As my friend Cristine told me that she is talking about Philippines........
Here is what I have got.
The Philippines is geographically and ethnically fragmented and the needs of one group of people may not always be the same as the needs of another group. Painting broad brushstrokes on what the "entire country" needs doesn't work very well for a country that has diverse conditions, cultural/linguistic contexts, etc.
That's why Federalism is part of what the Philippines needs. Policy-making ought to be relevant at the regional level (the level at which Federalism is proposed), especially since the current situation in the Philippines is one of over-centralization with most real economic opportunities being concentrated in the Capital, while the rest of the country experiences a dearth of such opportunities. Moreover, in the current centralized set-up, the regions all have to send most of their money to the Capital, and then the surplus is reallocated back to them.
Federalism would allow each of the regions to be autonomous in how they manage their economic policy-making, how they attract businesses to invest, how they run they based on what makes sense to the people in the region, etc... It also allows the regions to use the money that they make instead of sending most of it over to the Capital. Spreading out economic opportunities is the whole point of Federalism in the Philippines. Attempting to do so in a centralized fashion will cause the central government to arbitrarily decide which regions to develop first and which ones next...
Federalism, on the other hand, will give the regional governments (once they are set up) the ability to set up their own economic policies that will pull and attract investors to come over and create opportunities for their citizens. In other words, the regional governments will have to compete against other regional governments in developing their economies. Regional governments will have to strive to come up with the best and most attractive policies that will bring investors in and ultimately, the entire country will benefit, since the whole country will be seen as being very attractive to investors as the regions compete to become attractive.
Size and wealth aren't the reasons to go Federal. Most countries that went with federalism weren't necessarily rich when they first went federal. Malaysia uses Federalism but in terms of land area, it has the same size as the Philippines. Switzerland too is federal as is Austria, but they are smaller than the Philippines.
Besides, sticking with the current system that the Philippines has - in being centralized AND being presidential is a big NO-NO! That's the worst combination possible for the Philippines. Better to go with a Parliamentary System to ensure that there is no gridlock and that the executive branch has the support and backing it needs from the majority bloc in parliament so that it also has legislative support. No need for ridiculous shut-down scenarios that happen because of incompatibilities between one branch and another. (Parliamentary Systems also make it easier to replace non-performing leaders and even parties when need be. They also tend to have much higher quality leaders - in terms of intelligence and competence - than the leaders produced in Presidential Systems).
No comments:
Post a Comment