Opinion Going from forced labor to high finance: A man’s journey By Ammu Kannampilly EXILED to the Gobi Desert at the age of 15, Weijian Shan’s days were marked by gnawing hunger and backbreaking forced labour. But his sense of hope was kept alive by an unlikely source—insecticide manuals. Now one of Asia’s top financiers and the head of Hong Kong-based private equity firm PAG, Shan told AFP that reading—virtually anything he could get his hands on—effectively saved his life, providing “an escape” from the harsh realities of Mao Zedong’s oppressive regime. “I feel like I have lived 5,000 years,” Shan said, with his recently published memoir, “Out of the Gobi”, recounting a life that mirrors China’s shape-shifting trajectory and offers lessons, he hopes, for young pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. “We were all deprived of a formal education for 10 years,” he said, referring to China’s “Lost Generation”—young men and women who were banished to Inner Mongolia in 1969 and expected to transform an arid landscape into fertile fields. “I didn’t completely give up,” he said. “I read whatever I could—sometimes insecticide manuals, sometimes dictionaries.” Yanked out of school in Beijing at the age of 12 during the Cultural Revolution, Shan, like millions of youth, was gripped by revolutionary fervor. They were promised helicopters, plenty of food and special uniforms, and urged to leave home and “receive re-education” from the peasantry. The helicopters never materialized, food and water were always in short supply, and the sickles and shovels deployed by Shan and others did little to improve harvests, which fared
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was “Fun any time” in the Philippines. Indeed, the Philippines can be a yearround destination, not just for the winter months of November to March which is the traditional peak season for travelers to our country. We made our social media ads to appeal to travelers during the vacation months when schools are closed from June till mid-August. While tourists make the bulk of travelers to the Philippines, there are also the Taiwanese businessmen who now flock to the country to explore ventures and further markets to trade their wares. Our Philippine Trade and Investment Center in Taipei likewise has been vigorously engaged in two-pronged promotions of our country’s potential to the Taiwanese, offering assistance to potential investors and bringing in our products to their local market. Most recently, our trade experts were able to negotiate with the French-based supermarket, CarreFour with hundreds of branches across the island, to permanently display and sell products from the Philippines in their supermarket
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PCSO’s online lottery became an ISOcertified operation in 2016. All revenues are computer-tallied and put into a common pool. PCSO’s Keno is run similarly. Given this, it’s hard to imagine how the thousands of small kiosk owner/operators are the ones who are ‘corrupt.’ On the other hand, among those who obtained franchises for STL were gambling lords, because they have the machinery, influence, and personnel for it. Some of them transformed their operations into legitimate enterprises and were happy that STL gave them the chance to do so. However, the corruption the President refers to could be related to those STL operators-slash-gambling lords who still run illegal operations on the side. This is something that PCSO cannot control
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However, it should be recalled that the CHR is at the forefront of the opposition to the lowering of the minimum age of criminal liability from 15 years old to nine years old. And one of the major arguments raised in opposing the minimum age of criminal liability is that children are not yet in the position to discern what is right or wrong.
worse each year. Shan also baked bricks, cut reeds and dug canals—working for 31 hours straight on one occasion only to discover that his labor was futile because the waterway’s course had been miscalculated. His rudimentary training as a “barefoot doctor” proved more useful—he saved the life of a seriously ill child and diagnosed his own insomnia as a symptom of malnutrition. Books were forbidden but Shan devoured everything from chemistry textbooks to medical manuals in secret, and got into trouble for reading Karl Marx’s “Civil War in France” because his company commander thought it was a novel. US journey His memoir is unflinching about the toll on his peers, including one whose life fell into ruin following his conviction for “counter-revolutionary crimes.” And they were not the only ones who suffered, he said, pointing to the violence that gripped China in the 1960s and 1970s and destroyed its institutions. In a particularly horrifying vignette that he insists was not an isolated case, he describes witnessing a group of schoolgirls beating an elderly teacher to death with leather belts for being a “class enemy.” “We were told repeatedly to ‘take root in the Gobi’, to live there for the rest of our lives, so there was no hope,” he said. But following Mao’s edict to reopen universities, Shan was allowed to return to Beijing to attend college and study English. He had spent six years in the Gobi. Then life took a stunning turn—as ties between Beijing and Washington
eased, Shan became one of the first students sent by Communist China to the United States. He went on to finish a doctorate, studying economics under future Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen, who in a foreword to his memoir, recounts her amazement when she realised that Shan had taught himself “all the math he knew... by candlelight”. Open the door Now 65, Shan believes his life holds lessons for young people, particularly in his adopted home of Hong Kong, where fears about Beijing’s increasing control over the city have prompted huge protests and violent clashes with police. “When I went to the US, China’s door had opened just a crack... but (as years passed) it opened further,” he said. “Once the door opens, it opens wider and wider,” he said, adding that the all-or-nothing approach adopted by Hong Kongers demanding universal suffrage risked closing off any possibility of compromise and change. “Why not start with something... so the door is opened?” Having lived through a cataclysmic era in China, he said, “what is important for my generation is not to have history repeated.” With a Chinese translation underway, people in the mainland will soon be able to read his story, possibly with some portions censored to manage “sensitivities,” he said. But some enterprising Chinese readers have already got their hands on pirated editions, he said. He added: “If people want to read my book—pirated or not—I don’t mind. If you don’t take lessons from the past, there is a risk of repeating history.” AFP
shelves. Efforts are also underway to put and sell the same products in another grocery chain, RT-Mart, which is also operated by a French conglomerate. But perhaps the most heartwarming achievement for us would not be about the material gains we have earned in our relationship with Taiwan. Rather it is about fostering warmer people-topeople relationships. For while Taiwan is our closest neighbor to the north, with only the Balintang Channel separating us, there is an awareness and appreciation chasm that we need to bridge. Next school year, Filipino as a language will be officially offered as an elective for second-language training in Taiwan, both in the elementary and midschool levels. While the initial target are children of mixed Filipino-Taiwanese parentage who speak Mandarin, the official language, and perhaps a sprinkling of English, the government through its Ministry of Education in pursuit of the New Southbound Policy, is promoting knowledge of other Asian cultures. Before this elective course begins, so much hard work in coming up with books and instructional materials to efficiently teach the language to young
minds had to be exerted. Spearheading this effort is MECO’s Director in the Kaohsiung extension office, Irene Ng, who teamed up with academics and highly-motivated volunteers to come up with books and digital learning materials in time for the opening of classes. Just before the SONA, I had the privilege to meet these volunteers who spent almost three years, holding more than a thousand meetings, to produce a total of 18 books to teach Filipino to Taiwanese students. As we handed out the simple appreciation certificates to these teacher-volunteers together with Taiwan’s Deputy Minister of Education, I was moved by the teary-eyed teachers and editors who spent countless hours and immeasurable effort to promote another country’s culture to their people. It represents the Taiwanese’s dedication and commitment to share the gains they have achieved with the Filipino people, a gesture that we will continue to nourish and celebrate as we further relations with their people. Modest gains, but, to paraphrase President Diosdado Macapagal, “stones for the edifice” in building stronger and lasting people-to-people relationships.
because the lords have guns, goons, and gold, while PCSO has no police powers. Duterte’s statement about franchises doing the government out of its share could refer to the taxes that the illegal operations are not remitting. A similar example is that of illegal horseracing bookies, who make an amount estimated to be the same as the revenues of legal horseracing, but are unregulated and do not contribute taxes. Here’s a couple more points. A retired PCSO department head—a lawyer—told me that when the President mentioned something about ‘court orders’ being problematic, he could have been referring to the fact that “almost all closure orders of PCSO against erring STL operators are blocked by TROs [temporary restraining orders].” He added that Duterte might also have been referring to contracts (perhaps of suppliers, and the like) disadvantageous to PCSO that are under TRO.
The President should investigate all anomalies, because any operation that defrauds the state of what is rightfully due it is a crime. But if PCSO has no revenues, it cannot sustain its Charity Fund. We don’t know how long the suspension will last, and neither has PCSO said how much longer they can keep up their charity work without revenues. Perhaps the President can reconsider about Lotto at least and lift the suspension on it, while the investigations continue on STL and other games? It would mean a lot to the thousands of needy and indigent patients who depend on PCSO. The agency has saved many lives—they should be allowed to continue to do so.
So, which is which? The children, regardless of their age, are old enough to know their rights and fight for them? Or are children aged nine to 14 are young enough to discern what is right and wrong? To borrow Denzel Washington’s famous line in the movie Philadelphia: “Can the CHR explain this to me like I’m a six-year old?” In a statement, the CHR even called on the government to stop using children as a cover-up in the inefficient implementa-
tion of the juvenile justice law. According to CHR spokesperson lawyer Jacqueline de Guia, the government “must stop shifting the burden to children and start addressing lapses in the law’s implementation; providing better support and guidance to children; as well as stricter means to curb syndicates and individuals who feed on our children’s vulnerabilities,” adding that lowering the minimum age of criminal liability violates the government’s obligation to protect the rights of children.
Dr. Ortuoste is not a regular Lotto player because she is too lazy to buy tickets. That is likely why she is still an impecunious writer whose idea of a big treat is to buy a new book. /FB and Twitter: @DrJennyO
MONDAY, JULY 29, 2019
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Fighting corruption with technology corruption. Business owners with connections to government or bribe money to go around can manipulate policies and market mechanisms to favor them and weed out the competition. With so-called market forces kept at bay, they then become free to dictate PERHAPS the least polarizing thing the prices of goods and services, often that came out of President Rodrigo at a rate that is unaffordable to most Duterte’s fourth State of the Nation and with no need to account for qualAddress (SONA) last week was his ity because consumers are trapped one harangue against corruption, which he way or another into patronizing what described as “pervasive.” they offer. “We find corruption everywhere in Corruption also helps sustain heigovernment with every malefactor nous inequality by guaranteeing that watching his cohort’s back in blatant capital remains in the hands of olidisregard of his oath when he as- garchs or whoever has public officials sumed public office,” he said. “For in their payroll. In this kind of ecoevery transaction, a commission; for nomic environment, small businesses every action, extortion; and a request have a hard time competing with conthat goes on and on—endlessly and glomerates because of unfair compeshamelessly.” tition. Entrepreneurship is stripped of He cited the systemic fraud carried its potential to power the entrepreneur out in the Philippine Health Insurance out of poverty. Corp, in which massive medical funds The result is that economies plagued were disbursed to pay padded claims by corruption have a typically small and ghost treatments of fictitious pa- middle class right smack in the midtients. dle of a wide gulf “I am grossly separating the rich disappointed,” and the poor. With Replacing paperDuterte said. other aggravating “The government based processes with factors at play, this is conned of milclass conelectronic ones not only middle lions of pesos, tinues to diminwhich could be increases efficiency ish, the poor gets used to treat ill- but also guarantees poorer, and the nesses and possi- transparency. rich gets richer. bly save the lives It is no surprise, corrup of many.” too, that corrupHe also lamtion has a direct basted the Bureau of Customs, which link to substandard and inaccessible had been notoriously prone to corrup- education and healthcare. An Intertion since time immemorial and said national Monetary Fund report shows he would remove its employees who that corruption increases the cost of are under investigation. education and healthcare in corrupted He claimed that the government had economies, with compromised bubeen “unyielding” in its attempt to reaucratic processes. weed out “the unscrupulous persons The other ills of corruption are manning our ports and scalawags in also well documented: in terms of uniform, with the firing or resignation inefficiently allocated resources, in of more than a hundred officials and deadening stimulus for innovation, in appointees. creating shadow economies and black Worse, corruption is normalized in markets, and in disincentivizing forgovernment, he said, by using lan- eign investments, among others. But guage that seems to make the other- the worst, most enervating impact of wise heinous act seem casual, like de- corruption is probably in the degradascribing a corrupt act as “for the boys” tion of social values, which is the best or “sponsoring an event.” breeding ground itself and thus cre“No amount of euphemism can triv- ates a vicious cycle. ialize and normalize betrayal of pubA relatively untapped mechanism lic trust or any other criminal offense. to prevent corruption is technology. It is an injury laced with insult. It is Something like “E-procurement,” for both a national embarrassment and a instance, which takes away the pernational shame.” sonal element and increases visibility Only something substantial, like an in transactions, has been shown to curb immediate “self-purgation,” can prob- the incidence of bribes. Replacing ably cure the deeply entrenched cul- paper-based processes with electronic ture, which he said “exasperates” and ones not only increases efficiency but “frustrates” him. He also toyed with also guarantees transparency. the idea that “perhaps it is blood that The same thing can be applied to we need to cleanse and rinse away the processes like taxation and customs dirt and the muck that stick to the flesh processing, two areas long belealike leeches.” guered by seemingly incurable corCorruption is even more disastrous ruption. Again, the rationale is the in the context of the Philippines as same: by automating the process, the an emerging economy. The literature need for personal interaction between is clear about the correlation between individuals and public officials are levels of corruption and growth and lessened, which means the opportuniprosperity. Economies in which cor- ties to bargain are also reduced. ruption is endemic cannot simply The President’s SONA directives prosper as it highjacks the so-called to the Anti Red Tape Authority and natural laws of the economy. the Department of Interior and LoThis is evident, for instance, in data cal Government to strictly enforce a from the World Bank that reveals a three-day limit on simple transactions wide disparity between average in- is a strong message to local governcomes in countries with a high level ment leaders and front-line agencies of corruption versus those with a low to move fast on their constituent faclevel of corruption, such as those in ing transactions. North America, Western Europe, and While political will and a wideAustralia. spread culture change might seem to And corruption is not a victimless be seductive places from which to becrime as it is sometimes portrayed. Be gin a frank anti-corruption initiative, it resources or opportunities, whatever the rational harnessing of appropriis gained via corrupt acts carries im- ate technologies as an anti-corruption plications that reverberate throughout and productivity tool is the most the economy. logical option that government can High costs of goods and services, for rapidly operationalize. If corruption instance, can be a result of monopolies is left unaddressed, many of Presior oligopolies in the economy, which dent Duterte’s SONA dreams will not are in turn enabled and maintained by come true. So, is allowing children even toddlers to join protest actions part of the effort to protect the rights of children? In last Friday’s news forum at the Nanka Japanese Latin Restaurant in Quezon City, the Minority Leader averred that while he is in favor of lowering the minimum age of criminal liability, their parents or guardians of the children should also be held responsible. And that’s what the CHR should have made clear in its statement. Disregard the portion on the children supposedly know-
ing their rights and have the right to fight for them as it would abandon their position on the age of discernment. They should have just issued a stern warning, and not a reminder, to the parents or guardians of the children that they should be held responsible should any harm come in the children’s way during a protest action. The CHR should get their act together and refrain from issuing totally contradicting positions. Their recent act betrays them. Either they are so stupid or they are just out to despise the administration.