Prospects For 2013

2013 starts in just a few days. And this is not just a the start of a new calendar year, it is an important reference in terms of circumstances and experiences. 2012 closes with a series of injustices, crimes, errors, deviations and impunities that the PAN (National Action Party) government have committed from their position of political power. A lot of water will have to flow under the bridge before Mexico can shed the awful image that the National Action leaders have given to an entire nation which in no way deserved it, much less the disgrace of having to carry it.

Mexico has treated these political figures with the utmost benevolence, much more than was proper. It seems that the nation was too tolerant with them, and there were no serious consequences, until now, for any of the people responsible. The political history of modern Mexico is that of progress and the fight to move forwards, as well as the engagement of the people. PAN leaders and their allies totally lacked these qualities, and instead they had deformed views of reality with which they unfortunately managed to infect some politicians from other parties.

Calderón’s useless war on organised criminal gangs and drugs trafficking; the spilling of a huge amount of Mexican blood; the failure of the economy for the great majority of people; the using manipulated media propaganda campaigns to cover up the terrible conditions in which the PAN left our society; increasing poverty, with a further 15 million people in six years falling into in poverty (a jump from 45 to 60 million between 2006 and 2012); the lack of opportunities and the corruption and impunity of the chosen few – among them businesspeople devoid of all sense of social conscience and solidarity towards the country – and the cynical, shameless failure to keep electoral promises, particularly Calderón’s promise that he would be the ‘jobs president’, all cast a shadow over Mexico for 12 long years, which today are rightfully called the tragic dozen.

It is worthwhile remembering these terrible experiences and their tragic results so that we can design a completely different strategy. Faced with such disgraceful acts it is impossible to simply draw a line under things and move on, because the nation was seriously offended and we must now fully recognise that in order to move forward in the immediate future, which started in December 2012. This situation should motivate the effort to not repeat previous mistakes in the application of the government’s new plans and programmes. The necessary remedy must arise from an awareness of reality, so that present and future changes are closely linked to our needs as a nation and as a society.

Of course, we need new strategies to undo the harm done to Mexicans in each area of the national agenda, and so that we do not fall back into improvisations. We must implement social policies in education and national security, as well as in work, tax, environment and agriculture, in urban development and in all the country’s other spheres of activity.

Prospects for 2013 could be positive as this new six-year term begins, but only if realistic and concrete policies are drawn up for each of Mexico’s sectors and problems. We do need individual objectives but we also need an overview that allows us to channel the work of different sectors so that they converge in a single direction. In short, we urgently need a change that will enable us to transform the economic and social model that under neoliberal dogma has dominated life in Mexico for the last thirty years, and has only brought further economic and social disorder and greater exploitation of the workforce and of natural resources. The State must regain its effective authority in all sectors and must operate sensitively and skilfully in the medium and long term.

Such prospects for 2013 will be promising, positive and encouraging for Mexico, provided that a fundamental government tool is to listen to the voices of those who have been neglected: workers in industry and services, the middle classes, campesino and indigenous communities, young people and students, women and marginalised groups. Their real demands should be met by government policies. The prospects could be dreadful, however, if we do not proceed to this permanent consultation of the people, if there is no desire to listen to them, and if the lesson of the last 12 years of incompetence, ineptitude and corruption in government is not learnt. The PAN never consulted Mexican society about anything they intended to do, as illustrated by the improvised war against the organised criminal gangs that they could never control.

The nation must change the economic and social model that has prevailed and must restore growth rates fairly and reasonably, based on an economic and social policy that transcends short-term interests and steers our country towards a future of increased wellbeing, security and new opportunities for all Mexicans.