Please, send us your comments and suggestions
More information:
Tel: +503-210-6600 ext. 407, Fax: +503-210-6655
Center for Information, Documentation
and Research Support (CIDAI)
E-mail: cidai@cidai.uca.edu.sv
Central American University (UCA)
Apdo. Postal 01-168, Boulevard
Los Próceres
San Salvador, El Salvador, Centro
América
Tel: +(503) 210-6600 ext. 407
Fax: +(503) 210-6655
Proceso is published
weekly in Spanish by the Center for Information, Documentation and Research
Support (CIDAI) of the Central American University (UCA) of El Salvador.
Portions are sent in English to the *reg.elsalvador* conference of PeaceNet
in the USA and may be forwarded or copied to other networks and electronic
mailing lists. Please make sure to mention Proceso when quoting from this
publication.
Subscriptions to Proceso
in Spanish can be obtained by sending a check for US$50.00 (Americas) or
$75.00 (Europe) made out to 'Universidad Centroamericana' and sent to the
above address. Or read it partially on the UCA’s Web Page: http://www.uca.edu.sv
For the ones who are
interested in sending donations, these would be welcome at Proceso. Apdo.
Postal (01) 575, San Salvador, El Salvador.
Proceso 941
February 28, 2001
ISSN 0259-9864
Editorial: An opportunity
for El Salvador
Politics: The left-wing and
the current crisis
Economy: Development plans
in perpective
AN OPPORTUNITY FOR EL SALVADOR
In addition to the immense material and human losses caused by the two earthquakes in the first two months of this year, there are two more effects, related to the former ones, whose consequences are immeasurable for the social harmony: collective pessimism and fatalism. As for pessimism, many Salvadorans do not see how the situation could improve; they think the situation is going to remain at least the same. Thus, it does not make any sense to change the traditional life styles nor to take up new purposes going beyond the immediate conditions.
As for fatalism, many people hope that not only things will remain the same, but also that they will get worse. According to this point of view, the country is threatened by horrible natural menaces, in front of which we just have to conform. From this consideration, people may conclude the following: “if the worst is coming, if it is unavoidable that things get worse, it does not make any sense that we worry about anything else, except for getting what we need for a living at this moment”. Some people would think that there is nothing to care about: “if El Salvador is going to disappear, it does not matter who is violating the human rights and the other ones’ dignity. Anyway, it is my well-being what matters”.
In this context, a culture of pessimism and fatalism seems to start taking root among the Salvadorans. Although inexplicable, it is not the best that could happen in the country at this moment, when there are two special challenges for the collective forces: to face the disaster situation and to advance a new economic, social and ecological plan. Both challenges go together. In fact, the two last earthquakes, the 1986 seism, as well as the Mitch storm in 1998, have proved that the excessive vulnerability of the population affected by those natural phenomena is related to the economic, social and ecologic planning prevailing in the country. We will always have and always have had earthquakes. Therefore, El Salvador will not be able to design an efficient strategy for the prevention, mitigation and attention of disasters, unless the governmental plan is drastically modified.
The debate on a new economic, social and ecologic plan is not an ideological discussion about which of the systems (capitalism or socialism) is the best. Such debate —interesting for some people and a waste of time for some other— can wait. However, we cannot postpone the reform of the “Salvadoran capitalism”, whose weaknesses, vice and inertia are evident. Behind this capitalism, one of its deepest weaknesses is its destructive logic towards natural resources; the businessmen groups’ resistance to change is one of its main vices; the state apparatus’ utilization for private interests reveals its historical inertia. In addition, it has the tendency to discriminate against the majority of Salvadorans, in social, economic and cultural terms.
To deny that our capitalism needs a drastic reform is to suffer an unforgettable blindness. By opposing any reform, under the premise that there is a socialist motivation, some people deny the Salvadorans the opportunity to avoid social insurrections, caused by the current exclusion and marginality. To understate any proposal just because it does not imply a radical modification to the “system” is to postpone the satisfaction of immense social needs for an indefinite time. It is odd to see that not only those who consider any change attempt as a socializing menace but also those who consider the reforms as merely cosmetic end up leaving the situation as it is. Some of them do it because fear any change, and the rest only supports the system modification as a whole.
Those fearing the changes should realize that as long as the Salvadoran capitalism is based on erratic fundaments, there would be severe conflicts within the society and they would explode at any moment, destroying the most optimistic perspectives shown by the groups that monopolize richness and power in the country. On the other hand, those supporting only the system’s modification should fight for “minor” reforms that contribute to ease the citizens’ lives. This would promote joint efforts to transform the economic, social and ecologic plan of the government, setting aside the debate about whether one system is better than the other, or whether we need a third way.
It is going to be hard to start the debate on which reforms are the most urgent and appropriate. It will also be difficult to run a new socio economic and ecologic plan. A fundamental premise to reach the goal is the firm decision of those ruling the state apparatus to embark on a new and challenging process. Without the resolute willingness of the state authorities to advance in a new direction, little can be done to stop the tendency of the last three decades.
The counterpart to the state initiative
towards change should be offered by the civil and organized society. Without
the citizenry’s participation, any state program would become inefficient,
precisely when it should prove its competence. There is no doubt that the
civil society is the main absentee within the prevailing economic, social
and ecologic plan. Currently, the most important challenge to our country
is to incorporate the civil society within the new process. The second
challenge is to build a “risk culture”, competent enough to involve all
the citizens and to make them responsible for their individual and group
safety. A risk culture would let us realize we are living in a country
with several menaces (natural and social), which can only be faced by an
energetic citizenry. The disaster situation is a good opportunity to the
sharpness and creativity of the social forces. Hopefully, fear of change,
corrupt interests and ignorance, will not prevent us from taking advantage
of this opportunity.
THE LEFT-WING AND THE CURRENT CRISIS
In addition to the commitment of various social groups, the severe damages left by the earthquakes demand an opportune and efficient participation of the political system. For this reason, it is important that the different political sectors be able to cope with the aforementioned challenges. Setting the reciprocal accusations among the right and the left-wing aside —derived from the constant electoral fights—, what has been the left-wing’s attitude towards the current circumstances?
To answer this question, it is going to be necessary to identify two types of reactions the left-wing has given in this situation of emergency and national crisis: those who politicize everything and those who always give suggestions. To politicize, in bad terms, is considered a spontaneous reaction (filled with impotence and confusion), aimed to take advantage of the adversaries’ mistakes, whether they are real or not. In the specific case of the FMLN, the tendency to politicize turned into an infuriated critique against the government’s missteps in front of the recent emergency (whether they were true or not). In this context, the FMLN’s leadership gave a spectacle when Facundo Guardado went to Spain accompanying the External Affairs Minister. On the other hand, the right-wing did not waste the opportunity to criticize this political error and the opposition party’s behaviour by pointing its lack of solidarity with the disaster’s victims.
The second type of attitude tended to make proposals. Although critique was also present, it was more wise and balanced, as well. These reactions include all the calls for unification and national discussion. In addition, the opposition party leadership announced its disposition to cooperate in the reconstruction process, led by president Francisco Flores. The left-wing party also worked on a document entitled “Strategy for reconstruction and transition towards development”, created by the FMLN’s political committee.
It is also worth to underline here the opposition efforts to suggest solutions to the problems. It is the only political party that worked on a proposal to present its view about what could be done during the national emergency and then during the reconstruction. Beyond the acceptation and the rejection arisen by the FMLN’s document, there is no doubt that it contains the point of view of the most important opposition party, whose contribution is very important for the national reconstruction. To reject the FMLN’s proposal would mean that reconstruction is a task only for a small group.
On the other hand, it would be important to analyze some points of the reconstruction strategy proposed by the leftist party. The document contains a critic concerning the governmental management of ARENA since 1989. According to the document, misery, environmental and social vulnerability, disintegration of society, delinquency and organized crime are the result of a conception of the term “State”, misunderstood as the one to serve a minority. Then again, the FMLN claims for a “democratic revolution” in the capitalist and neoliberal system that prevails in this country. The empire of a socialist system, at the service of men, would be the pathway to resolve the problems that afflict El Salvador.
Beyond the discussion about the good or evil of the “systems”, a few would dare to deny that the current model of social, economic and environmental management, as the FMLN denunciates, is responsible for a good share of the disasters caused by the earthquakes. The process of reconstruction that must get started cannot ignore this reality.
In the same line, as fields of political action, the opposition party identifies four key aspects that “might allow us to promote the interaction among the different forces, in order to confront the emergency and the transition to development”. It is positive that the FMLN mentions the need to involve all social forces in the process of reconstruction. However, their portray of this issue gives the impression that social forces are conceived as just a step in the reconstruction strategy suggested by the opposition. The FMLN leaders seem to forget that ARENA holds the executive power, not them. They do not seem to understand that the different sectors of the Salvadoran society must get involved in the reconstruction duties, not under terms of strategy or tactic, but as responsible of the development process.
These issues lead us to discuss descentralization and civilian participation. Despite the fact that the document presented by the FMLN considers the transfer of funds to municipalities and the descentralization as fundamental points in the reconstruction process, the FMLN does not deepen into the analysis of civilian participation. In that sense, the document does not include the claims or the demands of the civil society to increase their presence in the political system. Perhaps the FMLN has not understood that the negative consequences of the prevailing social and economic model’s design and management are related to the civilian exclusion. It would be naïve to think that the disconnection between the interests of political leaders and civilians can be resolved just by the transference of funds to the municipalities. It takes more than an economic descentralization to confront the environmental, social, economic and political emergency; a step forward to reinforce civilian participation has to be taken.
This may explain why the FMLN´s document does not include specific actions to make its strategy effective from the municipalities it controls. That is a task that can be accomplished immediately, while the leaders of the right - wing and the executive branch understand the need to involve all society’s sectors into a dialogue, in order to change the course and conception of national development. Even when the executive branch’s idea about descentralization, as the FMLN denunciates it, “pretends to transfer the problems from the government to the mayors´ offices”. This should not be an obstacle for the municipalities managed by the opposition to start a serious local process in order to improve the civilian participation.
Finally, what is not brought up in the FMLN`s
document, is how to face the current political polarization. The
antagonism between the left and the right - wing, as well as the early
electoral contest, constitutes an obstacle to face the national crisis
efficiently. Political parties must be aware of this of this reality and
should not avoid it under the excuse that is its adversary’s fault.
Even when ideological principles deserve the best kind of respect, stubbornness
is not the best advisor.
DEVELOPMENT PLANS IN PERPECTIVE
Quite a lot has been said about the inconvenience of the State’s participation in to the economic scene, which for many should be regulated exclusively by the market forces. This is specially clear in the ideological speech of the last three governments headed by ARENA, considered as a conservative and as a supporter of private groups. That is probably why the Ministry of Planning was closed . President Francisco Flores once worked there as Vice Minister in the early nineties. That public office used to work on social and economic plans of development. Only the first ARENA government created a diagnosis of the nation in 1989, as well as number of government proposals, to reach objectives of “stabilization and economic reorientation”.
Whether one agrees or not with the society image portrayed in that government plan, it has to be accepted that it was a clear recognition that even to liberalize the economy it was necessary the planning and the participation of the State. The two subsequent governments have limited themselves to administrate the income generated by the growing flow of family remittances, which allows us to keep the type of change and the internal prices steady, compensate the unbalance of the commercial scale and increase the consumption of the receiving families. This attitude seems to ignore the fact that our economy is not well because it is incapable to generate by itself the necessary resources to maintain its economic stability, to invest massively in the social area, and to maintain a high rate of economic growth (at least over 5%).
The new setting, shaped by both earthquakes (and above all by the disasters that came afterwards), is a bottom line to discuss the need of the State to improve its capacity to plan a sustainable development. Far beyond the disasters, and the macro unbalances, it can be visualized the need to redefine the relation of El Salvador with the international economy, or at least some of the aspects of the economic model that obstructs the development. This necessarily goes through an initial process of economic, political and social organization that assumes certain perspective of nation and carries out public policies necessary to reach our goals (just like it happened with the development plan of the first ARENA government).
Despite the revival of liberal economic visions, it is impossible to deny the capitalist state’s need for a new change in the economy, in search of a sustainable development. In this context, it is important the articulation of an agreed development plan, effective enough to face the problems generated by incompetence of the prevailing economic plan. Such articulation it is also necessary in order to cope with the challenges attached to the search for sustainable development. There are two realities that work as a sign of warning: on one hand, the vulnerability generated by certain relations of this country and the world economy; and, on the other hand, the way that the production and distribution of goods and services are organized nationally.
Since the beginning of the economic sciences, a lot of discussion has been generated among those who consider them as purely positive, based fundamentally on facts, and those who defended that their duty was to propose a “should be” economy. The debate is still not resolved, and probably will not end favouring either side. Economy shows us an empirical economic functioning, and in most of the cases it is necessary to orientate it to assure a real economic and social progress of the nations.
In El Salvador, this should imply a certain flexibility in the discourse and the official practice in order to give more space to the opinion of the society, and to the efforts of economic planning as well. These efforts would be guided by an orientation of public policies to overcome the obstacles of the Salvadoran economic model. This should not lead us to take distance from capitalism, as it could be interpreted by the critics of the economic planning.
This actually stimulates the growth of the economic sectors that can access the international market, with a high multipliable effect and fair distribution of added value. Obviously, this does not require a high dose of market research, technology, organization process and investment that necessarily demand the competition of various sectors (research organizations, financial sector, legislators, central government).
In addition to looking for a less “painful” insertion in the world market, the government’s challenge is to work for the construction of a nation with viability, where basic ethic and constitutional standards are accomplished. The truth is that in El Salvador, and in most of the Latin American countries, the proliferation of poverty and the global vulnerability are a result of an extreme concentration of the income and the richness.
Farming and the general industry have the potential for generating enough added value (salaries, taxes and profits) to elevate the living standards of the population. That would lead us to a reduction of the business´ sector profits. This is what has made impossible to vindicate the labour and the peasant sectors. This has also made the reduction of global poverty and vulnerability difficult.
To ignore this reality would make us ignore one of the fundamental problems of the Salvadoran society: the unequal distribution of economic growth benefits, which at the same time includes effects such as violence, civilian insecurity, proliferation of natural disasters and the governmental stability problems.
This setting imposes planning measures of development, for which implementation is necessary to adopt concrete actions from a holistic stance, which incorporates the economic, social, environmental and politic dimensions from a sustainable development perspective.
A first group of programs should be orientated to an economic reinforcement area, because it is necessary to promote the productive sectors` sustainable growth in order to increase employment, exportation and production. What sectors to stimulate and how is an issue that should be clarified through a detailed strategic planning process. It is obvious that the economy cannot rely exclusively on coffee and clothing factories.
A second group of programs must be simultaneously developed in the social area, because it is not possible to plan a favourable insertion in the world market, nor a more equitable distribution of added value, without qualified labour and optimal health conditions. This guarantees products of higher added value compared to the exportation oftraditional products, higher salaries and higher productivity.
A third group of programs has to do with the harmonization of the social and economic process, the preservation of basic functions of ecosystems and the adjustment to the presence of natural threats. Finally, in the political area, it is required to create spaces to integrate the visions of the population. This would lead us to a comprehensive view of the nation. This demands the creation of communication channels between the civilian demands and the priorities of political society.
None of these programs are easy to accomplish, but an effort must be started at once in order to avoid a deep social crisis, originated by different facts such as politic violence (as it was in the eighties), delinquency , degradation of natural resources (specially water) and natural disasters that can be prevented and mitigated planning a sustainable development.