Center for Information, Documentation and Research Support (CIDAI)

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Proceso 1180
February 8, 2006
ISSN 0259-9864

Índice

Editorial: Dangerous confusions

Politics: The President in campaign

Economy: Considerations on the legislative plan of ARENA

Editorial

Dangerous confusions

Since some years ago, the Information, Documentation and Research Support Center (CIDAI) of UCA, is developing a social and politic education project in urban and rural communities in El Salvador. In many occasions, the social and politic analysis formation coincided with the elections, as happened in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003 and 2004. This made possible to know the political sensibility of those who attended the classes —i.e., community leaders, former FMLN combatants and militants, people linked to parishes, peasants, etc.— and, indirectly, the political sensibility of their communities.

An important phenomenon, due to its persistence along the time and for its apparition in several places around the country, is that most of the people who attend the workshops organized by CIDAI, tend to identify issues as justice, social commitment, solidarity, transparence and public decency with the left wing. In the other hands, issues as entrepreneurial success, competence and efficiency are usually identified with the right wing. And, as can be deduced from the statements made by the people who attend the courses, those who live in their immediate environment share this trend.

Those who are most identified with a political option use to force things. So, those who identify themselves with the FMLN not only agree with this focus, but they blame the right wing of acting with extreme voracity, corruption, impunity and abuse of power. In the other hand, those who identify themselves with ARENA agree that the entrepreneurial success and efficiency are virtues that belong to the right wing. They consider that such values as transparence and public decency belong to ARENA. Needless to say, for the people who support ARENA, issues as justice, solidarity and social commitment are dangerous, because they imply the suppression of all the good things (supposedly) achieved by ARENA.

If those perceptions were generalized among Salvadoran population, the country would be facing an extremely perilous situation, quite close to political fanaticism. The matter is not only that the leaders of the two main parties share this narrow-mindedness. The matter is that wide sectors of the population could do it.

This way of looking at reality favors political tensions and exclusions, both of them causes of violence in electoral campaigns. But the worst thing of all is that it closes the possibilities of facing politics in other way. For there is no reason to assume that solidarity, justice and commitment are exclusive of the left wing and, thus, only being leftist one can defend these and other values. Undoubtedly, Salvadoran left wings during its better moments has done it. Let us hope that it will not quit doing it. Nevertheless, it is not necessary being a leftist to be committed with the common good (a term that, in Christian tradition, includes these values) and struggle against every kind of inequity. This is about, only, of being honest with oneself and with one's own reality.

In this same sense, there are no reasons to believe that success, efficiency, wealth and competitiveness are exclusive for the right wing. It is true that the right wing has done everything it could in order to identify itself with these values and to pretend that it is the only actor that knows how to manage them. But right wing's identification with these and other entrepreneurial values has caused severe problems to Salvadoran society, i.e., an abusive concentration of wealth in few hands and social exclusion.

When left wing fanaticism insist that success, efficiency and competence are exclusive of the right wing, this is a way to remark a position that only benefits the interests of the right wing. It also prevents the left wing to make these values as their own, which are key values for a good political administration. When rightist fanaticism insist that solidarity, justice and equity are proper of fanatic leftist, it is contributing that the decision makers avoid their commitments with the society that gave them their wealth and power.

One has not to confuse matters and one does not have to let be confused. Working for common good does not mean that someone is leftist. Neither seeking for entrepreneurial success that someone is rightist. Perhaps a leftist person feels more comfortable working for common good and a rightist person feels more comfortable pursuing success and efficiency in his or her businesses. Nevertheless, both matters do not exclude themselves. The thing is to join these values, keeping in mind what could be better for the society as a whole.

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Politics

The President in campaign

It is not a secret that ARENA party keeps itself permanently in an electoral campaign and that its administrations are only a party instrument. Last week, President Saca, who ostensibly has supported ARENA's political campaign, spoke as the president of COENA, instead of doing the same as the president of the Salvadoran people. It is not the first time he does this, but it is remarkable that he did it in a moment while the left wing is changing its electoral strategy and the social movement is organizing demonstration against free trade agreements.

Last Wednesday, several social organizations blocked street and highways in many spots in San Salvador, in order to demonstrate against free trade agreements. While this happened, president Saca was leading the inauguration of the new building of the psychiatric hospital in Soyapango. President did not hesitate in attacking the social movement and to accuse the FMLN of leading the riots. He contrasted this with his government. For president Saca, the opposition is destructive and his administration is "patriotic".

The FMLN is showed as the responsible of social instability in every form: street demonstrations and the violence of gangs. President Saca accused the FMLN of maintaining the same style of their leader, Schafik Handal, recently dead: a confrontative and anti-systemic FMLN. His statements to the press are worthy: "the only guilty of everything that happened today is the FMLN. Now I understand what "the struggle continues" mean: the struggle continues blocking streets, the struggle continues disturbing productive labor, the struggle continues associating themselves with gangs, the struggle continues associating themselves with riots and disorder. It seems to me that the FMLN is taking these desperate actions for the inner struggle among their leaders after Mr. Handal's death. It is a pity that all we Salvadorans pay the price for these problems".

There is not any link between two different things: the demonstrations and the internal problems in the FMLN. If the FMLN is weakened after Handal died, how is it possible that it has the power to "block streets, disturb productive labor and associate itself with gangs"?

Precisely, street demonstrations show other thing. They show that social movement is far away from being weakened after the death of the FMLN leader. As a part of its electoral strategy, the FMLN supports this movement from the legislative assembly. Supporting is not the same of leading, besides that the FMLN has certain influence in this movement. The recent demonstrations against CAFTA took place after a week during which there were several rallies and demonstrations in solidarity with the Handal family and the FMLN.

That is the reason why president Saca and the ARENA leadership return to the old strategies. In spite of the dialogue and concertation they promise, they apply the psychological warfare applied during civil war in the eighties. According with this, if it is there social unconformity, it can be only due to alleged "destabilization plans", leaded by the FMLN. This is not strange, given the current electoral campaign.

Obviously, president Saca does not quit being an ARENA party member for being the president of the country. But he acts as a militant of this party wearing the suit of the president. Not just as any militant among others, but as the president of COENA, the main authority in the party.

One thing is that president Saca criticizes demonstrations because they affect those who do not participate in them, and other is that he takes this demonstration as a pretext to make campaign and to announce that dialogue is closed for the FMLN. According to the president, the FMLN is not a valid interlocutor because it is politically radicalized. The country had lived this situation in the past. Dialogue is closed when the interlocutor is accused of being radical. If this interlocutor is radical and there is no reason to dialogue, the logical answer is to radicalize oneself. This is the logic. The result is undesirable: more political polarization in a society inclined to radicalization and to maintain closed postures.

The great loser is society. Democracy demands an opposition that can control those who have the power. When the power demands a "responsible opposition", it is demanding a submissive opposition. Debating over their policies is nothing but "polarization". To demonstrate against them is to "radicalize". But debating and demonstrating are basic citizen rights in every democratic order. The real problem is that unwillingness to dialogue is the radicalizing factor.

The second loser is democracy. What ARENA is really asking for is not only "more congressmen and congresswomen for president Saca", but the unconditional submission to the ruling party. In this way, democratic institutions as the assembly get devoid. Concretely, the assembly should not be a machine to pass laws but an instance for discussing and achieving consensus on important issues for the country.
The country has much to lose when the president of its government acts only to benefit the electoral agenda of his party.

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Economy

Considerations on the legislative plan of ARENA

In the document titled Legislative Proposal 2006-2009, of ARENA party, the economic proposals are the following: creating quality jobs, increasing the investment in both labor and technology as in "a harmonic territorial development in which the environmental protection and recovery requisites are observed". According to the ruling party, this can be achieved by maintaining the "system of liberties" and promoting the equality of opportunities.

In a social market economy, the ARENA candidates for the assembly promise to achieve "a virtuous circle of economical and social growth", which strengthens an institutional system that facilitate the proper function of market. In order to avoid tensions caused for the unequal income, deputies commit themselves to create conditions in order to generate quality jobs and to launch sector policies to raise the economic growth.

The document clearly states that "ARENA is very conscious that the most vulnerable sectors of the population have scarce opportunities to profit themselves of economic progress". This contradicts the statements of the ruling party that allege that it has been working in the last years for the equity of opportunities. In an indirect way, the ruling party deputies recognize that the poor can not achieve the alleged benefits of the current economic model.
In order to understand the economic platform of the ruling party, one has to bear in mind that their proposals do not offer anything new compared with the government's plans. The candidates can only ratify the Executive branch's proposals.

In general outlines, the new legislative proposal of the ruling party has some changes compared with the orthodox approach of ARENA administrations. Measures as institutional strengthen, sector politics to achieve economic growth and a systematic promotion of equal opportunities are aspects that were not relevant in the former administrations. On despite of the proposals are, in certain points, innovative, reality shows that the ruling party is far away of fulfilling its electoral promises. In institutional matters, one can not maintain, as the ruling party officers do, that the accurate function of market is the consequence of institutional strengthening. ARENA's congressmen use inappropriate methods to pass laws with serious consequences for the country, such as CAFTA and dollarization, ignoring the rules of parliamentary work.

In the other hand, it is wrong to classify the current economic model in El Salvador as a social market economy. The model that ARENA's administrations established is a market economy. Its social character practically does not exist. In the term of fifteen years, social achievements had been scarce. Due to the nature of the current economic model, during the latest years, the administrations have tried to alleviate some of the social problems through programs that are focused to poverty, education and health. A correct focus to solve these problems should recognize that while there are no important changes in the economic model, expensive social programs would be necessary.

In order to promote economic growth, ARENA's congressmen propose sector politics to invest in labor force and technology, as a way to achieve competitiveness. The problem is that this kind of measure has little influence in a trade legislation that favors the interests of foreign industries. Many of the norms of CAFTA favor only the foreign interests. Changes in the competitiveness indicators can not do much to improve the benefits of the local producers and workers. In this sense, it would be better that, while Salvadoran economy was not open to international market, the government and the entrepreneurs invested in labor and machinery to reach a competitiveness level that would made easy to seize more opportunities.

The commitment of these congressmen with environment is also questionable. The economic model that their party support is against environment. The type of development proposed by the ruling party does not take into account the environmental protection requirements, as the candidates maintain. Like social programs, the environmental protection and recovery program will be only a palliative, if the ruling party does not recognize that environmental problems come from the economic model. A capital accumulation model that attempts against environment and raises vulnerability levels considerably.

Among the proposal of ARENA's candidates, two of them are interesting: the strengthening of the Consumer's Protection Law and the Free Competition Law. On spite that some specialists agree that both laws have severe limitations, their reform would be suitable in order to apply them. It is important that the Executive branch and congressmen recognize that establishing laws that could benefit all the citizens is not enough. It is also important that these laws are operative and put into practice.

In a few words, ARENA proposes more of the same. The changes in its legislative platform are scarce. Its economic proposals are lack of clearness. Using too wide concepts —i.e., "quality jobs", "harmonic territorial development", "freedom system preservation"— makes it hard to propose concrete solutions. In this sense, it is urgent that the ruling party candidates make clear proposals. This remark can be perfectly extended to the candidates of the rest of the political parties.

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