Building a Nation

If you don’t have integrity, you have nothing. You can’t buy it. You can have all the money in the world but if you are not a moral and ethical person, you really have nothing. - Henry Kravis 

Normally, the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions business is profit. I had to step back and reflect on the meaning of the phrase, "Our country is our business", emblazoned in the building of the Ateneo Professional Schools in Rockwell. For me it simply means that business is not just for profit but also for nation-building. That aside from having financial gain, we all need to give back to the country whichever way we can. 

photo taken from: ateneogsb.blogspot.com

Nation-building in a sense refers to enhancing the capacity of state institutions and building state-society relations. (Wikipedia) It is a process of democratization, developing a stronger nation from its current weak state. Many business leaders today view their job as a call for them to do something for the welfare of the wider community. These individuals do not define themselves as profit-making machines whose only reason for existing is to satisfy escalating expectation for immediate gain. Rather, they take the lead in building a nation out from a somewhat premature or weak state.  

The Philippine State is considered a premature state for many reasons. One is because its claim to statehood is predominantly based on anti-colonial sentiment rather on the “natural” bonds formed through common historical experience, relationship and identification with a common language or a common religion. (Banlaoi) Another characteristic of the premature state of the Philippines is its legitimacy being challenged. Though the Philippines is considered legitimate by virtue of international recognition, there are presence of resistance groups within such as communists and Muslim secessionist groups that questions the legitimacy of the Philippines.  The premature nature of the Philippine state is also attributed to the concept of having a Filipino national identity being contested by some Filipinos who mostly identify themselves with their regions or ethnic origins (Ilocano, Bicolano, Cebuano,etc.) than with the “Filipino nation”. The Philippines is deemed as a weak state because it has always been under the control of the elite clan or a powerful family. The traditional clan dominates politics and business in the country. They also give preferential access to state resources and state-conferred economic opportunities to their friends, relatives and the political elite. This premature and weak state of the Philippines produced weak governance institutions thus the country failed to manage the ethnic, religious and socioeconomic diversities in its society. (Banlaoi)

According to a report by the Asian Development Bank, one of the major causes of poverty in the Philippines is governance issues which includes corruption and a weak state. The Ateneo Professional Schools’ tagline calls for its students to be nation builders more than just profit seekers by doing what is right and doing what they can to help the Philippines build a better nation. For us Public Management students working in the government, it would mean developing policies that would benefit the public or your constituents. It would mean displaying work ethics and being publicly accountable to your actions. It might even be as simple as not using office equipments and supplies for personal consumption (i.e. government vehicles).  

While it would seem impossible for our country to move towards collective discipline and self-reliance, we Filipinos have a gift of survival because of our deeply rooted faith in the divine.  This faith allows us to be hopeful and believe in the power of miracles. It is thus our individual inner challenge to build on this faith and form the character that will lead us to building the nation we can all be proud of. Nation building is after all about building yourself first. Nationhood is difficult to achieve or impossible when people’s character remains weak, selfish or exploitative so we all need to work on building ourselves first to contribute to the progress of our country. In making sense of the Ateneo Professional Schools tagline, us as public managers, start with ourselves and walking our talk. Ateneo School of Government taught us to build a nation by transforming communities; helping build the country community by community, municipality by municipality, city by city and province by province. They call for us to be ethical leaders throughout the country. You cannot consider a job too small to be able to contribute to building our nation. It can be a menial job as long as you work morally sound and honest compared to the ones on top. 

To some, the simple daily form of corruption might become a norm that they just go with the way the cookie crumbles, but to us who are fully aware of the innate goodness, the ones in touch with our deep faith, we go on with our lives hoping that we influence as many people as we can to a change of heart. A paradigm shift that is more inclusive. A mindset that now considers everybody, especially the poor and vulnerable in planning, policy making, commitment to public service or in daily activities. An appeal similar to how Christ calls us to be his disciples and be like Jesus to one another everyday.      

*Notes from the "Globalization and Nation-Building in the Philippines" by Rommel C. Banlaoi