午夜剧场

"Are people really that powerless?" This was the question posed to me by my mentor, Professor Nobuto Yamamoto, during a seminar around the time I began considering graduate school. That day, I had given a presentation on the democratization of the Philippines. While there are still various debates regarding the outcomes of democratization, my report that day had simplistically accepted the argument that the reality of democratization was merely a revival of elite rule from the pre-authoritarian era. I was unable to respond adequately to the professor's remark, and this question remained with me for a long time.

Since then, my research theme has been the political processes created by people who try to change the status quo through policy, rather than resigning themselves to current conditions such as political instability and poverty. In my Doctoral Programs, I focused on the Central Bank of the Philippines—which achieved a certain level of industrialization through exchange controls in a country where central government capacity was considered low—and traced the footsteps of the bureaucrats and politicians who founded it. Later, in my analysis of Philippine politics after democratization, I conducted research on policymakers aiming for social reform. Since joining the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, I have engaged in repeated discussions with economists and expanded my research scope beyond Southeast Asia to Africa and South Asia, studying political leaders in countries attempting to transform from low-income to middle-income status.

Looking back, that opening question has stayed with me all this time. When I think about why that is, I am reminded of the importance of questioning rather than teaching. At first glance, it might seem like a shortcut to teach students rather than to question them. In fact, since I began facing students as a faculty member, I am often tempted to talk unilaterally. However, I have found that even when I intend to teach step-by-step, the message may not get across at all, or the relationship risks falling into a pattern where students stop thinking for themselves and constantly seek answers from the teacher.

In those moments, I suddenly remember that opening question. Questioning is more difficult than lecturing unilaterally, and above all, it requires patience. Nevertheless, by repeatedly posing questions, students eventually begin to create and refine their own questions. By formulating their own questions, they can gain a perspective to consciously critique what they previously took for granted as common sense. With this in mind, my days continue with the constant formulation of questions, both in my research and in the classroom.