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Economic
nationalism is the way forward for Liberia
Thursday,
February 01, 2007
By
Wollor E. Topor
Liberians
have had an ignoble past when it comes to
entrepreneurship. Now, we must build a future worthy
to balance or restitute the past. It is an open secret
that the Liberian economy has been in the hands of
Middle Easterners and Asians, even the informal sector
like petty trading was controlled by our West African
neighbors.
Stating the reasons why Liberians were not ‘totally
involved’ could take volumes of literature in
explaining. This is not the proper forum; and there isn’t luxury of
time. What is important is that past mistakes should
be avoided in the reconstruction process.
It
will be silly to downrightly denounce globalization or
trade liberalization in Liberia, since these go along
with free movement of traders and expertise. But there
are lots of myths in terms of benefits that go
unexplained. For instance, supporters of globalization
put forward that the removal of trade barriers would
increase national prosperity.
In
their argument they created a scenario, for example,
that farmers can profit from free trade if they
specialize in comparative crops, which can be sold at
global market most competitively. LEISA (2001) cited
(World Bank 2001) and (IFAD 2001), saying that
globalization and trade liberalization are the
‘tools needed to increase agricultural production,
alleviate rural poverty and eradicate hunger.’
How
can poor Liberian farmers using almost their bare
hands to till the soil with no improved seeds and
planting materials compete with western farmers, who
are using the latest technology and farm machinery?
Anyway, from these international or multinational
financial institutions’ perspective, developing
nations dare refused to practice globalization and
trade liberalization.
Any
attempt to argue the negative impacts of free trade
could mean self-execution or isolation in obtaining
international grants and aid. Since the typical
farmers are yet to have the full understanding of
present development trends, and how they are to be
affected by globalization, I hate to compare these
concepts with the World Bank notorious Structural
Adjustment Program (SAP). The World Bank is yet to say
the success story of SAP in the developing world and
the accepted indicators in the measurement of the
success.
In
the interim, Liberia needs to think globally but act
locally (safety net) for national interest.
This is where economic nationalism comes in.
Economic nationalism can be conceptualized as
Liberians’ aspirations, desires, and willingness to
improve their material and cultural conditions through
their own talents, resources, and sustained labor and
for the benefit of themselves.
Economic nationalism ranges cottage industry, farming through
Liberian owed-industrial plants. Economic nationalism
goes alongside with training which is good but not
enough. A worker, no mater how skilled and trained he
or she may be, cannot be very productive. Just imagine
a farmer trying to till his or her land by using their
nails or claws into the soil will be very
unproductive. Give that individual a hoe; then a
shovel; then a hand-tractor; then a tractor, and you
will see productivity increase at every step, because
the individual has been equipped with the capital
to produce.
In
another scenario of illustrating capital is: a man in
Sasstown, Grand Kru County with a household size of
three, using his small canoe for an average of six
hours per day to catch few pieces of fish for his
family’s consumption, would be forced to sell some
to buy what he does not produce. He may be contended
with the routine for sometime, but once his family
size increased to six, his catch may not be enough for
the day. He would have to catch more. But this of
course, is easier said than done. He may ply the
Atlantic Ocean to death and still may not catch for
his growing needs using primitive methods.
He
realizes that the only solution is to increase his
efficiency in catching fish. After some thought, he
concludes that he need some tools like an engine boat
and few modern nylon nets to increase his catch. He
informed his household that in order to do this, they
have to sacrifice to compensate his plan. He made his
family to significantly reduce their consumption of
fish - opportunity cost.
After six months, he obtained the new
technology. He now catches ten times as much than the
previous.
The
stories of the farmer and fisherman suggest economic
development, in that production has increased in farm
products and fishery because of the provision of capital.
Their purchasing powers have increased, they can build
better houses, afford balanced diet, and send their
children to private schools. Importantly, each of
these, buying, selling, import and export would add to
the Gross National Product statistics.
This
time Liberian entrepreneurship has to be explored and
supported. Strong legislations should be crafted and
enforced to the letter separating ventures from
foreign investors and those that the ordinary
Liberians can go into. For
instance, foreign investors must declare certain
foreign exchange savings (say US$150,000), and should
only open factories to employ more people.
We
should not repeat the past, where a Lebanese and ordinary
market women compete in selling items like retaining
imported “chicken cube,” salt, soap, sugar, etc.
Wollor E. Topor lives in the Philippines
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