13.05.2007
Layman view on Right-wing policies for Burma
_ By AKS
Men are political animals and even our ancestor monkeys played politics; they socialize, organize to achieve causes.
Economic policies and practices can determine and dictate destiny of species and their evolution. Societies with sound economic policies and practices may flourish while under performing societies wither and are wiped out from the face of earth.
There was an interesting article in the Economist magazine that made comparison about Homo-sapiens and now extinct Nethandrals.
The article states that while Homo sapiens (from where we evolved) might have never heard of Adam Smith, they seemed understand competitive advantage. Those good at hunting hunted, those good in fishing fished and they traded goods. At the end of the day everyone can have more fish and meat to consume, stored surplus and survived the famine and now descendents of those Homo sapiens rule the earth.
It claims that Nethandral species, in which everyone was a hunter but didn’t understand trading of goods and sharing of workload, vanished from earth Millions of years ago. They could not compete with Homo sapiens who had better economic policies and practices.
Fast-forward to 21st century; societies are replaced by sovereign states, village patriarch become governments.
Although there are some idealistic humanists who treat all human as brothers and sisters and would like to share all resources and wealth of earth_ they may say since everyone is human why should not we pay more taxes to feed those who in need somewhere else_ equally there are those who are pragmatic men with primitive and proven strategies of a group survival, i.e. right wing politicians, capitalists, pro market economists and nationalists.
They may claim, capital has to be earned, accumulated and inheritable and they may use their wealth for those who share their values, genes or common goals. They may not willing to spend their money for those who do not share their core values, norms and genes, etc..
The author here will not try to judge rightness of rightists. Instead here will be discussed what will be implications for the country if a country follow rightists' school of economic thought and impact on its citizens from lay man point of view.
Rightists’ (either far right or centre right) policies have some merits. Promotion of hard-work, work ethics, self reliance and family as a basic economic unit are attractive.
Another appeal for middle class (those with jobs, education, home and assets) in rich and affluent societies is low taxes (income, sale and service, corporate, capital, inheritance,..) and small government.
Right or left, whichever way the economy policies go, the state will be in crisis if its policy makers do not understand underlying fabrics of their own nation. Also it is not wrong to claim that future of a nation state may be gloomy if politicians start to abuse the states' assets and capital for its narrow interests _ Nepotism (such as appointing a cousin to a lucrative government position), cronyism (handing out government project contracts to favorite people without fair and transparent bidding practices), populist democracy (wasting states money in popular causes which may not necessarily good for country although it may win votes).
That is why Lee Kwan Yu of Singapore said in his memoir that leaders of newly liberated nations made fatal mistakes by emulating welfare states without sustainable economies to match. Our home grown example is much hyped "PyiDawThar Project" that promised a home, a car and a job for every citizen of Burma, which Burma was never able to afford in 1960s and will never be able to achieve even in the coming decades with current mentalities.
Therefore it will be wise for Burma to stick to small government and light weight state. Low taxes will boost public consumption, provide incentives for hardworking and ambitious people, woo and welcome investors, create jobs (jobs feed families, pay for their children’s education and medical care), instil self reliance and confidence, and develop private sector with sustain economic growth.
Moreover, low taxes will result in small budget for the government to waste, fewer resources for corrupted leaders and politicians to trade lucrative posts for politics and playing politik. It is time for pro welfare folks to denounce the claims that democracy will bring prosperity and prosperity will enable to establish a welfare state. It is a pipe dream. To borrow another pragmatist Goh Chok Tong's words and warnings to his youth "The world does not owe you a living".
Either one likes or loathes Singapore’s PAP (people Action Party) leaders, those words are raw but reflect reality. No one owes us a living, we have to work out our own, we have responsibilities to feed our own families, to educate ourselves and train ourselves with skills and know-how to compete in the real world.
It is time for us to acknowledge that while liberal democracy is soul mate of market economy and social stability, it will not automatically bring prosperity and we need proper policies and practices to rebuild our country after liberating it from the yoke of military dictatorship.
Just a food for thought....
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