President Felipe Calderón's commencement speech at Stanford was quite notable in its direct attack on the PRI's rule (1929-2000), referring directly to its repression and massacres - an historic reality hard to deny.
PRI, quite naturally, took much offense against the speech, held in English, e.g. the PRI's parliamentary group asking the president "not to get into the electoral boxing ring," and accusing him of planting "hatred and division."
One comment was particularly disingenuous: Emilio Gamboa, now head of PRI's CNOP, complained that Calderón was acting in a partisan manner and not as the president of all Mexicans.
Of course he is partisan - he was elected, in a minority vote, as a blatantly partisan choice. This is of course the very problem with a presidential regime - that a president is both a party option, with a more or less clear platform and ideology, as well as the "head of the nation." Gamboa's criticism as such is really just a critique of presidentialism per se.
Now, if PRI is serious in this critique, it should take the consequences of this line of reasoning and join what many in the PRD have long demanded: that Mexico become a parliamentary democracy, with a prime minister beholden to parliament, and with a ceremonial head of state, rather than a presidential regime.
Now, that'll be the day.
Dear Blogger,
ReplyDeletethe PRI is a joke, but a well funded one relying on voters' short-term memories, decades of political connections and familial bonds, clientelistic vote-buying, oil patronage, experience, and the many pricey strategists they can afford.
Regardless of the differences between the opposition parties, they both offer a more sincere vision of a modern, meritocratic, democratic Mexico with wider participation by citizens and non-PRI-aligned actors.
The PAN and the PRD do not have the same level of governors or judges separately but I do hope that somehow they can learn to cooperate more such as in the upcoming state elections. Though one party should drop out before there's only a week left, it is important until then to see them both demonstrate more solidarity against the PRI's corrupt clientelistic apparatus, as you referred to it.
The AMLO vs Calderon issues are still relevant, but the battle must not be fought in a way that turns off the voters. The voters are familiar and comfortable with the PRI and hopeful that the PRI is honestly becoming a new PRI, but as I see you follow Mexican politics closely enough you may well know better, the PRI is still full of dinosaurs, or like a US political commentator George Grayson has said, "it's still Jurassic Park out there".
I have my own blog which is certainly not in agreement with all your blog's political views, but I invite you to share and enjoy the refreshing honesty that similarly rejects the PRI for its own differences.
I strongly believe that if people don't make a habit of voting for a non-PRI President at least 3 times and maintain strong non-PRI party apparatuses in the states and in the executives, that the replacement of PRI-client judges and corrupt networks will persist to strongly to overcome a re-building of the PRI machinery that can delay responses during natural disasters while surviving politically, massacre students, and make dissenters disappear.
Not that the PRI must disappear this year, but that it is still to strong and too unreformed to trust.
http://mexicanpoliticsandeconomics.wordpress.com/
Good luck with your blog and in the upcoming state elections, may either Encinas or Bravo Mena succeed in defeating the long-serving PRI.
Dear jesseeblogs,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your kind and informed comments. I will be sure to check out your blog.
Best regards