instance, if we decoded a message saying six bombers would attack a town in Burma, we could arrange for air defense for the town. If it was too late, we could at least ascertain if we had deciphered the message correctly.†When the war ended he returned to Manila and founded SyCip, Gorres, Velayo and Company, which would become the largest accountancy firm in the country. Today the SGV Group is an auditing and management consulting company with operations throughout East Asia. SyCip is also the chair of the Asian Institute of Management, and a member of the boards of many Southeast Asian companies. In his career SyCip has seen the beginning and collapse of the Cold War, the triumph and end of Communism in China, the eruption of the Middle East crisis, the rise and fall of world leaders. He witnessed the preeminence of the Philippines inAsia in the 1950’s and early 60’s, when our economy was second only to Japan’s, and saw how Asia’s first democracy lagged and was eventually left behind by its neighbors.
What happened exactly? SyCip sums up the problem in three words: “Too much democracyâ€. Wait. Stop. We want democracy. Democracy is good. We are proud to be the first democratic republic in the region. Washington SyCip shakes his head. Democracy will work out if the citizens are ~ educated enough to choose the right leaders he says. Otherwise they will simply sell their votes. When the people are hungry and have no access to the kind of education that will enable them to rise out of poverty, “democracy is for those who can afford to buy votes?’
It’s good to be Washington SyCip: not only are you guaranteed an audience for everything you want to say, but you can make unpopular, politically-incorrect, controversial statements without getting pilloried in the media. This is by no means the first time SyCip has made his “anti-democracy†statement; he has repeated it at various public fora for the last two years at least.
All fast-growing countries in East Asia emphasized basic education, health care and economic freedom first;’ he told the Foreign Correspondents’ Association of the Philippines (Focap). As income level rises and poverty and hunger are no longer seÂrious problems, political freedom and democracy folÂlow.†Nations must takes are of education, health care, and poverty alleviation first, and then worry about deÂmocracy.
In other words, we — who pride ourselves in our adÂherence to democratic principles— have long been doing things backwards.
“Where the poor sell their votes and elected repreÂsentatives or appointed officials are influenced in their decisions by monetary considerations, democracy may be a farce and benefits ~ only those who have the means to exercise such influence, which is the upper class!â€
“The United States lectures the world on human rights and democracy;’ SyCip observes. “The problem is poverty, but they don’t acknowledge it because then they’d have to help us in a more concrete way?’ The world’s greatest democÂracy has its own problems. “I was just telling Sheila Platt (wife of the former American ambassador to the PhilipÂpines) that I was disappointed that the people of Florida reelected Jeb Bush as governor. His wife went shopping in Europe and was caught bringing in $19,000 worth of goods she did not pay taxes on. And their kids are drug addicts.
“Have we over-emphasized political freedom at the expense of economic growth?†he said at another forum. “Why have we been so helpless and so unsuccessful in uplifting the poor? Our political, economic and educational institutions have been developed along US lines. Is this a proper model for a deÂveloping nation?â€
Being a product of the public school system, he is especially distressed by the state of public school education in the country. Some time ago he visited his alma mater Burgos Elementary School and asked the administration what the school needed the most. Chairs, he was told—there were not enough chairs to accommoÂdate the children who wanted to go to school. Through Philippine Business for Social Progress, the necessary chairs were donated.
The solution to poverty is education, SyCip stresses. “Education should be the most effective economic equalizer.†But w1~r parity in educational standards between private schools and public schools, the gap between rich and poor continues to grow. A good education is denied the people who need it most.
Sycip has been openly critical of the tuition policy of the UniverÂsity of the Philippines. Last year, when the university awarded him an honorary doctor’s degree, he used the occasion to ask why parents who could afford to send their children to private schools should pay less for a UP education. “I have two grandchildren. One went to UP law school, her sister went to Ateneo law school. The tuition in Ateneo is four times bigger than the tuition in UP — why should someone who can afford to send a child to Ateneo get a government subsidy for the child in UP?â€
On the same occasion, he donated P1 million for each member of his family who had attended UP. The total came to PlO million. He suggests that the university look to its alumni for funding. Government funds should go to the basic education for children in the lower income group. This cause, though it makes perfect sense, is not exactly catching fire. “Every congressman is starting a university in his province;’ SyCip notes, “and more government funds will go to those universities instead of the public primary schools.â€
It is bad enough that we cannot provide basic education to the poor, but the number of Filipinos living in poverty swells everyday. Population growth remains unchecked. “The rich practice family planning while the poor do notâ€. Since he is not a politician, SyCip can criticize the Catholic Church for refusing to address the population problem, and for continuing to forbid artificial contraception. The Church, he adds, does not pay taxes on its numerous and vast landholdings. “We have many churches which are closed during the day. These churches contain chairs and tables. Since there is a shortage of school facilities, perhaps these churches, which lie idle for most of the week, can be opened during the thy and used as classrooms.â€
One wonders why the Catholic Church, whose religious orders operate lucrative private schools, has not made this offer. “Our president is a smart woman, an economist;’ SyCip says. “I’ve discussed the economy with her, and she knows what she’s doing. But she is too careful not to go against the Church. The Church has to move into the 21st century. I fear the Cardinal is behind the times.â€
I wonder aloud if the Church is as influential as politicians believe it to be: it campaigned actively against Joseph Estrada, and he still won the presidential election in 1998.
SyCip sighs. “Estrada was at least honest enough to admit that he had many wives?’ The deposed president is now being tried on charges of corruption. Though hardly an Estrada supporter, SyCip challenges the conventional wisdom that the Philippines is poor because of government corruption. “There is also corruption, and too much of it, in all countries of the region except Singapore,†he told Focap. “But have we ever asked ourselves why they have corruption and excellent highways while we have corruption and pot-holed roads?â€.
“In Malaysia,†he tells us, “the contracts to build roads are awarded to the largest corporations. They’re expected to pay bribes to government officials, but the roads are excellent. Here there is corruption, and the roads are bad. The two expressways date back to the Marcos era?’
Official corruption is a fact of life in Asia, he says, but our neighbors’ economies are thriving while we continue to languish. “In Indonesia, if you were in business you had to take Tommy Suharto in as a partner. But the Indonesians did make some progress during the Suharto era.
“I thought Suharto would’ve learned from the example of Marcos,†he muses. Unfortunately Suharto also took to taking money out of his country. Sycip take a pragmatic —some would say cynical—view of government corruption. If you’re going to steal, he says, at least spend the money in your own country instead of buying buildings on Fifth Avenue.
Politicians, he adds, are too busy worrying about the next elections to actually achieve anything. He professes admiration for the controversial Chairman of the Metro. Manila Development Authority, Bayani “BF†Fernando. “Look at his achievements in Marikina?’ When BF was mayor, one of his priorities was cleaning up the Marikina River. He approached the officers of Purefoods, which operates a large meat-packing plant by the river, and asked them to install pollution control devices on the premises. They replied that if they were forced to install the expensive pollution controls, they might have to relocate. That was 2,000 jobs that Marikina stood to lose. BF said, so be it. Purefoods installed pollution controls The same thing happened with Fortune Tobacco, the largest employer in Marikina.
SyCip was so impressed by what Fernando was doing; he paid a visit to Marikina with former President Cory Aquino. They donated chairs to a local public school. “The people started chanting, ‘Cory! Cory! I told her, Maybe you should run for office again.â€
Politicians are too obsessed with their popularity SyCip says. “If a politician stops worrying about his ratings and just does what he has to do, he will get reelected.
Our leaders need to fight for our interests, he emphasizes. In the age of globalization, this means pushing for the free movement of capital and people. It means finding ways for Filipinos to compete in the global market. “Our global competitive advantage was our proficiency in English be says. “I was glad to hear that the Department of Education was planning to strengthen English literacy in the school curriculum; I hope the current officials continue with it?’
As an example of the advantage of speaking English, he cites his company’s joint project with the German airline Lufthansa. Lufthansa’s planes have to undergo a complete check every five years. Filipino technicians strip and inspect the planes down to the smallest parts. “Productivity is higher here in Manila than in Xiamen, China?’ The difference: the technical manuals are all in English, not a problem for the Filipino technical staff. In Xiamen the technical manuals still have to be translated into Chinese; even then there are difficulties in communication.
The same is true for the call centers. Foreign companies usually have a choice between the two English-speaking countries in the region, the Philippines and India. “We have the advantage because people here are more accommodating, more eager to please. They are also less argumentative,†SyCip notes. “Sometimes I feel guilty about opening offices in neighboring countries,†he says. “We may have helped them overtake us.†He is excited by the flurry of changes taking place in China. At the time of this interview, power was being transferred to a new generation of leaders. “I looked at their job experience. Three were engineers, one was an architect. I was relieved. If they were all lawyers, I would worryâ€. “In the Philippines:’ he adds, “We have too many lawyers. We can’t even export them?’
Washington SyCip is obsessively well informed. He reads five newspapers and magazines a day, including the Far Eastern Economic Review and Asia, Inc. He reads every issue of The Economist, although he’s “always three issues behind.†He has a reading backlog of about twenty books, mostly biographies like Titan, a life of John Rockefeller, and the recent biography of David Rockefeller.
“When David Rockefeller was in Manila, I asked him to give a talk to the CEOs of the top corporations. I asked him not about Chase Manhattan, but about philanthropy. He told his audience, “You should give, and you should be happy to give.†The rich have a responsibility to this country, and they are simply not giving enough.â€
He acknowledges that times and attitudes have changed, and the present generation is preoccupied with other matters. He has his grandchildren to keep him informed of current developments: they join him for regular dinners to which their parents are not invited. “They tell me, maybe you’re too old-fashioned, you should watch MTV, which is geared towards the younger generation.â€
His own preferences run to classical music, “I was at AIM recently, and the pianist started playing the theme from Doctor Zhivago, because he had heard that it was my favorite tune. I don’t understand rap music.â€
As the interview draws to a close, Washington SyCip presents us with keepsakes: keychains with silver miniatures of mangoes. He indicates the mangoes on his coffee table. “The one thing we have that no one can beat “is the mango:’ he declares. “They’ve tried growing mangoes in other Asian countries, but their mangoes are watery and blandâ€
On the way to the elevator, he asks about the underlying philosophy of Flip, The Official Guide to World Domination. “I like your optimism,†he says. “I’ve always known Filipinos are extraordinary.†We have received the blessing of the wise man. On with the quest.
http://www.geocities.com/sogodbay/Articles/Sycip.html
I can’t find when this article was written but this page was uploaded on:
16-Sep-2004 23:04
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