A COUPLE of weeks ago, I was watching an interview by Richard Heydarian while he chatted with Ambassador Romualdez on Pax Silica and the “New World Order”. It’s on YouTube if you are interested.
The latter parts of conversation dealt with “Filipino Global Identity” where the men discussed Filipino-Americans and why they should not abandon their Filipino citizenship to become exclusively American.
Further, Heydarian discussed the possibility of a Fil-Am becoming President of the United States, and the creation of a Filipino lobby to help influence American politics.
Now, I like Heydarian and I regularly watch his shows but as someone who also watches American politics, I can tell him that many Americans don’t like this. In fact, I would go as far as say that foreign lobbies and dual citizens having control over American politics is one of the reasons why Donald Trump was elected, which brings us to the issue of the Filipino global identity.
For a country that prides itself at having a global presence, our laws and culture remain provincial. Our citizenship and land ownership laws remain relatively closed, and if the US were to imitate them, they would be called “racist”.
Further, consider the attitude towards Pax Silica. Rather than see it as an opportunity, many whine about American and foreign influence over our country, a country that consistently sends out foreign workers to foreign lands and is filled with people trying to migrate to the US.
Also, consider this scenario: we would celebrate a Fil-Am with dual citizenship becoming President of the United States. How many would celebrate a Filipino-American, also with dual citizenship, becoming President of the Philippines? How many would see him as having dual loyalties? I wonder…
The point here is that Filipino global identity is schizophrenic. We want it both ways – to be both nationalistic and global – and that doesn’t work anymore.
If we want to be “global”, we have to reciprocate. That means changing our rules and our culture to be more suited to a more “open” system.
If we want to be nationalistic, we should be aware that it will cost us in terms of investment and growth.
We can have one or the other but not both. Countries across the world are being forced to choose from these options.
We will not be spared from making that choice./PN
