The democratization process in El Salvador

Economic development, science and technology

An examination for education in values

News Briefs

THE DEMOCRATIZATION PROCESS IN EL SALVADOR

The national political process is showing encouraging signs concerning the change in the line of march that the Francisco Flores administration seems to be willing to implement in his government administration in the redefinition of the relations between the ARENA party, the state and the business elite. If this change actually comes to pass —in principle, because there is no reason to assume the contrary—, the country would enter a situation of institutional change which would be key for the advance towards a more stable and less conflictive model of society. But the changes which can be set in motion from the government side must be interpreted from the point of view of a broader context —that of the transition to and consolidation of democracy— which would make the most sense.

In other words, the governmental readjustments, no matter how attractive or polemical they might be, will only be really important if they provide potential and encouragement towards the advance of democratization in El Salvador. To return to the situation of the democratization of the country, then, its principal successes and limits will never be too much and will be the occasion for permanent reflection by those who, from the circles of political and economic power, say they are willing to work for a new El Salvador.

Before all else, it must be clear what it is that is understood at the present time to be democracy: here we are speaking of a political regime based on periodic elections, diversity of political and ideological offerings and the organized participation of civil society in the national political scene. Certainly, the democratic ideal cannot be reduced to these three elements, but without them little or nothing can be said about the reality of democracy as a political state of affairs.

On the other hand, to speak of democracy in El Salvador presupposes reference to the Peace Accords because it is from these that the political space was opened for the participation of the FMLN, which could, from that moment on, participate in elections with the rest of the legally inscribed parties (especially with ARENA). The process of democratization in our country does not begin with the signing of the peace accords —there are good and consistent arguments for holding that this process was begun at the beginning of the 1980's—, but it is at that moment that the democratization process receives its definitive impulse. With the incorporation of the FMLN into the legal political life, a basic requisite for democracy was achieved: political and ideological pluralism; that is to say, a political scenario with offerings from the left, the center and the right, among which citizens might choose without suffering external pressure or coercion.

Another prerequisite had been achieved before: periodic elections which, between 1982 and 1999 have been held without major obstruction. Periodic elections and ideological pluralism are two clear indications that something important had happened in the contemporary history of our country as compared with a past characterized by military authoritarianism and political and ideological intolerance.

Nevertheless, periodic elections and pluralism are not sufficient to allow us to speak of a satisfactory level of democracy because only here have we achieved the basic aspects of democratic transition. In order to advance in the process of democratic consolidation, an important component must be present and one which in our country has not been sufficiently complied with: the organized participation of civil society. On the one hand, their levels of organization are extremely weak (not all citizens wish to commit themselves in a collective way); on the other hand, existing social organizations have not succeeded in establishing a fruitful relationship with the political parties in which their own interests are safeguarded.

The foregoing has occasioned a divorce between civil society and the system of political parties. The first does not feel represented by the last and even distrusts their capacity to respond to their interests. Various things motivate this "social distrust or lack of confidence" in political parties: their corruption, the incompetence of their members; the scarce (or absent) social projection of their work; and the rhetoric of their political discourse, empty of content. Doubtless, one of the most worrisome evils plaguing the process of democratic consolidation in our country is exactly this lack of confidence on the part of the social sectors as they deal with politics and politicians. That lack of confidence reinforces motivations towards the non-participation in public affairs, increasing apathy and lethargy on the part of the citizenry.

The problem of tendencies towards the democratization of the country continues: this is to say that the question of where we are going on the question of democracy. Everything pints, in the first place, to a situation in which the ills which are attributed to the political parties and their members will continue in effect, at least until there is a generational change. This is to say, until a generation of political leaders with new ideas and new behavior emerges. In second place, in the measure in which there is no profound renewal of the political class, social malaise with reference to politics and politicians will continue to deepen, and with this social resistance to organized participation in the solution to national problems will continue to be accentuated.

Definitively speaking, once periodic elections and ideological and political pluralism are achieved, the advance of democratization in El Salvador will be at play in the organization and participation of civil society and in the renewal of the political class. If there is no advance in these two aspects in the immediate future, we will simply have more of the same. The empowerment of the first of these centers —i.e., that of the organization and participation of civil society— will require the labor of civic education oriented towards encouraging democratic practices and values.

In summary, it is a question of work, the results of which will only be seen in the medium or long range. The advance in the second of these centers —that of the renewal of the political class— depends on at least two factors: a) the wearing away of the current political elite; and/or b) the retirement of those members who are most tired and worn out and their replacement by younger leaders with goals and ambitions distinct from that of simply living off of politics.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Fomenting science and technology has been one of the most underestimated aspects among government priorities during the last three decades. Although it is possible to find the topic mentioned in the different government programs, in the majority of cases it has not gone beyond more than a declaration of good intentions. In fact, the technological development in El Salvador is practically nonexistent owing to the fact that, on the one hand, there has been a dependence on imported technology for encouraging production and that, on the other, the state has not tied its economic policies to the fomenting of science and technology.

Reality demonstrates that development and transference of science and technology continue to be a task to be taken up in the country: agriculture continues to use methods customary for our ancestors, the majority of the crops currently harvested are prejudicial to the environment, industry is maintained at the levels of technology five decades old, electrical generation uses natural resources in an unsustainable way, treatment programs for wastes produced by the majority of industrial enterprises are non-existent, the technology of construction still has not adapted to environmental and economic requirements of the zone (seismic requirements, the scarcity of land), educational levels still at a very low level. There exists, as well, a low level of tecnification among the work force and the attention to health still has not succeeded in massifying all of the advantages of new technologies.

The results of this situation are widely seen in the reduced importance of agricultural, livestock and industrial production and the proliferation of other forms of accumulation which require less investment in science and technology, such as: commerce, construction, services and industry based on runaway shops (maquilas), which are currently the target of the greater part of foreign investment. This last is owing in large measure to the fact that the country's workforce is not sufficiently qualified to work in any other kind of industries which might supply greater added value. The panorama becomes even more somber if we consider the new world-wide tendencies in technological development of a higher scientific level of development which are beyond the reach of under-developed countries. Industries such as microeletronics, biotechnology, new materials industries and telecommunications, for example, depend principally on the development of intellectual capacity.

El Salvador still has not succeeded in advancing beyond the technological and educational levels hailing from the middle of the last century, and for this reason, the opportunities for a successful insertion into the international market, where comparative advantage will be derived from scientific and technological knowledge, is considerably reduced. Education is one of the areas which merits greater attention in for the promotion of science and technology, especially because the indicators reflect that, in spite of the results of two educational reforms, educational levels in the population are among the lowest in the world. Official data shows that only 67.3% of school age children study —and of these, only 3 of every ten finish primary levels of schooling—, the average level of school attendance among the population six years of age and older is only five years of schooling; illiteracy among heads of households is 28.6%.

The need for an educational reform which improves the intellectual capacity of the workforce is evident, but it is also important to look at the role played by the backwardness in science and technology and its effects on the current conditions of the tendency of the economy to become more and more dominated by service industries and the exaggerated investments in runaway garment shops (maquilas). The low level of training characteristic of the workforce is an explanation of why this kind of investment is focussed on and rooted in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, places where there is no capability to provide workers qualified for industry which generate greater profits.

In good measure, this is owing to the fact that policies for agriculture, livestock production, industry, business and technology have been administered in an independent and almost exclusive way, which has resulted in lost opportunities for the development of sectors which would permit a favorable insertion into the world economy. So it is, for example, that foreign investment in an almost unrestricted fashion has been encouraged without considering the potential technological support which could be obtained from these investments and, of course, the negative effect this tendency has on sales among national businesses.

Until now, the tendencies towards the internationalization of production have not brought with them benefits in terms of the transference of technology for El Salvador because El Salvador is submerged fundamentally in the assembly and finishing of garment products. Even worse, the aggressive policy of lowering tariff levels practiced by the last two government administrations has shown that the opening of markets can even affect national production if this is not sufficiently competitive as compared with the imported offering of the same. This state of affairs implies that the policies for commercial development —far from encouraging production and employment— will, in reality, be competing with the current capacity of industry and agriculture.

With this are required social and economic policies which contemplate four fundamental aspects with respect to the promotion of science and technology: a policy of fiscal incentives, review of the program for lowering tariff barriers, an increase in public investment and conditioning foreign investment. Fiscal incentives could become useful in fomenting productivity, reducing prices and, principally, increasing exports, solely if their characteristics are adequately defined and strategic sectors to which these are directed are also defined.

The dangers which the loosening and lowering of tariff barriers presuppose for the domestic productive sectors can be mitigated or even eliminated through a corresponding program of industrial reconversion and encouragement of agricultural exports. Should it be necessary, protection should be given to the sectors sensitive to the opening of markets, which should no longer be understood as ends in and of themselves synonymous with growth or development.

Given the evident precariousness of the conditions of human development in the country, it is essential that the state strongly increase public investment in education, health, the development of energy, housing, transportation and communications in such a way as to create the infrastructure and human capital necessary for development. Evidently, this has implications on tax policy given that it must, necessarily, undergo a process of designing a tax reform which increases income and levels adequate for financing greater amounts of investment, for a redistribution of budgetary assignments or both. Finally, the conditioning of foreign investment in the transference of science and technology could serve as a basis for beginning a process of accumulation of knowledge which would improve perspectives for industrial conversion and increase competition.

These measures are, in reality, only part of a greater strategy which should deal with the need to reorient economic growth towards modern and competitive sectors with potential to improve the possibility for insertion of the Salvadoran economy into the international economy and, with this, improve, as well, the country's possibilities for development.

AN EXAMINATION FOR EDUCATION IN VALUES

On an individual level and in interpersonal relations, one of the principles which form the basis of coexistence in a democratic system is respect for autonomy and self-determination. This is to say, democracy in public life comes to life when the conditions —institutional and personal— under which individuals might take control of their own lives, openly manifest their preferences and concerns and can freely choose —as heterodox as their tastes may seem to be. This, of course, in the context of respect for legality —which, in principle, is always open to discussion and susceptible to reform— and the rights of the others.

As is obvious in a society such as ours, in which the necessary steps begin to be taken in the process of the consolidation of democracy, the effort to move from one way of coexistence in which differences, criticism and self-determination are denied to one in which the aim is to respect pluralism, freedom of opinion and the conformation together of rational criteria, presupposes —among other changes— the setting in motion of an educational effort which instructs individuals in new values and necessary attitudes in order successfully to achieve processes of dialogue and consensus-building, the guiding principles for action in a democratic context.

In this sense, although with all of the errors and confusions which are to be expected of such magnitude and transcendence in El Salvador, the challenge has been taken up and the task undertaken to reform the anachronistic national education system. The education in values, education for democracy, has become an ineluctable point for discussion in which the aim is to strengthen the potential for education. The state as well as the diverse sectors of the society seem to coincide in the supreme importance of educating children and young people in respect and tolerance.

There are quite a few opportunities and resources which the Ministry of Education has designated and continues to designate in order to reinforce —and publish— the changes which supposedly are in the process of verification in the new generation of Salvadorans —a generation which, thanks to the effort and lucidity of educational entities, would be preparing itself to leave behind authoritarianism, arrogance and lack of respect which characterizes the previous generation. So then, what is to be understood when one speaks of an education in values?

The different shades of interpretation which the educational centers —private and public—give to the question all, in appearance, coincide —or wish to coincide so that they do not remain behind as they confront new educational visions— with education in values which presupposes a "potential in capacity to orient oneself with autonomy, rationality and cooperation in situations which presuppose a conflict in values" ("Moral education: a need in plural and democratic societies" Miguel Martínez Martin, Spanish theoretician in education and collaborator in the work of the Organization of Iberoamerican States for Education, Science and Culture).

So it is that education in values is not "a practice which reproduces itself, it could not associate itself with practices which inculcate specific values but which ought to be understood as a space for change and personal and collective transformation, as a place for emancipation and self-determination". Education in values, then, is neither religious education nor political education nor civic and social education, but rather a model of education which makes possible just and fair coexistence which respects personal autonomy and which makes possible the construction of rational criteria, with which one can distance oneself, on the one hand, from authoritarian positions which aim to decide what is good and what is bad and, on the other, distance oneself , as well, from those situations which, given a conflict of values, sanctify individual decisions based on subjective and strictly personal criteria.

Struggling against extreme positions —relativism and the imposition of absolute values—, education in values aims to provide tools so that individuals, by means of dialogue and rationality, can determine the value principles which might guide their conduct in situations which imply ethical conflicts. In this way, young people can escape the collective pressure which requires obedience to certain pre-established values (gaining in autonomy) and in individualistic decisions which do not contemplate the possibility for dialogue (gaining in rationality).

With what has been presented in this brief summary, it is obvious that the achievement of educational reform which has as its cornerstone education in values, can only be measured in comparison with attitudes which individuals, educational institutions and the government manifest when they deal with situations of conflict, in which what ought to be obvious at first sight, is what, in theory, they have been learning in the classrooms. A practical examination of what has been learned —not the only thing, but rather the most current or up to date— is taking place in dealing with the problem of the casinos. The evaluation of this problem or situation could not be more deceptive: shock reporting of dubious objectivity supported by various sectors of the government and some of the educational institutions of the country have begun an all-out war against the creation of gaming houses, using the argument that they will become centers for the perversion and corruption of minors.

The principal premises in these arguments are: first of all, that minors are uncontaminated individuals who will automatically succumb to almost diabolical temptations which surround them; second, that students have no basic tools for deciding in an autonomous and rational manner, what is the most correct in a conflictive situation; third, that what is most appropriate in order to resolve a particular situation is to annul that situation without discussion because it is an affront to pre-established values, faced with which, students can only react with obedience; and finally, that it is always and only the educational institution which can and should decide about what is appropriate for an unformed mass with no rationality of its own.

What it is important to place before us in this discussion is that if the casinos represent a danger to young people or not, not whether the state has legal mechanisms to regulate them, but rather that in the fight against them all of the ideals and objectives of an educational reform which aims to educate us for democracy are being tossed out. Educational institutions and the state are at loggerheads with casinos because, in their way of seeing things, these are in and of themselves harmful because they are an affront, from the beginning, to good habits and customs, which, of course, are unquestionable. Rational dialogue and the promotion of individual autonomy, then, become hollow phrases.

The clearest example of this is the radical opposition against the plebiscite which the San Salvador Mayor's office aims to carry out so that citizens can decide if the establishment of gaming houses can be regulated or not. From this extreme position, the message sent to young people is: "do not touch, do not think, do not decide; educators and the state will do it for you because only they know what is good for citizen welfare". So it is, then, that to encourage education in values in the classrooms makes no sense when a situation of conflict is dealt with as a joust between good and bad, when opportunities for discussion are closed off and institutional mechanisms through which the residents of the city can participate are boycotted.

REFORMS. Given the pressures on the question of amendments to the Penal Codes and Penal Procedural Codes, the Legislative Commission of the Legislative Assembly began the study of 90 reforms which had been filed away. After four months of not being able to come to an agreement, the deputies met and analyzed the reforms presented by the Patriotic Movement Against Crime . The work of the Commission has been focussed on understanding the arguments posed by the private sector which support the reforms to the codes. The deputies will decide whether they will support them and change the articles. Among the most discussed articles are Article 3 which deals with crimes which a policeman or woman might commit in the course of the investigation of a crime, when it is a question of undercover work. Another is Article 32 which deals with those criminally responsible. And Article 35, which condemns the role of the instigator, although the deputies have succeeded in studying 64 articles of the Penal Code. The first few days of the month of May will be dedicated to the study of reforms to the Penal Procedural Code. On this, Deputy Arturo Argumedo declared that "[the reforms] must be approved in order to whether it is true that they are so necessary". Benito Lara of the FMLN expressed the opinion that the reforms ought to be studied in a serious manner and that this first phase of work has been positive (El Diario de Hoy, April 27, p. 10).

FUNCTIONARIES. The Legislative Assembly must fill eight key positions in government functioning between June and August. According to the deputies, the electoral mechanisms do not exist and are "non-functional" or "obsolete". The functionaries which must be elected are the Attorney General, the General Ombudsman, the President of the Comptroller's Office and five magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. Article 131, Section 19 of the Constitution of the Republic empower the deputies to name the functionaries who will occupy the key positions in these public offices. Moreover, there is nothing else to orient the deputies about how to choose and name them. Nevertheless, Walter Araujo of ARENA, Ileana Rogel of the FMLN and Ruben Zamora of the Democratic Convergence have indicated different possible mechanisms for choosing these persons. Araujo proposed a reform to the Constitution so that a minimum of 56 votes would be required for the choices. Rogel declared that it was necessary to understand "a process of conscience on the part of all party leaders in the sense that it is not a question of dealing with a business or negotiations", so that the current mechanisms could be clarified and official entities and non-governmental organizations might also present proposals for candidates. Finally, Dr. Zamora held that the problem is not in the Constitution but in the Assembly's internal regulations (La Prensa Gráfica, April 26, p. 10 and 12).

FMLN. The election of the new Attorney General and the General Ombudsman and 6 other public functionaries may encounter obstacles. Given this, the FMLN has begun to take a position to deal with possible candidates to hold these offices. The Deputy Eugenio Chicas, of the FMLN, declared that his party is against the re-election of the current Attorney General, Manuel Cordova Castellanos and that of Francisco Merino, head of the Comptroller's Office. According to Chicas, both functionaries have carried out their functions in an unacceptable manner. On the other hand, the FMLN, would be willing to support Miguel Angel Cardoza to continue in his functions as General Ombudsman of the Republic. The FMLN representative recognized that his party had already begun to make a pre-selection of candidates for public office, but also admitted that it foresees obstacles in the election of these candidates. He clarified that the FMLN prefers not to mention names in order to avoid too much publicity beforehand. ARENA, for its part, has hardly touched the matter. ARENA deputy René Figueroa declared that, until now, they have no one under consideration for any of the eight posts which must be filled. Likewise, he considered that the topic of the budget is linked to the electoral processes. "Mechanisms for the choosing functionaries do not exist on purpose. The parties aim to negotiate along with the budget", he stated (La Prensa Gráfica, April 27, p. 10).