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The last years of Chilean political life speak of the enormous failure of the Chilean political class, of the inability demonstrated by governments and legislators to agree, for example, on the text of a new Political Constitution that replaces the Magna Carta of 1980 bequeathed by Pinochet. .
The lack of a minimum consensus between the ruling party and the opposition today forces the citizens of our country to choose between the text recently supported by the right or continue with what still governs today as the Fundamental Charter. It is truly unusual to see that the fight undertaken to put an end to a prolonged dictatorship finally has us now in the possibility of legitimizing the regime founded by the Dictator both in the institutional order and in the social economic system.
Despite the fact that from all political spheres the constitution of two constituent bodies was agreed, the positions of the extreme right and the most radical left conspired against those who could have achieved a great political agreement that would take a substantive step in the consolidation of a democracy. true. That is, governed by the popular will and the great demands of the population.
Those who succeeded the Dictator in La Moneda were not able in three decades to implement the changes longed for by the vast majority of Chileans, until finally what they caused was the hegemony of the political thought of the right, such as the electoral and ideological strength of the powerful unions and parties that were part of the Pinochet regime. Of those leaders who today express themselves with enormous conceit and oppose, not only to agreeing to a new Constitution, but to all the economic and social reforms demanded by the people in their multiple social manifestations, such as their legitimate Social Outbreak of 2018. A phenomenon that , absent a global health pandemic, was heading towards the collapse of our institutional order, as is so widely recognized today.
We are talking about the fact that today there is a democracy that has little or nothing to be so “representative” when the residents of La Moneda and Parliament are the result of the political engineering of the ruling class, of the irrational fear of the triumph of the extreme left or right. Of the options encouraged by millionaire electoral propaganda, the powerful media and the lack of civic culture of a people truly handicapped in their educational standards.
Institutionally, Chile today finds itself at a dead end. The constitutional texts that must be put to a plebiscite next December were finally drafted by the same hands, that is, by the Pinochet supporters of that time and by those who today are beginning to demand those long 17 years of citizen interdiction. Adding to them that group of politicians who over time ended up falling in love with the Market God, neoliberal ideas and democracy limited and protected by the powers that be. For all those who were reluctant to the idea of convening an authentic constituent assembly that would freely decide the way to organize our state and achieve the rights of the nation.
It is sad to see that the proposals put forward by Gabriel Boric’s government have little or no chance of becoming law, as is the case with the delayed tax reform and the unfair pension regime. Nor does it seem possible to replace the private and corrupt health system. Put an end, as was so promised, to the administrations of pension funds and private health insurance companies that, despite the scandals that are now being discovered, will probably remain in force with just a few discreet patches.
Not even in matters of education, the student leaders who came to the Government seem capable of meeting the demand so voiced in their mobilizations. This is strengthening public education, canceling the million-dollar debts in favor of private entities with the endorsement of the State. When there are now tens of thousands of primary and secondary students who do not attend their schools due to the just strike of the disappointed teachers. This strengthens elitist education and the pronounced cultural gap between the poor and the rich.
All of the above due to the naive willingness of the authorities to achieve everything with the approval of the opposition, renouncing the social mobilization that has been the true driving force of the transformations of our past. Contained by the terror campaigns promoted by the bosses’ world, the reactionary parties and the abject press. For the same people who throughout the world seek to tarnish popular expressions, accusing their protests and social demands as violent or even terrorist.
It is obvious that the Chilean political class is also handcuffed by its collusion with corruption and the impunities that favor it. We already see that the lack of probity has had no exception in the new rulers, despite the promises they made to mark a difference with the behavior of their predecessors. In this way, matching the behavior of so many politicians from right to left. Before a people who watch in astonishment and are forced to decide again between anger or disenchantment.
By Juan Pablo Cárdenas S.
The opinions expressed in this section are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the thoughts of the newspaper El Clarín
