Too forgiving. Lee Kwan Yew once remarked that the country had a dangerously “soft and forgiving culture
The full quote is
It is a soft, forgiving culture. Only in the Philippines could a leader like Ferdinand Marcos, who pillaged his country for over 20 years, still be considered for a national burial. Insignificant amounts of the loot have been recovered, yet his wife and children were allowed to return and engage in politics.
This is actually very true. From what I have observed through the lens of a foreigner, it seems that these people do not understand the concept of punishment. Lee Kwan Yew also implied that the country was always doomed to fail, attributed to its underdeveloped culture:
In November 1992, I visited [Ramos]. In a speech to the 18th Philippine Business Conference, I said, 'I do not believe democracy necessarily leads to development. I believe what a country needs to develop is discipline more than democracy.' In private, President Ramos said he agreed with me that British parliamentary-type constitutions worked better because the majority party in the legislature was also the government. Publicly, Ramos had to differ.
This is why I always opined that Western-style democracy is highly dependent on culture will not always work, because the problem with democracy is that it only works if the people are naturally collective and will work together for their prosperity, guided by an ambitious individual. Instead, Filipinos will only be collective if they get the fair share of the banana bundle and the ambitious individual is usually shunned unless he makes a name for himself.
You see, the problem why Filipinos are still lower-middle income for 37 years is because not only does their culture not promote discipline, adherence to rules, and self-control, but also because the rules are unfair, tedious, pointless, lack of purpose, and the enforcers are incompetent.
This is strange. The reason for this trait is because these natives are naturally and culturally incompetent. They are, in general, too lazy to impose punishment.
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