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Commentary

        Mexico on razor’s edge, Calderon takes lead in jumpstarting transformation, but will congress follow?

         By Carlos Luken  

Mexican President Felipe Calderon didn’t hold back during his recent nationally televised addresses. His frank conversations acknowledged in no uncertain terms that the country’s current situation was complex, even unfeasible if it continued without major structural and legislative overhaul.

Acknowledging that the fiscal predicament Mexico faces is partly due to a global crisis, he didn’t evade its consequences. In a poor country where a majority of its population survive on subsidies, handouts, underemployment or illegal migration and where only a minority of contributors pay taxes, there is recurrent deficit spending that Mexico habitually managed to balance with oil revenues But income plunged along with oil prices while technological and modernizing infrastructure necessities remained unmet for decades; Calderon conceded that cutting federal spending; raising taxes and major legislation reforms were the only existing alternatives. Partisan opponents replied angrily that instead of implementing a total fiscal renovation which would be unpopular, Calderon’s actions were narrow

He pledged to revamp the executive branch by making “difficult but necessary” cabinet adjustments and streamlining his administration. Calderon promptly followed-up by replacing his agricultural secretary his attorney general and the head of PEMEX (the government owned oil monopoly). The next day just hours before delivering his administration’s 2010 budget to congress, he froze official wages and cut administration expenses by merging the tourism and agrarian reform cabinet posts with other ministries and eliminating the public oversight ministry substituting it with an executive controller’s department.   

Although fiscal issues are important, they only represent part of the complexities Mexico faces; Calderon’s adjustments emphasize his commitment to transform the country and are the beginnings of what he called “a path of no return”, expectantly setting the stage for congress to follow suit by authorizing many vital overdue reform initiatives.

Until now, populism and partisanship prevented the passing of fiscal, energy, justice, communications, political, labor, and social, legislative initiatives, thus the country remained rigid while an unstable environment shook its foundation.

Mexico’s recent midterm election resulted in a topsy-turvy restructuring shift in the congressional composition which may possibly define the country’s future stability; PRI’s significant electoral gains catapulted it from its third place position to a clear majority and relegated PAN the ruling party’s previous prominence to the second spot; while the formerly emergent PRD fizzled as results placed it in an irrelevant minority position.

As with all other legislation, reforms will now require heavy bartering between congress’s main forces (PRI and PAN); the pivoting factor will surely be PRI’s much coveted political reform initiatives which are partially directed at modernizing the country’s political structure but mainly intended at curbing presidential power.

In my opinion Calderon’s measures are still incomplete and only represent a good   start; but in order to revitalize the country from its present complex conditions and tackle its basic requirements, fundamental comprehensive legislative reforms are necessary in most areas particularly in the political arena.

Once Mexico attained democracy it became mandatory to transform its imperial presidential organization into a working power balanced government structure; but a mixture of inexperience and malicious partisanship stonewalled central advances placing the country at the dead end it now faces.

The political reform package must be comprehensive.

The first fundamental modification must be Re-election of public officials as a means to demand from them professionalism and citizen accountability.  The logical following reform initiative is their Recall from office by popular mandate.

Another essential reform should consider that Mexico once was compelled to dictate laws to induce political diversity by allowing parties to designate officials in a “proportional ballot” basis; since democratic plurality has now been achieved, those laws are unnecessary therefore must be repealed to allow   Reducing congress’s size   by eliminating unelected party designated legislators (which currently amount for almost half of both chambers

Considering Mexico ’s lack of credible democratic venues to reach accords and its prevalent reformation need, the idea of implementing Referendums to amend laws should also be deliberated as a legitimate and democratic alternative

Other important topics that need serious reviewing are the   Reassessment of executive, congressional and political party accountability regulations and practices; also Redefining  foreign policy strategies, Ratification  of key presidential cabinet members and ambassadorial nominees;   Re-evaluation of fundamental justice and social programs; and establishing a modern  presidential succession process.

Calderon opened a trail, but the questions now are: Will he persist and will congress follow him or will politicians continue their stubborn “politics as usual” populism and partisan obstructionism of progress? Mexico is already on its tipping point, the path is intricate and time is short.

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Carlos Luken, Is an independent columnist.  He is also the  author of the book “300 weeks- Mexico ’s turbulent transition to democracy” (available from Exlibris publishing Co.orders@xlibris.com,  Amazon  www.amazon.com  and  Barnes and Noble . Mr. Luken can be reached at his blog via e-mail at http://carlosluken.com

 

Carlos Luken is also the author of the new book "300 weeks - Mexico ’s turbulent transition to democracy"