Monday, April 26, 2004
Political parties seen as Mexico's new elite
By Carlos Luken
Mexico demonstrated ecstatic enthusiasm with Vicente
Fox’s 2000 presidential victory. Multitudes devotedly welcomed the country’s entrance into what was expected to
be a new democratic era. After enduring many privations of freedom for seven decades of single party rule, Mexicans found
themselves passionately embracing a political system that would guarantee their self-determination. But as events show this
has not proven to be the case.
Some are realizing, disappointedly, that Mexico’s
political revolution may not be much more than smoke and mirrors, a mere reshuffling of power from one absolute party to a
dilution of three major parties, plus a handful of minor political flunkies. Although all parties manifest high ideals for change and democracy, all are universally perceived in recent
polls as charades that offer testimony of what cynics refer to as “the stagnant revolution,” in which all things
change to remain the same and power is again controlled by the few.
A number of voters who selected political organizations
like the leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), or the conservative National Action Party (PAN), are finding modest differences
with the disreputable opposition from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that was ejected in 2000.
In all honesty, matters are hardly equal to the PRI’s
71-year rule. But many intolerant citizens are witnessing events, which they find difficult to appreciate as legal or to assimilate
as part of a process toward self-governance. This opinion is by no means a simplistic popular conclusion, as most if not all
political intellectuals and analysts share the opinion that once in power the parties succumb to cronyism, bureaucracy and
eventually to corruption.
PAN presidential candidate Senator Carlos Medina
Placencia has addressed the subject in his new book “Ahora es cuando.” As well, independent presidential candidate
Jorge Castaņeda went so far as to claim democracy has been kidnapped by the three major parties.
In its last stirrings, Mexico’s
political system shrewdly recognized that the PRI’s traditional mechanisms could no longer include the many dissimilar
groups that sought to share power. In order to house dissidents, while keeping them under control, a new political reform was initiated — but as time would have it, the reforms proved insufficient to contain the
onslaught of diverse political ideologies that began to manifest themselves openly.
A hypothetically independent electoral commission
was created to oversee elections. Political parties were regulated while at the same time given benefits and privileges. In
order to contend for an election all parties were required to register by complying with a specified number of signatures,
and in order to maintain their registries they were required to win a minimum percentage of votes. While funding for all authorized
parties was federally assured from fiscal revenues, campaign-spending guidelines were casually enforced and small reprimands
were imposed against the blameworthy. Political parties were allowed a quota of non-elective party representatives in both
federal and state legislatures. Electoral participation was restricted exclusively to party candidacies, barring independents.
The so-called independent committee quickly fizzled
during the 1988 election. Carlos Salinas de Gortari, the PRI’s presidential candidate, started loosing ground to Cuauhtemoc
Cardenas, the leftist candidate, on election night. But before being overtaken in the balloting, Emilio Chauyfett, the electoral
institute’s president, simply pulled the plug and announced that the electronic vote tabulating system “had collapsed.”
All counts were stopped and Salinas was declared the winner the next morning.
In a weird example of Mexican humor, the electoral
institute was totally discredited however it curiously was allowed to continue operating. As it managed to survive its character
assassination, the institute painstakingly evolved into a credible authority that was ultimately recognized for the creation
of an environment necessary to sanction Vicente Fox’s 2000 success.
As recent corruption scandals have publicly exposed,
Mexican political parties are considered the new privileged class, unaccountable for their campaign spending and political
and corrupt infractions.
Allegedly
parties control congress while they are also perceived as autonomous by their constituencies. The non-reelection of legislators,
their non-elective quota representation and group structures give way to party hierarchical supremacy and unaccountability.
As well, as parties gain stronger electoral positions their financial resources increase and so do their bureaucracies.
Currently many citizens feel that party organizing
is a very profitable business, one that allows shrewd individuals to tap into federal funds. It would seem that the system
has deteriorated into a multi-party dictatorship, an establishment that has replaced the old PRI structure and one that may
eventually bring an end to the time proven tolerance and patience of Mexicans.
____________________
Carlos
Luken (a www.mexidata.info columnist), a Mexicali, Baja California, based businessman, is the principal in I.L.C. Corporate
Real Estate, a project development firm, and I.L.C. Corporate Services, a consulting practice that provides business management,
consultancy and lobbying services to global corporations and government agencies. He can be reached via e-mail at ilc@computec.com.mx.
