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Proceso 1184
March 8, 2006
ISSN 0259-9864
Editorial: A critical valorization on the electoral campaign
Politics: Imitating ARENA's vices
Economy: A valorization on legislative platforms
A critical valorization on the electoral campaign
On this Sunday, March 12th, this
year's municipal and legislative elections will be celebrated. Beyond
prognostics on its results, that day the new composition of the Legislative
Assembly and the distribution of municipal power will be decided. Well then, in
this moment it is pertinent to make a critical valorization son the electoral
campaign, in order to identify its more notable vices and files. The thing is
that in the recently finished campaign, some attitudes and practices that many
of us would like to see eradicated from the national political dynamic came out.
In first place, the explicit proselytism that some public officers on duty
carried on. It is a tradition for this to happen, but in this campaign, the
limits of the permissible were surpassed. The most remarkable case was the
president Saca, who forgot his duties in the Executive and became another
activist of ARENA. It would be necessary to make sums on how much did the
country lose —in economic and legal terms— thanks to a president who devoted
himself, not to run the country but to make campaign for his party. Its true
that not only president Saca was in campaign; ministers, viceministers,
deputies, mayors and middle charges in the government were also in campaign.
There are luxuries that can not be afforded by a poor country, and one of them
is that those who have in their hands the main political responsibility waste
their times making campaign for their party. No one wants to deprive them of
this right, but they must resign their charges in the public administration
before.
In second hand, there is ARENA's demagogy. One more time, as in many other
occasions, the current campaign has been plenty on demagogy, which favors
manipulation and delusion. None of the competing parties were free of this.
Nevertheless, one of them was outstanding among the others: ARENA. President
Saca and the ruling party's candidates have sold, during the campaign, a country
of fantasy, a country in which the eradication of unemployment, poverty and the
low education, health and living rates would be immediate. All of this, thanks
to ARENA, privatization, dollarization and the signature of a free trade
agreement with the US. The height of the ruling party's demagogy was selling the
emigration of Salvadorans to the US —a real social problem, undoubtedly— as one
of the main achievements of this government.
By presenting things in this way, they have played with people; cynically, they
eluded three unarguable realities: that emigration to the US (and other
countries) began before ARENA won the Executive; that ARENA's governments can
not stop deportations and abuses against Salvadoran migrants in the US and that
the forced exit of Salvadorans to overseas (mainly to the US) shows that the
economic model of ARENA is an absolute failure, concerning the well-being of the
majority of population.
ARENA had enough time to face unemployment, the deterioration of domestic
economy, the exclusion and marginalization of the majorities, but they have not
done it. They are asking for another chance to face those and other problems,
and are making promises that they won't fulfill, because their vocation is
serving to the richest people in El Salvador. In ARENA, demagogy has no burdens.
Manipulation and delusion are their preferred weapons; the big media, their
accomplices; and the poor people of the country, their victims.
In third place, electoral violence. During electoral times, violence between the
FMLN and ARENA's militants becomes more normal. This violence is often supported
by the parties' leaderships, that pretend to scare the sympathizers of their
political rivals. During this campaign, the violent attitude of ARENA's
militants was outstanding. They have reproduced, in small towns and villages,
the prepotency and aggressiveness proper of some of their leaders. In several
places —i.e., the town of Guaymango, in Ahuachapán, and cantón Laguna Seca in
the municipality of Nueva Concepción, Chalatenango— members of ARENA attacked
FMLN's members and sympathizers, provoking a climate of political confrontation
that is opposed to the basic rules of democracy. Many militants of ARENA, poor,
marginalized and excluded themselves, belong to groups organized to intimidate
their rivals, as the disappeared far right group ORDEN did. If ARENA's
leadership promotes this behavior, it would be better that they quit doing so,
because it would not be good for anyone —remember ORDEN and the death squads— to
have groups of thugs in the street scattering fear for political reasons.
Finally, the complicity of the main media with Saca's government and ARENA
party. Those media wave their democratic commitment, but when it comes to
criticize power, they remain silent without turning a hair. They have been
accomplices of an interpretation of elections —which understand them as a "civic
celebration"— in which the fundamental problems of the countries have not been
discussed seriously and the violations to electoral law and Constitution
committed by prominent ARENA's members, including president Saca, have not been
questioned. The main media have showed up, once more, that ARENA's interests are
theirs. Their forums, debates and interviews, instead of creating a critical
consciousness in the citizens, have contributed to trivialize reality. In a few
words, the political contents that they have communicated are designed by the
right wing to perpetuate itself in the power. For this reason, they have hidden
and distorted what is not convenient for the right wing, besides it is
convenient for the society as a whole.
Definitely, the recently finished electoral campaign is scattering serious
doubts, not only about the course of the democratization process in the country,
but also about the seriousness assumed to face the problems of the country by
its political leadership. A campaign like this must worry everyone in the
country, because instead of being a progress in democratization, it is a
backward movement with clear authoritarian symptoms.
Imitating ARENA's vices
The ruling party leaded a very abject campaign. There is not another adjective to describe it. While its supposed main candidate, who is competing for the Mayor's office in San Salvador has a hard time trying to defend a municipal platform that does not go further of general enunciates, his party has violated the ethical norms and the constitutional dispositions with their electoral campaign.
The ARENA's candidate in the capital city does not convince anyone, as also do
not the rest of its candidates. For this reason, ARENA focused in presenting a
campaign in which the lightly dressed models and the insults against the FMLN
tried to fill their voids of contents. For this reason, they eluded, as always,
to debate seriously, for debating it is not the same to appear in the same
picture with other candidates and repeating the same campaign promises.
This is not new at all, because traditional campaigns have been leaded in that
way, trying to reach the electorate's guts or heart, but not their head. Those
are not campaigns for thinking, because traditional parties are not interested
in that the people think, but that they vote for them. Another traditional
practice is the role played by the presidential administrations. Besides they do
not asked openly for votes, it is common to see how the governments inaugurate
public works that have been postponed for a long time, precisely during the
month of elections. They act like they have not been elected to turn the taxes
in works for the common good and not for turning them into propaganda.
The current electoral campaign of ARENA is setting a precedent on the lack of
principles. They are not satisfied with the old practices, but the president of
the nation shamelessly acted as the de facto chief of campaign of ARENA, besides
the de jure chief of campaign is Julio Rank. A chief of campaign that also is
the president of the Republic and the chief commander of the Salvadoran army.
Saca's participation in the campaign and the indifference of the Salvadoran
society are indicators of the degradation of local politics.
This results outrageous, but it is not surprising. Since the times of military
governments, Salvadoran public is used to that kind of unethical and illicit
campaign. What is surprising is the turn that the propaganda of the FMLN took in
the final stage of the elections. Instead of promising whatever they can like
the right wing does, the left wing made an effort to discuss some of the most
concerning issues of the country in its campaigns.
Altogether with advertisements in which the FMLN promotes their candidates to
the city council and the public works that were done in the municipalities ruled
by the party, a typical defamatory campaign begun to shape. That campaign
started with an advertisement that accused president Saca of not fulfilling his
campaign promises. After that, it was shown an advertisement in which a feminine
voice reads a letter from a Salvadoran immigrant to the US to her mother,
advising her not to vote again for ARENA. These messages were a clear response
to the dirty campaign of ARENA, in which the FMLN was blamed of having
connections with the gangs and of being involved with street riots.
Nevertheless, the height of the dirty campaign was a television advertisement
transmitted last weekend. It compares the ARENA governments with a bunch of
rats, eager to devour a cake with the map of El Salvador drawn on its top. A
stream of red water wipes the rats. Some pictures of personalities linked both
to ARENA and also to corruption cases are shown in the advertisement. The
pictures form a cross, as the one that appears in the ARENA's flag. In the
center of the cross, there is the picture of president Saca.
The FMLN is imitating, then, one of the worst things of ARENA: their filthy
propaganda. That kind of propaganda tries to impact the public in a negative
way, pretending to create an animadversion feeling against the adversary. This
can be contrasted with other kind of propaganda of the same party, in which some
elements to reflect on the ARENA's messages are given. The left wing
distinguished itself for introducing reflection in the campaign, instead of
insulting their rivals. Last Wednesday, a program that appeared in a broadcast
of the television channel owned by the mayor of San Miguel and candidate of the
PCN party to the reelection, Wil Salgado, set another bad precedent, openly
mocking of Mr. Salgado's rivals.
Little by little, the political parties surpass some limits that inside a
democracy must be respected: the rights of the others. Freedom of speech is
understood as an unrestricted right that can push around any ethical
consideration. If some media confuse irresponsible statements with the freedom
of speech, many of the political parties do the same. Pretending that the
campaign entitles everyone to insult and calumniate other people is the same to
pretend that the political campaign gives ethical immunity. The campaign would
justify anything, then.
The previous stated is the symptom of a fragmentation affecting Salvadoran
society. Politics are conceived as something that is far off ethics. Seeking
votes is an aim in itself. In second place, politics are understood as something
that, necessarily, citizens must be unconnected. Politics would be the task of a
group of specialists, of political technicians: the so-called "professional
politicians".
This leads us to another aspect: politics are understood from a rationality of
means and aims. A technological rationality that conceives politics as an
artifact: some use the term electoral machine. Machines fulfill some procedures,
i. e., gaining votes. But machines do not reflect on the sense of what they are
doing. Technologized politics depends on marketing strategies. Not in vain, the
current electoral campaign are not defined by social or political scientists,
neither by the citizens concerned by the national issues, but by merchandising
experts.
This is nothing new and, belonging to the right wing, is not surprising.
Vulgarity and lack of arguments have been their main weapons. The most liked
candidates are the most "folkloric" ones, a bad used term that means: "lack of
seriousness", "corny" and "offensive". May the left wing do not learn this, for
it would be the burial of the hopes for a change in this country.
A valorization on legislative platforms
The political campaign finishes this Wednesday. Political parties have presented their legislative proposals to Salvadoran people. These proposals have been diverse: some parties base their proposals on ideological aspects that limit their focus on concrete issues; others devotes themselves to criticize their adversaries instead of promoting their deficient work programs in the Assembly. Even are those who, on spite of their limitations, have a few feasible proposals, on spite their lack of support from the people.
In economy, the legislative proposal ARENA was based, one more time, in the
message of the past presidential elections: the "deepening" of the liberty
system and the promotion of "the equity of opportunities". Those are extremely
wide concepts that may cheer the spirit of the members of ARENA, but does not
say much to a population that is seeking concrete solutions to the problems in
the country. This vagueness is due, among other reasons, to the fact that the
candidates to deputies for the ARENA party have nothing new to offer. The new
deputies for the ruling party are called to make the approval of every
initiative of president Saca easy. In other words, who set the guidelines for
the ARENA's deputies in the Assembly is the head of the Executive. Not in vain
the Salvadoran president says, "a vote for ARENA's deputies is a vote for Tony
Saca".
The concrete problems of the country, as the lack of economic growth and
unemployment, are faced with general measures as the "creation of better quality
jobs" and "sectorial policies" for economic development. Proposals that do not
specify which laws could be created or reformed in order to work for achieving
those aims. In the same way, the environmental proposal on the establishment of
"a harmonic territorial development" does not express which norms will be
supported or reformed to fight environmental problems. From all the proposals,
only the legal reforms in public security are punctual and concrete.
Nevertheless, in economy there is a lack of clearness to develop new measures
until the next legislature.
The FMLN's candidates for the congress are a bit clearer in their proposals. The
problem of the opposition party is that they are sort of unrealistic: restoring
the colón and derogation of CAFTA. On spite that many specialists consider the
difficulties that a new change of currency may cause, the new deputies of the
leftist party would be struggling for the circulation of colón. That issue, as
some of the left wing party leaders have recognized, is a matter of honor. With
such mentality, the left wing can not see that may be a change of currency would
not be adequate for the country. With the same force they also reject CAFTA. The
FMLN wants to derogate all the laws that support a free trade agreement with the
US. Like the restoration of colón, rejecting CAFTA is something intended to
spoil ARENA's fun, instead of considering if those measures are convenient or
not for Salvadoran population.
Among the FMLN's proposals, one that is concrete and feasible is the reform to
the law of governmental bids. It is intended to create more opportunities for
the development of the micro, small and medium businesses in the country.
Another important project that agrees with one of the proposals of the CD-FDR-PPSC
coalition is the reform to the law of IVA tax, eliminating the tax for the basic
consumption goods. This reform would benefit poor families.
Among all the proposals, the legislative proposal of the CD-FDR-PPSC coalition's
proposal was the one that better traced its work lines. For the center left wing
coalition, the situation faced by the country creates political instability that
prevents the country development. The coalition's candidates describe their
proposals as "feasible outlines" to distance themselves of the vague proposals
that other parties may have.
In economy, the work plan of the coalition is centered in reforms to the labor
legislation, in order to pressure the irresponsible entrepreneurs to give the
deductions for health and retirement to the ISSS and the AFP. They also propose
to regulate credit cards and reforms to the electricity law in order to
establish a better adequate mechanism to set the rates for electricity. As said
before, the coalition, like the FMLN, is interested in reforming the law of IVA
tax.
In the other hand, the legislative proposal of PDC and PCN parties is very
concise. Christian Democrats agree with the coalition in saying that the current
situation in the country is due to the fights between ARENA and FMLN. This party
proposes fiscal incentives in order to support business investment. These
measures would be aimed to small and medium businesses. They also propose salary
adjustments in order to halt emigration.
PCN's proposal is not clear. It seems that a document describing the legislative
outlines for the coming three years does not exist. Perhaps for its financial
limitations, the party is not able to publish its legislative platform. It is
known that PCN is a party that does not set the guidelines in the Assembly. On
the contrary, this is party that often changes its positions based on the
proposals of the major parties. The FMLN despised PCN for this attitude, and
identify it as a party that follows the ideas of ARENA, but it has caused unrest
in the ruling party, because, sooner or later, they depend on PCN to pass their
laws in the Assembly. During this process, PCN's deputies put some conditions to
the ruling party in order to support their measures. In this sense, it can be
seen a mutual dependence between the ruling party and the PCN. As the time
passes and if PCN gains more deputies, it is possible that the conditions of
this party are increased.
In general terms, most of the legislative platforms are characterized for its
conciseness and its lack of clearness. The major parties are betting on turning
on the political passions of their constant voters before gaining new electors.
They are afraid of this because this may imply changing, in a certain extent,
their work strategies. The oldest parties bet above all on the force of their
image and the tradition. Their proposals are minimal if compared with the other
parties. The center-left coalition has a clear proposal, but has a scarce
electoral support. It is necessary that the citizenry demand more from the
parties. The lack of a serious debate in the current elections is not only a
fault of the parties, because a considerable part of the citizenry prefers the
image, the color and the pomp to establish their political affinities instead of
the serious reflectio.
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