Mexican First Lady’s
clothes come out of the closet
By Kenneth
Emmond
She’s done it again!
Mexico’s First Lady, Marta Sahagun, has stepped
in another puddle, this time over the money she allegedly spent to fortify her personal wardrobe.
Not since 20 years ago, when the poor people of the
Philippines discovered that Imelda Marcos, wife of deposed President Ferdinand Marcos, owned hundreds of pairs of shoes has
a First Lady’s wardrobe touched off such an uproar.
Here, the issue is so inflamed that a three-member
congressional commission is investigating.
As often happens with controversies involving Sahagun,
an opaque curtain of conflicting statements has descended.
The First Lady insists that she buys her clothes
with money she gets from the First Man. She said she spends only a fraction of the public funds allocated to her for clothes
and personal effects.
Well, let’s see. The Permanent Commission of
the Congress of the Union — which meets when the two chambers of Congress are not in session — estimates she spends
about US$10,000 a month on clothing.
If so, more than half of President Vicente Fox’s
salary of less than $200,000 pesos a month minus taxes goes to the likes of Valentino and Oscar de la Renta. There would hardly
be enough left over to buy a new pair of cowboy boots.
We
won’t know who’s right and who’s wrong until the commission reports, since neither members of Congress nor
the First Lady have carved out a reputation for telling the truth.
To halt the biggest media field day over presidential
trivia since the episode of US$400 towels, Sahagun said she would donate the part of her wardrobe bought with public funds
to a charity auction. That’s nice, but we have a general idea what the markdown is on second-hand clothing, unless you’re
Marilyn Monroe or Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis.
Whatever the outcome, the flap over clothing has
made a laughingstock of the First Lady. Even Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a man not noted for his sense of humor, got in on
the act, saying that if elected president he would eliminate the wardrobe of the presidential couple from the budget.
The incumbent President doesn’t think it’s
funny. Speaking to reporters, Fox berated the congressmen who raised the issue. He said they should be solving real problems
instead of fussing over what his wife wears.
“I don’t know why they were elected,”
he fumed. “But now that the public has seen them for what they are, it surely won’t elect them again.”
While at it, Fox took a shot at Martha Lucia Micher
(PRD), who heads a congressional committee investigating the spectacular rise to wealth of Sahagun’s sons. He said that,
like the clothing commissioners, she’s “wasting her time” and “deceiving the people.” The outburst
may have made him feel better but his show of disrespect earned him a letter of reprimand from the Chamber of Deputies.
Unlike many Mexicans, Fox evidently believes in the
business acumen of his stepsons, Manuel, Jorge and Fernando Bribiesca, even though it didn’t blossom until their mother
moved into the Los Pinos presidential residency.
The Chamber of Deputies, which led the charge on
the clothes issue, had better hope no one takes too close a look at the public money its members spend on perks.
Last year, the Finance Department reported irregularities
of more than US$50 million for medical expenses of Chamber members’ families for services not included in their medical
plan.
The report also noted that members’ monthly
travel and entertainment expenses came to almost US$8,000 per head.
In a show of something less than selfless dedication,
these politicians defied an austere budget and awarded themselves an 11 percent salary increase in 2005, raising it to 64,000
pesos per month. For good measure they boosted their fringe benefits, bringing their total increase to more than 17,000 pesos
a month.
This might be overlooked if the deputies actually
showed up for work, but a report issued in February showed that during the fall session, an average of 140 of the 500 deputies
attended the daily sessions — less than a quorum.
Wherever the wardrobe money came from, it’s
a miniscule part of the national budget. Still, it and the politicians’ profligate behavior send a signal that the political
class in Mexico, a country struggling toward prosperity, has its priorities all mixed up.
If elected officials and their spouses showed more
honesty and genuine concern for improving the lives of Mexicans, there would be fewer controversies over their taxpayer-financed
self-help projects.
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Kenneth Emmond, an economist, market consultant and
journalist who has lived in Mexico since 1995, is also a columnist with MexiData.info.
He can be reached via e-mail at Kemmond00@yahoo.com.
