by Erwin S. Fernandez

Before I arrived in Korea, I imagined it as told in books and mass media as developed, modernized and progressive. As I prepared my trip to Kim Dae Jung’s country, images in my mind about Korea began to gather and unravel. It is my first time to go abroad and leave the Philippines.

Last year, Tuesday, September 26, at 3 am, with my green traveling bag flung over my back, I boarded the taxi bound to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). I waited for two hours queuing at the Cathay Pacific Airways counter, and then passed through immigration and at 6:50 am, I was seated inside the plane that will carry us to Hong Kong. As the plane revved up its engine and began moving for the take off, I could feel the tremors caused by the under maintained runway.

We arrived safely in Hong Kong and after waiting for about an hour, we boarded again the plane that would carry us to Incheon. The flight took us more than three hours with pretty Chinese stewardess to care for our needs. I cared to look outside and peeped through the small window. It was not to my surprise that I saw a modern airport complete with, of course, modern facilities. As the plane landed, an uncanny feeling seized me, which might have also seized Rizal, our national hero, when he coined the term “el demonio de las comparaciones” or “the spectre of comparisons.” Rizal having been to Europe could not escape the urge to compare the backward conditions of his country from the modernity of nineteenth century-Europe. In my case, as I looked back at my own country, I could not resist the temptation to compare the sad conditions in the Philippines and the fast-paced development in Korea. In doing so, I am sure Filipinos can learn from Korean experiment and experience.

A tourist gets his first impression in a visit to a foreign country through its airport. Airport as a country’s gateway to international travelers must showcase the best in service and amenities. Incheon did just that to me. No doubt it was voted the best international airport in 2005. At NAIA, you will get the feeling that one or two of the plane’s wheels might get stuck in potholes in the same potholes that Terminal 3 got mired with corruption.

From the airport, I took a bus for a four-hour trip to Gwangju City. We passed through expressways and highways boasting of roads in very good condition letting me have a look of the countryside while comfortably seated in my place. We only had one stopover in a sort of public bus station where you can take a pee, buy a drink or have a little snack. This made me wonder why Koreans can build thousands of miles of good roads and bridges; bore the mountain to make a sturdy tunnel; and construct efficient dams while we also have those but they don’t last long enough for the next rainy season.

To compare is to suffer the vertigo of incomparability between two different peoples who have distinct characters, histories and cultures. Nonetheless, we could profit from the comparison.

The South Korean success story is relatively new. The ravages of the war made them destitute and poor while the Philippines was second to Japan in terms of economic development. During the sixties, however, Park Chung Hee, soon to become a dictator, initiated modernization by implementing five-year economic plans in succession. Chaebol-managed capital-intensive projects propped up the industrial image of Korea propelling it as one of the four economic tigers in East Asia, which included Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. While strongmen held power in both countries, Park’s ‘enlightened’ dictatorship effected industrialization in contrast to Ferdinand E. Marcos who plundered the national treasury, stashed it away and kept it in Swiss banks.

What can we learn then from Koreans? I believe there are seven that we can learn from them.

First, we must learn how to love our country above individual interest. Personal gain comes later. No one may be spared if we apply this principle to our present national leadership. Koreans love their country and that’s the quality that you can see in the roads and the many infrastructures I passed by wherever I went. Second, we must put our national interest above others. They made it a point that their national interest prevails over the interest of other countries even in the face of opposition from a stronger power. Claro M. Recto has already noted way back in the 50s until the 60s that the U.S and our country had no identity of interests but we keep in on following their lead.

Third, to spur growth in the countryside, nationalist industrialization must be the cornerstone of economic policy. They knew that to break away from becoming the dumping site for imported manufactured products, they must develop and create their own industrial sector capable of producing capital goods for export. Indeed, they did only in matter of decades. Since then, Samsung and LG became household names and even occupied special places in Philippine homes.

To accomplish the third, we must consider the fourth: we must cast away the notion that we are only fit as an agricultural nation. South Koreans aspired to be self-sufficient in food and other commodities without neglecting the other component of national progress, which is industrial development.

Corollary to industrialization is giving premium on basic education and scientific research. This is the fifth. We must invest heavily on vocational and technical education and support research-oriented careers. South Korea became a technological superpower because of its pool of talented engineers and scientists. To stop the ‘brain drain’ among the best of our professionals, we must create a demand for them by establishing topnotch research institutions.

Sixth, our educational institutions must develop a strong national awareness. Nationalism should be the thrust of the curriculum. Although Koreans are becoming more and more accustomed to Western ideas and traditions, they are still rooted in their customs that identify them as, of course, Koreans.

Finally, the national leadership must craft a national vision that will knit all the foregoing into a coherent plan of action. President Park envisioned a modern Korea and translated it into a reality through economic plans. Without a strategic course of action that will embrace all government programs and will stir every citizen to complement and harmonize with it, then the whole project of modernization will inevitably fail.

After these having been enumerated, I realize that we have lots of things to do for us to catch up with them. These lessons really deserve a reading especially from GMA.