The main concern of those pushing the opposition alliance seems to be who will be the presidential candidate. That is precisely the first and most important mistake. Whoever happens to be the candidate should be the least of worry because if the opposition does the right thing, it will be the beginning of a new regime where the real power will not be concentrated, as it is today, in the presidential office, but in the actual exercise of the roles assigned to it, to congress, and the judiciary in the fundamental law.
And for that to happen, once the alliance is formalized- which is complicated by the parties’ leaderships-, the main effort should concentrate on a selection of the ideal candidates for congress to have the opposite of what it is today: the realm of the vulgarians in a country where the rule of law is only a fiction and congress a mere rubberstamp branch of the executive. What is needed badly is the dignification of public affairs, public service, and public officials.
It is a sad, infuriating, and shameful spectacle to see the images of a typical day in congress life as reported in any newscast. It has the feeling of a cheap reality talk show, with grotesque characters behaving like brutal punks in a drug joint, attacking each other with attitudes, concepts, and language proper of a vicious, violent slum. It’s not just that most of them are functional illiterates; they are the proud product of raffles, kinships, complicities, and fiefdoms, acting as in a low-budget vaudeville, ready to raise their hands when commanded.
The image of public office and public officials in Mexico has been degraded since the beginning of the century, when a barbaric rancher with the look of the Marlboro man became president, without realizing what it implied. He confused investiture with garments and was profoundly ignorant of everything, but his lexicon was sticky and witty. To make things worse, his most trusted and influential advisor was his equally illiterate but overly ambitious press secretary -whom he married once in office -who aspired to succeed him and with whom he co-governed as a couple.
This phenomenon is not exclusive to Mexico. Probably the proliferation of “reality shows” contributed to the popularization of vulgarity and degradation of public figures and what they represented. In the case of public officials, the dignity entailed by public service was demolished, in some cases more than in others. The vulgarity of public leaders extends to many countries, for example, Silvio Berlusconi, Muammar Gaddafi, Idi Amin Dada, Jean Claude Duvalier, Hugo Chávez, and his successor, Abdalá Bucaram, Viktor Yanukovych, Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, and many others.
There was a time in Mexico, most of last century, when as today, the real power resided in the executive branch, and congress and the judiciary were mere instruments to iron out what had already been decided. But there was a difference: they were careful to respect the rites of the republican liturgy, as the respect for the forms and rituals gave legitimacy to their actions and hence were accepted by society. It is not a matter of hypocrisy; it has to do with self-respect, respect for the office, and respect for others. Most cabinet members and legislators were respectable and highly qualified in their fields, and their reputations preceded their positions.
Today, it is another story. It is hard to respect those who don’t respect themselves and their peers, neither the institutions they are part of, those who are not respectable but disreputable and deplorable. Those whose acts and forms manifest the lowest expressions of human decency and civility. Their thing is how to take advantage of their position to obtain favors, contracts, commissions, travels, and the sympathy of the party boss for the next promotion and to destroy the reputation of opponents and, if possible, prosecute them. Such values! Not to mention the leadership of the opposition parties; they are the main obstacle to achieving an opposition alliance with a clean face in front of the electorate.
The vulgarization in the executive branch is equally dismaying. The criteria of 90% loyalty and 10% aptitude give an embarrassing collection of yes-men, the farthest from the best qualified -with a notable exception-. Being from the president’s home state, or friend or schoolmate of his children, mentor or apologist of his wife, is the best way to secure a high-level position in the administration, if not in the cabinet. Naming an agency “Institute to restore to the people what has been robbed from them” is an act of propaganda and a bad joke, especially when its results are revealed. Their leader repeats every other morning that they are not the same as their predecessors, and he is right; they are worse: equally corrupt but incompetent.
” Dear Sancho: I realize with sorrow how the palaces are occupied by scoundrels and the huts by wise men. I was never an advocate of kings, but worse are those who deceive the people with tricks and lies, promising what they know they will never deliver. This country, beloved Sancho, dethrones kings and crowns pirates, thinking that the king’s gold will be distributed among the people, without knowing that pirates only distribute it among pirates”. Moncho Borrajo, wrongly atributed to Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
The reality is that the separation of powers only exists in the Constitution but does not exist in practice; hence, no checks and balances. The congress, with a simple majority of the party in power and its allies, is, as stated before, a rubber stamp office that is not respected or considered, as when the executive sends a “preferential initiative” -that is, to be resolved immediately-, with the indication that “not even a comma” should be modified. And if there is a judicial mandate to stop one of his projects on the grounds of lack of an impact assessment, in that case, he invokes “national security” as the reason to bypass the judiciary. For all practical purposes, he is above the law; his power is supra-constitutional.
“If it be admitted that a man possessing absolute power may misuse that power . . . “ Alexis de Tocqueville.
The persecution of judges who did not submit to the will of the president; the flagrant violation of due process in the persecution of opponents; the selective application of the law to indict only some and not all those who committed the same fraud against the State; the embarrassing revelation of mutual criminal charges between the president’s legal counsel and the Attorney General; neglecting his responsibility in a fundamental obligation of the State: to provide security to the citizens; the undue demands placed on Supreme Court justices nominated by him to rule according to his whims. That is the first thing that has to change. There has to be a battle to restore dignity to public service, beginning with those who represent the people in congress, a capable legislative body aware that its role will be to redefine the regulatory framework that governs public life based on a system of shared values so that both government and society can coexist harmoniously in a genuine rule of law.
A new breed of lawmakers who reinforce the separation of powers, who will approve the selection of the members of the judiciary based on their qualifications, who will have the historic endeavor of redesigning the system so that the government does what it has to do to promote development for all Mexicans, by reinforcing the rule of law and strengthening its institutions and its values. By representing the interest of the people, not that of the political party that nominated them. By making sure that international treaties are respected and their compliance is assured so that the government’s demands of mutual respect are unquestionable.
It must begin somewhere—the restoration of the dignity of Public Service and Public Office. Congress looks like an excellent venue to push things in that direction.
SEPGRA Political Analysis Group.