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The Mexican civil meltdown.

By Carlos Luken

General enthusiasm was raised to fever pitch with Mexico ‘s 2000 election outcome. Results supposedly steered the country’s entry into a new era of democratic life and civilian self-rule to a nation that until then, had been controlled for seven decades by autocratic rule.

But after almost ten years something has gone amiss. The initial hoopla has vanished and now a widespread meltdown is taking place. 

Political analysts explain that after 70 years of dominance, Mexican society’s political and civic development was understandably dwarfed and even snuffed out; as three generations of Mexicans were born and grew up under a government once poetically dubbed ‘The perfect dictatorship,’ which kept itself in power by giving the population most of ‘the fish’ they wanted, never teaching them to be self reliant and self-determining.

It was comparable to the over-protective parent that gives his children most of the toys they crave as long as they perform according to his rules; as everyone knows, this normally makes happy children but eventually dysfunctional adults, i.e. citizens.

Once democracy arrived and settled itself, things changed. Like a compass without a magnetic north, people and organizations grew increasingly confused and are now frustrated, the signs are everywhere. The three branches of government are in disarray as they each try to assert their power by clashing against the other two; perhaps the most evident example is the legislative attempts to grab any power it can from the executive branch. Political parties are in turmoil as most are enduring very serious inner feuds and potential takeovers and/or desertion by rivals of their current leaderships. The mainstream media that once indifferently accepted to play as the system’s spokespersons have also been unable to adapt to a free speech atmosphere, some offer token diversity but at times contradict themselves by pandering to old style customs, as a result most conventional media establishments have lost credibility.

Political disputes and their exceedingly public hullabaloos are hard to hide in an open society; Mexicans are now facing economic, political, security and worse of all, social crises. In a society unaccustomed to accountability, complaining, finger pointing and holding everyone responsible have become Mexico’s national past-times; many look at the past and blame their ‘weak’ president, others fault their overpaid legislators, still others censure voracious political parties and corrupt government officials.

As dissatisfaction grows, the public is slowly abandoning political participation and voter absenteeism has risen in every election. it would be an giant  understatement to say that  Mexicans have had a very tough time adjusting to their political adulthood; many have comfortably  forgotten that with the obligations they command from their elected  officials,  democracy also demands citizen  responsibilities; like children throwing temper tantrums Mexico’s civil society  has opted to be in denial.

Others out of ignorance or opportunism are trying to relive the past, and forget about Mexico’s future.  They fail to grasp the obvious reality that the country is now young, democratic and part of a global arena. Thus it is also different and diverse. Many  sections of society that have been ignored for too long now demand participation ; youth (the highest percentage of the population) require more schools, better and further advanced education; the millions of poor need work and social services.. Businesses must forget their old practices and comply with global standards and regulations in order to compete.

Change is mandatory, and in Mexico as is universally, change is resisted by the status quo. Political parties and their community institutions, labor unions, special interest groups, public and private monopolies and even government itself feel threatened as they are being inundated  by the public and the country’s needs

In my opinion the greater part of Mexico’s meltdown is due to the population’s reluctance to accept their civic responsibilities plus the senseless altercations demonstrated by politicians. Trying to adhere to failing traditionalist practices and policies is both illusory and absurd.  Many of Mexico’s ‘established fundamental’ viewpoints and institution such as State, government structures, freedom, independence and sovereignty need to be revised, this process must begin immediately! Realistically the Calderon administration and the new legislature are the only authentic powers to realistically do so, but they have only three years to begin setting the foundations for progress. If Mexico is to move forward toward its future its population must resolve to grow to be citizens by being part of their government offering proposals instead of stale criticism and politicians must leave partisanship aside and substitute it by a new air of mature and farsighted cooperation

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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