Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia - Jurusan Antropologi ...

THE MAKING OF THE PHILIPINES’ NEW RICH 289
reliance), lakas-loob (courage), sipag (diligence), pagpapakumbaba (humility,
patience), pagkamatulungin (helpfulness), mapagtuklas (inquisitiveness) and saya
(happiness). 29 One business journal’s cover story argues similarly that ‘Filipino
culture is replete with values promoting [entrepreneurship]’, and again identifies a
series of key Tagalog concepts which are supposed to demonstrate this (UP-ISSI
1994). 30
While some of the capitalists and professionals I spoke with also referred
positively to such values as part of the indigenous tradition and, in some cases,
claimed particular cultural advantages for specific regionally based ethnolinguistic
groups, entrepreneurial prowess is not inscribed as assertively or singularly into
Malay-Filipino identity as it is into Filipino-Chinese identity. Nevertheless, whether
it be understood in terms of ethnic makeup or more universalist criteria, the idea of
entrepreneurship has been elevated over the past decade, both as a key ingredient
of national development and as a defining quality of the new rich. In this sense, the
underlying contrast is not so much between ethnic identities as between the new
rich and old rich. As one professional and businesswoman commented: ‘The new
rich are more entrepreneurial, aggressive and risk-taking, whereas the old rich
were not brought up to work hard and their inheritance is dwindling. Their sons
are treated like precious jewels. But there is change in the new generation.’
Although today’s entrepreneurial reading of wealth accumulation in the
Philippines is at odds with the more well-worn portrait of the Philippines’ rich as
idle feudal lords and plundering rent-seekers, it can also be construed as part of the
same ideological movement, to the extent that the former is a positive portrait and
the latter a negative one, each dependent on the veracity of the other. To the
extent that the new rich are being celebrated as entrepreneurs, and the heroes of
national development, they have stolen much of the ideological leadership away
from the old elite, whose members are now pressured to adopt an ethos of
industry and dynamism. Increasingly, members of the old Philippine elite are
attempting to reconstruct themselves as innovative, hard-working managers and
entrepreneurs. In part, this has been a matter of practical necessity, as is evident,
for instance, in the opening of the telecommunications industry to competition.
Suddenly the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, which formerly
enjoyed a monopoly, acted to reduce its backlog of applications for telephones and
started to put in place a communications network that would advantage it ahead of
new competitors.
But much of the new behaviour of the old rich is also symbolic. For example,
‘rolling up the sleeves’ and the ‘hands-on’ approach are often invoked as
representing the new attitude of Filipino businesspeople. Indeed, following the lead
of President Ramos, businessmen from old elite families now commonly roll up
the sleeves, not only of their ‘Western’ business shirts, but also of their once stiff
and stately Barong Tagalog shirts. According to one informant, these businessmen
now prefer the new polyester variety of Barong Tagalog because, when soiled, it
can more easily be washed and dried than could the old pinya (pineapple fibre)
or cotton variety. Many businessmen also let it be known that they arrive at their