The elections and the National problems

The electoral campaigns, the Debates, and the news media

An electoral campaign should be an opportunity to discuss the social problems with the citizenry. It should be a time to evaluate the kind of leaders that we have, and to discuss the transcendental issues. Many things could be said about an electoral confrontation; however, the main concern of those who reflect about this important moment for the national democracy is to prevent elections from turning into a simple mechanism to select the elite and replace governments. That is why many people care about a serious and a responsible discussion of the options, the political assessments and the interest that are at stake in the present time.

The media –and especially television- are the privileged channel that could establish a connection between the candidates and the voters. Among other mechanisms, the electoral debates that are broadcasted by television are very common nowadays. The intention is that the candidates discuss the most critical problems of the society. The case of the United States is probably the most emblematic example of the importance of a debate, and the role that the media play during an electoral campaign. The investigation process of the news media, the treatment of the information, and the continuous search for a debate, are the elements that usually play a decisive role during the development of the elections.

In the Salvadoran news media, as it happens in many other parts of the world, we can see a growing influence of the American electoral coverage. The media has an important role in the society, and it intends to impose its criteria over politics. The media has a successful intervention when it comes to establish the agenda of the candidates. The media sees itself as an instrument of social pressure. In addition, many journalists show off a bold intention to become the mediators between those who aspire to occupy a public position and the voters. The objective would be to keep the members of the government and the candidates under observation.

Plenty of doubts emerge from this extremely positive vision of the political life and the role that the media allegedly play in it. It is necessary to wonder about the excessive amount of attention that the media get during the elections. For example, in the case of the United States, many people criticize a confusion of terms: the difference between political communication and propaganda. The governmental programs, which should be the basic source of information for the voters, frequently become a production of images that, in the end, look like commercial. The image of the candidates is launched as any other product is. An electoral campaign eventually turns into a marketing campaign. The image advisors become the new gurus of politics.

There is no doubt that this conception of an electoral campaign is very superficial. It is no longer about discussing, examining, and deciding between the different proposals. The public opinion over the politicians is built on a foundation of uncertainties and disinformation, aimed to affect the emotions and the feelings of the voters. The content of the messages is reduced to a few phrases and to several events. In this context, the citizenry is not informed, and they are not prepared to decide what candidates are qualified to work for the social ideals of the state. At this point, either they do not vote or their decision is made based on a few formal aspects that do not have much connection with the destinies of the society.

The debates that are broadcasted on television are presented as the quintessential moment of contact between the voters and the candidates. It is necessary to be more conscious about this fact. It would also be convenient to wonder if these debates actually promote a discussion about the most critical problems that affect the society, or if this is only a chance to polish the image strategy of the candidates. It is important to consider if the media that promote the debates have previously informed the audiences about the different proposals. It is necessary to make sure that the voters are not being manipulated to favor a specific political option.

Some analysts wonder how convenient it would be to persuade the members of ARENA to have a debate about the proposals of the different parties. This is an interesting initiative, necessary to make certain decisions. El Salvador does not have a tradition of public debates to discuss the performance of the public administration.

That is why the ARENA candidate who runs for mayoress of San Salvador refuses to discuss her proposals for the metropolitan region with the rest of the candidates. There is no doubt that such strategy belongs to the typical profile of a “flawless” campaign. This vision privileges the visual image, without giving any importance to the discussion of the social problems. This perspective is far from considering an electoral campaign as an opportunity to discuss the problems of the citizenry.

In this context, it is difficult to foresee any improvements in the administration of the national politics. Many politicians do not seem to be willing to involve the society in a discussion about the country’s problems. We do not count with a group of media enterprises compromised with the democratic values. Then again, the electoral campaign will not enable the society to put over the table the enormous difficulties of the everyday life. That is why it does not seem odd to say that we are living in the middle of a violent situation, politically speaking. That seems logical in this context. When it comes to politics, when there are no ideas, all we are left with is a violent and an arrogant adversary.

The structural crackles of the Salvadoran economy

The general perspective of the present economic situation has an ambivalent connotation. On the one hand, it is imposed as the axis of the governmental apparatus, a wave of actions to multiply the spaces and the positive concessions about the foreign capital through free trade agreements. This reveals a perfect symbiosis with the Neoliberal economic ideology: to open new areas to accumulate profits. On the other hand, we see the continuous depreciation of the productive machinery of the micro and the small business companies. To this we can add the systematic disintegration of the agricultural sector, the reduction of the purchasing power of the middle and the lower classes, and a series of external factors which deteriorate the economic context.

This perspective presents the negative impact on the purchasing power of the individuals who earn the lowest wages. Some of the facts that we can list are the following:

- The historical reduction of the amount of remittances.
- The intention to increase the Value Added Tax on books.
- The increasing prices of petroleum and the electric energy.
- The recession of the productive sectors.

We live in a context where 70% of the owners of the micro, the small, and the medium business companies say that their sales did not improve during the last year. The fact is that 40% of the GNP comes from the contribution of this sector, which even if it is structurally weak, it employs over one third of the economically active population. The president of the Salvadoran Association of the Medium and the Small Business Company Owners (AMPES, in Spanish), Mariano Pinto, said “We are in the mouth of everyone, but in the hands of no one”, speaking about the promises of the propaganda about the free trade agreements with the United States and Canada.

The complaint of those companies –PYMES- is authentic. It can be added to the demands of the productive sectors of the country, where the agricultural sector is included, since both areas are connected by a growing concern about their vulnerability and their systematical marginalization from the protection of the State. The main problem is that both sectors do not count with the minimum capacity to export goods. They have a small variety of products, a poor access to credit, the public services such as electricity and telecommunications are expensive, and the taxes are increasing. In addition, the delinquency problem is out of proportion, it is difficult to have an open access to technology, there is lack of training, and the little support from the government complicates this situation. In the urban areas, both the middle and the lower classes need the PYMES. According to the AMPES, during the last year, 50,000 people were fired from that sector. If the agricultural sector is not encouraged in the rural areas, the “extreme poverty” issue will be a synonym of the daily life of a considerable sector of the population.

If the key productive sectors of this country are in crisis –especially if these sectors feed the middle and the low levels of the population-, what can be expected from the up-coming free trade agreements? Will they improve the development of the majority or will they deteriorate the few economic anchors from which many people depend on to survive? Will the erosion of the middle class enlarge the gap between wealth and poverty?

The negative effect of the government’s economic policies has had a direct impact over those families who earn the lowest wages. The country’s present situation reflects the vulnerability of the Salvadoran economy. Everyone is aware that the umbilical cord that sustains the Salvadoran macroeconomic stability exists thanks to the remittances. The problem with remittances is that “they can only be seen as a temporary benefit”, as the Director of the Migration and Development Center of the University of Princeton, Alejandro Portes, stated in a recent forum about immigration, organized by the Latin American Faculty of Social Science (FIACSO, in Spanish).

The bottom line issue is crucial. The last figures revealed by the Banco Central de Reserva (the Central Bank of Reserve; BCR, in Spanish) throw a red light on the mid and the short-term economic projections. The family remittances only grew by 1.3% during 2002. This was the lowest rate in almost a decade. However, the contribution from the Salvadorans who live abroad ($1,935.2 million), was equal to 13.6% of all that was produced during 2002. It exceeded the exportation activities of all the sectors (including the maquilas). By the end of November, it also exceeded the exportation made by both the maquila and the coffee-growing sector. A basic analysis would show that this is part of a normal economic cycle, and that soon the situation will improve. However, taking a critical look at things, it is clear that the Salvadoran economy shows a high level of dependence from the United States. This situation is intensified by the dollarization process, which could be a time bomb not only for the population, but also for the very foundations of the present model.

The Wall Street Journal has published a number of headlines that point at a deteriorated economy in the United States, and “even the optimistic ones are beginning to lose their faith in the dollars”. The eventual reduction of the United States’ productive growth rhythm, the possibility of a war with Iraq and even one with North Korea, and the systematical fall of the dollar (16% before the Euro, since the beginning of 2002) will affect almost two million of Salvadorans who depend from the economy of the United States.

For a group of structural problems, it is necessary to design a set of structural solutions. It would not be realistic to think about an improvement when the purchasing power of the majority keeps decreasing, and the productive sectors are affected by the economic crisis. Internally, it is necessary to deal with an enormous number of people overlooked by the free trade agreements. This situation can only favor the small economic elite that dominates the country. Externally, the initiatives such as the ALCA and the free trade agreement with the United States do not reflect an interest to improve the Central American development. The president of the Inter-American Dialogue, Peter Hakim, stated that “in the end, the American companies are always looking to invest in places where they can pay lower salaries and where the cost of living is not high” (The New York Times, 01.19.03, p.7). That is why they are interested in our region.