BRICS RISING
26 October 2024
BRICS RISING: WHILE THE WEST DECLINES, THE PHILIPPINES STANDS ON THE WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY
"The common march of the Global South towards modernity is a major event in world history and an unprecedented achievement in the course of human civilization." — Xi Jinping, 2024 BRICS Summit.
The BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, now expanded with Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the UAE — represent more than just a coalition of developing countries. They signify an entirely new world order, a Global South’s united front that’s redefining how international relations are conducted, without the neocolonial condescension of the West.
This alliance is a reclamation, a bold message to the world that the future doesn’t belong to the West anymore. It’s time for the Global South to dictate its own terms.
In the Kazan Summit of 2024, BRICS leaders laid out visions that transcend the transactional relationships we see in Western politics. In Xi Jinping’s own words, BRICS aims to be a “stabilizer for global security,” implying a rebuke to the West's divisive politics and endless wars, such as the interventions in the Middle East. They’re calling for sovereignty and unity, not for regimes beholden to the whims of multinational corporations.
The expansion of BRICS embodies a counterweight to Western dominance, a call for a multipolar world order that respects diversity over dollar diplomacy.
While many Southeast Asian nations have started to recognize the value of aligning with BRICS, the Philippines, under Bongbong Marcos Jr., clings desperately to its allegiance to Western allies. His administration’s foreign policy seems fixated on antiquated alliances and half-hearted “partnerships” with the U.S., alliances that arguably put the Philippines on the wrong side of an accelerating historical shift.
This country, with a legacy of colonial rule and decades of dependence on the U.S., deserves an authentic, sovereign path toward prosperity.
Marcos Jr.'s reluctance to engage meaningfully with the BRICS coalition keeps the Philippines isolated in a fast-changing Asia. While Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand look to multipolar relations as 4 of the 13 new partner countries, cultivating ties with China and BRICS, the Philippines remains shackled to a nation an ocean away that has done little to uplift its economic autonomy or protect its interests in the South China Sea.
Western interventionism, while marketed as security, stability, and support, is actually nothing more than a desperate attempt to maintain relevance. For the Philippines, relying on American military power in the South China Sea is no guarantee of peace. To pretend the U.S. acts as a benevolent defender is naive; its interests are about dominance, not partnership. For Bongbong Marcos to double down on this reliance is a staggering miscalculation.
And where is the prosperity for Filipinos? Instead of investing in real, mutually beneficial relationships with BRICS nations, we are treated to an endless cycle of dependence and debt, dressed up as “assistance.”
BRICS is a model of what can happen when nations collaborate without strings attached. It doesn’t ask its member nations to reform in the image of a superpower; it doesn’t demand ideological subservience. It’s a refreshing contrast to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which wield debt like a weapon.
BRICS represents a choice to be part of a global economy where your sovereignty isn’t compromised.
So, I ask, why does the Philippines remain an outlier? Is it fear? Is it lack of vision? Are we so tied to our colonial past that we can’t imagine a future led by Filipinos for Filipinos?
-- Jan Writer
