The end a government’s term in office must surely be
traumatic, daunting and uncertain for the person who has led that government.
Even more so if he is aware of the grave mistakes and social debts that he is
leaving behind. In no time at all he will realise just how superficial and
ephemeral his actions were and how short-lived his enjoyment of power. This
must be what is happening or about to happen to Felipe Calderón, because from
the beginning of his administration he was seriously criticised for the illegal
means and possible fraud that installed him as the manager of private
interests, and his actions once in government confirmed this suspicion.
The most conservative and reactionary corporate groups let
him pretend to call the shots, despite all his limitations and incapacities,
improvising wars with the military strategies they dictated to him. However,
thanks to growing impunity and corruption, he ended up alone and rejected like
few in history, even by the very people he thought were his friends, whom he
served unconditionally and immeasurably. I am aware of the scornful, rude and
sarcastic comments, some direct and others indirect, made by mining businessmen
to whom Calderón handed over 25 percent of the national territory in
concessions, for example Germán Feliciano Larrea, of Grupo México, Alberto
Bailleres González of Peñoles, Alonso Ancira Elizondo of Grupo Acerero del
Norte, and Julio Villarreal Guajardo of Grupo Villacero. In his best years at
the beginning of his six-year term they said he was resentful, hung-up about
his indigenous appearance, incompetent, short-tempered, and alcoholic. Who
knows what they will say now, in the wake of a government that failed to find
solutions for the nation’s problems and left even its own allies unsatisfied.
Calderón worked obediently to do their bidding right up until
the last moment with a labour reform project, drafted by members of his
administration and corporate lawyers, which drove the working class and their
families to the brink. He didn’t care about the consequences of this reform
initiative for Mexico in terms of greater unemployment, exploitation and
uncontrolled ambition, which in time will translate into instability and
threats to Mexico’s social peace. Surely he never thought or even noticed
because be was blinded by ignorance, or because his insensibility, the same
that he showed in government, stopped him from seeing beyond the short term.
Neither he nor his collaborators see the deep wounds and crises that similar
measures have left in certain European countries like Spain, Portugal, Greece,
Italy and Ireland, all due to vested interests, whatever it were that went on,
as he famously said after he came to power. Poor Felipe Calderón, alone,
betrayed and abandoned to his fate, Lord help him!
Even the briefest of glances shows the impunity that bred
complacency and allowed the criminal acts of many of the people who supported
him to flourish, both inside and outside government. Dishonesty went beyond all
previous levels. If you probe into Calderón’s government, its decomposition is
patently obvious. Impunity and disloyalty were the two central characteristics
of his government and his politics. A total blunder, which his media strategy,
costing millions and millions of pesos each year of his six-year term, could
not overcome, in fact it made it more visible. A media strategy that bulldozed
the freedom of the press and freedom of expression, using the shady mechanisms
of budget management with the aim of silencing or muffling the free voices of
journalism, and rewarding the most submissive.
His irresponsible strategy was that whoever is in opposition
or does not obey must be eliminated, and precisely for this reason he unleashed
political persecution and public attacks, products of his frustration and
impotence in the face of the country’s free and democratic unions and their
leaders.
Betrayal and disloyalty were the other two constant factors
in his government, and particularly notable is Calderón’s personal weakness of
believing in those people who insulted him behind his back, and continuing to
believe in them until the end of his presidency. There is a lot of evidence to
show that those interest groups are the ones who really governed Mexico, not
him, as he presumed. Otherwise there is no way to explain the perversity and
impunity of those disloyal allies and their constant attacks on social
organisations. Calderón criminalised social protest as much as possible, along
with all leaders who did not bow to his accomplices’ interests, and this
explains the villainous political and judicial persecution of those of us who
opposed that political practice and acted accordingly, with dignity and
consistency.
The dustbin of history is where that politics will end up; it
must not be allowed to continue to damage the country. It is crucial at this
point in Mexico’s history that society’s healthiest powers and minds ensure
that corruption and impunity cannot be used again to lead our country, because
with those patterns of behaviour the nation will not advance: a new strategy
based on a new social pact must be established instead. It seems that this
might already be moving up the agenda, and it will include the Mexican people,
responsible businesspeople, unionists, women, young people, politicians,
parties, students, intellectuals, academics and all sectors of society.
We must be confident that Enrique Peña Nieto’s government
will learn from previous experiences and see that corporate hypocrisy, which is
exempt from loyalties and a sense of social responsibility, can lead to serious
errors in the management of the nation’s politics. They must necessarily,
urgently listen to the majority of the Mexican population and not just a few
isolated voices.
No comments:
Post a Comment