Fidel Ramos Book: October 2007

Fidel V. Ramos and His Philippine Presidency

Democracy and Discipline

Book Launch

October 1, 2007 - 4:30 pm

Romulo Hall, Philippine Embassy

Sponsored by the Philippine Embassy & Philippine American Chamber of Commerce - Metro DC

The book is a study of the twelfth president - and twelfth presidency of the Philippines - undertaken by two contemporary students of the subject.

The volume is not a biography of "FVR" in any formal sense. Its focus, rather, is on the pattern of governance he established, certainly based on the character of the man and the principles he lived.

While not exactly a history of the Ramos administration, Democracy and Discipline takes a look at most of the crises and achievements of those years, tracing the roots of the accomplishments to the leadership of a professional soldier for 42 years, an engineer with a grasp of the larger social structure (a Protestant in a predominantly Catholic country) and a global picture shaped be a family steeped in democracy, and a practitioner of formally learned management principles.

Philippine Embassy, Monday, Oct 1, 2007

President Fidel Ramos

Authors Dr. W. Scott Thompson (Visiting Professor of the Asian Institute of Management and Professor Emeritus of INternational Politics, FletcherSchool of Law and Diplomacy) and Dr. Federico M. Macaranas (Executive Director of the Asian Institute of Management Policy Center) demonstrate that Ramos, during his leadership of the Republic of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998, succeeded in building a team that put in place the political, economic and social foundations of a nation for the new millenium, and achieved a target per capita income of the country well before its target date.

Bing Branigin getting a hug from Ramos

Question and answer time!

Miriam Reidmiller getting her copy autographed by the author Scott Thompson as Glenn looks on.

Introduction by Minister Edwardo Jose A. De Vega

Ramos and Ambassador Gaa

It was quite a book launching

The title of the book summarizes the rejoinder, after much soul-searching and reflection, to Lee Kwan Yew's pearl of Singapore

an wisdom, imparted to the Philippines: that the choice was between "democracy" and "discipline". Could Filipinos not have both? Was the Philippines always rated among the happiest people in the world surveys, doomed to fall between the Scylla of dictatorship and the Charybdis of underdevelopment and widening poverty?

Glenn, Jennifer, Miriam and Linda

The crowd was great!

The Ramos presidency, as a book chronicles, sought to craft the Philippine model, charting the country's path to genuine development within genuine democracy.