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Casting Away the Myth of Filipino Corrupt Thinking
(A Journey from Lutong Macau to Co-op Democratic Member Control)
Lutong Macau is Filipino idiom for game-fixing applied not only in sports but in almost all types of contests, including elections for public and private offices, and also in sales auctions for goods and properties and biddings for business service contracts, luto, niluto, (secretly ‘cooked’ or prepared, rigged, pre-arranged, hometown decision).
Democratic Member Control – Co-operatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions. Men and women serving as elected representatives are accountable to the membership. In primary co-operatives members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote), and co-operatives at other levels are also organized in a democratic manner.
– Second Co-op Principle, ICA Statement on the Co-operative Identity
The Filipino would almost always cry foul—Lutong Macau!—rather than gamely accept defeat in any competition. The great Chinese tradition of excellent cooking is unfairly maligned in the process. Time was when all merchants kept their trade secrets for their own economic survival, so why pick on the Chinese for this unsavory cliché.
Today watching Wok with Yan is a most pleasant adventure. The studio participants as well as the TV audience are treated with sumptuous food preparation—no tricks, no hidden ingredients, no secret recipes—only honest, open and fun-filled cooking demonstration. Proof that mood changes with time.
However, the Filipino should not be totally blamed for his pikon and suspecting attitude – decades of Lutong Kastila, Lutong Kano, Lutong Sakang and Lutong Macoy have only made him rightly so. Methodical Doubt and Theological Suspicion became necessary disciplines in the light of their painful experiences with both foreign and local autocratic domination.
His indomitable spirit and quality of resiliency and yes, guarded skepticism should serve the Filipino best in his Journey from Lutong Macau to Co-op Democratic Control. This Co-op principle is historically founded upon the common political experience of nations in pursuit of a constitutional principle even an institution to define and protect the democratic rights of the people. The ICA report describes it thus: Within co-operatives, “democracy” includes considerations of rights; indeed, rights and responsibilities. But it also means more; it means fostering the spirit of democracy within co-operatives, a never-ending, difficult, valuable, even essential task…it reaffirms the right of members to be actively involved in setting policies and in making key decisions (ICA, 1995, p.17).
A healthy people ‘spoiled’ many times over by too many ‘cooks’ both foreign and some of its own should make it good this time with this ultimate Co-op principle (recipe) of member democratic control.
