Filipino First Policy Linked with Crab Mentality

Having sea crab yesterday or just eating crab, I always think of that old commercial in the 1990s. It was called, "Iwasan ang crab mentality." or "Avoid crab mentality." This makes me recall a scene when I was a child. I saw a pail full of mud crabs (called alimango in Filipino) and if one crab got out, the others pulled it down. The TV commercial showed how if the crabs got together, they could all escape their grizzly fate of becoming eaten for human consumption. Chefs are just lucky crabs pull each other down. However, it also shows that the crabs would rather all be cooked together than let that crab escape. 

Unfortunately, crab mentality is one of the biggest problems in the Philippines. It's not all that unique among Filipinos. However, it doesn't Filipinos should ever take comfort in engaging in a crab mentality, just because other people do it. Here's an interesting excerpt from Inquirer by Jerry Peres de Tagle PhD:

Studies in human behavior show that one’s crab mentality comes from a personal insecurity or low self-esteem, which is usually unknown to the individual. It may be that the feeling of disdain, jealousy, and antagonism is justified. There is usually a sense of being self-righteous and virtuous. But, why is this behavior prevalent in particular societies? I have seen it across the various cultures and countries. It seems to be common with societies and groups that have experienced suppression, bullying, and oppression for a period of time, across generations and decades, if not centuries.

Crab mentality is learned as part of societal acculturation, adaptation, and survival.  It is learned by parents and elders to suppress the success-linked behaviors of their children and of newcomers in a tribe. This is the adaptive behavior of the family to survive and escape the wrath of the masters in the community. Intelligent and success behaviors in children were seen as dangerous for the people who held power. The masters who wielded power over the group knew that intelligent and self-determined children would grow up to question, rebel, and subvert the existing power structure of the community.

As I looked into the article from the Inquirer--it may explain the Filipino First Policy even further. One may read this in Carlos P. Garcia's statement:

THE “FILPINO FIRST” POLICY

The ”Filipino First” policy of this administration re­ceived a resounding popular indorsement in the last election. Politically we became independent since 1946, but econom­ically we are still semi-colonial. This is especially true in our foreign trade. This policy is therefore designed to regain economic independence. It is a national effort to the end that Filipinos obtain major and dominant participa­tion in their own national economy. This we will achieve with malice towards none and with fairness to all. We will accomplish this with full understanding of our inter­national obligations towards our friends of the Free World. We will carry this out within the framework of our special relations with the United States to whose citizens we granted until 1974, by Constitutional provision, equal rights as Filipinos in the exploitation of our natural resources and public utilities, and to whom we also granted trading parity rights under the Laurel-Langley Agreement. Under this policy we will welcome friendly and understanding foreign capital willing to collaborate with us in the exploitation of our vast natural resources preferably on joint venture basis.

It is my hope that legislations under this orientation will be enacted this year.

In Garcia's wish that Filipinos would obtain major and dominant participation in their national economy, he only wants to see more Filipinos succeed than foreigners, in the Philippines. Sure, it sounds good on paper but can you imagine a shopping mall where most of its establishments, are owned by the shopping mall itself? I've gone to SM and Ayala and that's not the case. If the shopping mall's establishments were majorly owned by the shopping mall, why even bother opening a mall? Most of the shopping mall's income is from tenants, not from the establishments owned by the mall.

I wrote an article where Filipino entrepreneurs say, "Only FDI will get rich!" equals "I hate competition." I wrote it because people saying, "Only FDIs will get rich." can easily translate into envy, instead of their so-called "concern" for the nation. If they did care about the nation, they would've had already known how FDIs have been used to uplift countries from massive unemployment. They have a poor understanding of the word profit. Such people may be confusing profits with revenues (read here). No, profits are what's left of revenues minus all expenses!

Instead, Filipino First Policy can be summed up as, "If Filipinos can't succeed, neither can foreigners." That's probably why the 60-40 policy was created. Sure, it doesn't discourage FDIs but it's discouraging. Who would want to invest in a business where you can only keep 40% of your profits? The profit is what's left from revenues minus all expenses. What's left after revenues less expenses is barely even half of revenues! Even non-profit organizations still need a profit to keep it going. The difference is non-profit organizations don't share the profit with their members!

These lawmakers who defend the Filipino First Policy are like crabs too. As mentioned earlier by Tagles, the problem is that intelligent and successful behavior among people--can be viewed as a threat. Rebeling for the right reasons could happen when people gain insight. That's why crab mentality is a powerful tool. Mao Zedong used it to curb rebellion through programs like the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the Hundred Flowers Campaign. Mao may have known what he was doing--he knew how to keep people too hungry and weak to overthrow him! Hungry people make bad rebels. Mao's programs were probably meant to keep him in power, until his death. A similar motive may be true for lawmakers. Lawmakers who defend the Filipino First Policy like Atty. Neri Colmenares and Atty. Teodoro A. Casiño, are most likely after their own interests. Sometimes, I can feel that these people know they're lying.

If more Filipinos get job opportunities, they will soon learn stuff they should've learned years before. Filipinos who get good job opportunities, whether foreign or local, may learn to manage money properly or even have better ideas for starting a business. Filipinos might start building their own businesses with more technology and ideas from FDIs. How can one expect Filipinos to get creative if there's nothing to work with, thanks to Filipino First Policy? That's probably why the greedy oligarchs and protectionist lawmakers, choose to keep most Filipinos poor. They only want to succeed on their own. If they can't succeed then neither can their fellow Filipinos. They want to succeed only for themselves! 

This may also explain why some Filipinos blame richer countries for the Philippines' lack of development. Let's face it--the Philippines will never get richer by blaming its richer Asian neighbors (read here)! The Filipino First Policy may have encouraged Filipinos to blame foreigners for their plight, instead of learning from foreigners to succeed. Has years of blaming and crab mentality did any marvels for the economy? Instead, development has been short-term thanks to the Filipino First Policy, which actually promotes crab mentality.