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Proceso 1224
January 10th, 2007
The New Year begins with very disappointing signals. According to the preliminary information available, 100 homicides were committed during December 2006, (throughout this year, a total of 3,781 people were murdered). In the first week of January 2007, gang members killed 20 of the interns in a “mutiny” inside the Prison of Apanteos. The Human Right’s Office Director, Beatrice de Carrillo, referred to this event as “one of the most horrid massacres seen in the last years”. The year 2006 was indeed a very violent year, and the New Year seems to follow the same unfortunate trend. Violence, therefore, is one of the main problems of the Salvadoran society; however, this is not the only problem. There are plenty of other structural unresolved issues, such as social exclusion, the institutional deterioration of many organizations, the concentration of wealth in the hands of just a few, the divorce between the society and the State, impunity, corruption, the deterioration of the natural resources, and the immigration phenomenon. All of these problems are systematically linked in this context, that is why the solution should be part of an integral process of decisions and actions.
These problems have become the most important challenges not only for the Salvadoran society, but also for those who hold in their hands the political, the economic and the cultural power. How can these challenges be described in general terms?
To analyze these problems it would be necessary to honestly discuss the kind of country that we have in realistic terms, and the kind of country that we actually want. There are those who are happy with the way things are going, despite the structural hazards. However, to keep living in a country of illusions will only make matters worse, and will not allow the system to find a solution on time. The next realistic step would be to discuss how the country should be conceived in economic, political, social, and environmental terms. Because only the adequate institutional, economic, and political mechanisms will enable us to overcome the structural problems of the country, and find a social, an economic, and a political order different from the one presently established.
This is about crafting more adequate institutional plans in order to make democracy work hand in hand with the economy and the social scenery. This is also about creating public policies able to support the institutional actions. Improvising is out of the question. It is time to consider an actual national plan that would have to be necessarily adopted by any political party in the government. These actions have a foundation: the Peace Accords, and the Plan of the Nation, created during the Calderon administration. Any document that reflects a national plan should have a constitutional status, otherwise it would be subjected to short-term policies.
It is also necessary to create a new civilian culture enveloped in democratic values that we should not live without, such as responsibility, tolerance, respect towards the law, an active participation in the public matters, and an attitude that rejects the abusive actions of the powerful ones.
This is a long-term task, and any efforts made by the schools, the universities, and the media will never be enough because of the strong authoritarian values that prevail in many sectors of the population. This authoritarian culture should be removed at once if the intention is to build a less violent society. The cultural transformations are not only slow, but also difficult. If we give importance to the social values and the beliefs of the citizenry, we will affect their conduct and their choices in a positive manner.
Another challenge is to increase the public participation of the citizenry. Traditionally, the power elites of the country have never been happy with the thought of seeing the people protest on the streets. Because of their authoritarian attitude, these elites want to see a passive population that would settle for just about anything. They do not want an active population able to transform the country. However, if the task is transforming the society into a more democratic one, this can only be accomplished with the active participation of those who will, in the end, be the ones enjoying a new sense of society.
Some have already tried to make transformations without including the society in their plans. Now, those initiatives should not be considered without having the population in mind. And this kind of perspective requires a sense of public participation in order to walk towards the future of the country.
Because the country is now, so to speak, close to an abyss, according to the current thesis, it is necessary to find another perspective able to approach the fact that the country is also in the middle of many challenges that, if faced with the right attitude, can be transformed into an endless horizon of possibilities for the society. Now, more than ever, it is necessary to adopt an attitude of political creativity, a public commitment, and a sense of shared responsibility.
The political challenges of 2007
The political results of 2006 were not exactly encouraging, according to the general balance of that year, reported in the last issue of this publication. However, it is important to identify what are the political challenges that both the society and the political parties have to face during this new year. This is the only way to achieve important and positive transformations in the present political scene.
Beyond the particular challenges of certain individuals, the most important challenge that the country has to face is the construction of a democratic State. This means that the people have the right to enjoy their status as citizens, and for this it is important not to forget about an active civilian participation in the public affairs, and in the decision- making process adopted by the governments. The people should not be ignored.
The State has to be able to guarantee the rights of the citizenry, and to improve the way in which these rights are granted in order to reach a more favorable situation. A democratic State must be based on the elimination of the enormous social gaps that characterize the every-day life. Dramatically uneven economic categories describe the picture of many families living in poverty.
There is no democracy without meeting a series of requirements as the conditions for a favorable life, and as the foundations of the respect for the human rights. In this case, El Salvador counts with the necessary procedures of a democratic system –the elections, the work of the elected public officials- that can be seen as a positive factor that would enable us to face the aforementioned challenges. However, the electoral democracy, as we know it, also requires substantial transformations in order to grant the political rights.
To consolidate the democratic process it is necessary to fight against social exclusion, and that should be the main strategy. In this sense, the political parties, the businessmen, the special interest groups, and the civilian organizations should be conscious enough about their contribution to this cause that basically demands that they work as a team. The authoritarian attitudes and the lack of tolerance are structural negative factors that should be erased. To respect others, to respect human dignity as a whole, and to have a supportive attitude should be the positive transformations that have to be adopted at some point in order to make changes.
It is also necessary to get rid of this tendency of using conservative attitudes to ideologically manipulate the reality. There is a certain sense of this sort of instrumental rationality that lives among the members of society; many business sectors as well as many political groups are more interested in achieving their personal goals and in having enough power to accumulate as much money as possible. In other words, it is necessary to change the mentality of the population, in order to see the State not as the means to get impressive amounts of power, personal benefits or an income, but as an efficient institution to organize and guide the society to achieve collective goals.
The institutional sense of democracy should be respected at every level by the politicians as well as by the members of the public administrations and the society in general.
It is very common to talk about the lack of credibility that surrounds the image of the political parties. A considerable amount of this discredit is something they have asked for, because the members and the leaders of the political parties have not usually respected the established legal frames, they have basically responded to their private interests and not to the general needs of the society, and they have traditionally adopted corruption as an every-day task.
In the specific case of these political institutions, the main challenge and the most important task is to become, for once and for all, the actual spokespeople of the citizenry. They have to stop making decisions that only favor certain elites or certain groups, since their most important goal should be to represent the majority through adequate public policies.
In this context, the public policies that come from the Congress and from the Executive Power should efficiently respond to the demands and the needs of the population. The political leaders have to show that they are seriously handling those issues that are considered a priority for the country. In order to do this, it is necessary to count with a basic agenda created not only through a consensus reached among the political institutions, but through the consideration of the perspectives of the different social sectors of the country.
The will and the opinions of the society have to be the most important factors to consider in order to end with the social exclusion crisis. In the future, to accomplish this has to be a reality, and not just a wish. This process also requires that these sectors can polish the rough edges of their differences, in order to have an integral perspective of what the country should be like when you have a clear goal. That is why it is necessary to establish the kind of dialogue that, for example, ARENA and the guerrilla established with the Peace Accords 15 years ago; that is, to find the mechanisms that can transform the country. The debate of ideas should be the most important feature adopted by the politicians, more important than their cult-like ideological vision of reality.
History has shown that corruption has always been present in the actions of the political parties. Those institutions allegedly in charge of supervising the governmental performance have not done anything but to add themselves to the particular interests of the political parties. This is why one of the main challenges for the political system is to actually issue a report of results. The government has to perform many tasks to do this: the government has to see this action as a fundamental line of work for the public administration and for all of the elected public officials.
This is not only about the governmental institutions presenting a final report, this should also have a transparent quality, specially when it comes to reveal the administration process of the public funds and the assigned resources. It involves as well an adequate implementation of the projects and the programs designed in the context of the public policies. If this line of performance becomes an every-day practice, the government will be able to fulfill its obligations.
An efficient report of results should be adopted by all of the governmental areas. The local governments, and some of them are pioneers in this sort of tasks, should promote the participation mechanisms and assign a more active role to the citizenry. An efficient report of results should be an integral feature of their governmental programs and their plans.
The society has in its hands the most important task, because it has to be able to seriously demand an efficient report of results, and to closely watch the performance of the public institutions as well as the actions of the public officials.
The most urgent of all of the possible reforms is to finally grant some freedoms to the Supreme Electoral Court. The present configuration of this institution takes away from its public image the amount of credibility that they need and the amount of independence that they require as an organization. To this we can add its deficient performance in each of the electoral events. It is important to redefine the profile of this institution, in order that the society as a whole, and not only the political parties, is able to judge both the design and the development of the electoral process. It is also necessary to consider the creation of a legal frame to regulate aspects such as the financial aid granted to the political parties.
With these and other changes inside the political system, the country can reach higher levels of democracy and improve the life standards of the people, that is, to reach fair levels of social harmony. That is why 2007 can become the perfect opportunity to face the challenges described in this article.
Other articles featured in this issue of Proceso:
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