A CHANGE FOR CHILE (EDITORIAL)
19 enero 2010
Fuente:
Fuente:
Published by Financial Times, UK
Two decades after toppling General Augusto Pinochet's bloody dictatorship in an upset plebiscite victory for the opposition, Chileans on Sunday took the presidency away from the centre-left Concertación coalition, handing the tycoon Sebastián Piñera a razor-thin majority. Mr Piñera must now show that the right has decisively broken with the past and that he will not undo his predecessors' social and economic achievements.
In large part Mr Piñera's victory had to do with an electorate tired of the same coalition holding the presidency for so many years. Concertación did not help itself by putting up as its candidate a former president, the Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei (himself the son of an earlier president). But the fact that voters can peacefully throw out old faces shows that Chile's democracy has solidified. In that sense, even Concertación's narrow loss is a monument to what it achieved in power.
Besides a successful transition to democracy – in a region on a slide back to rule by caudillo strongmen – Concertación can be proud of its economic record. Chile has enjoyed solid economic growth in all but two years since Pinochet's ouster. Shrewd management of volatile copper revenues gave it room for manoeuvre in the current crisis. This month the performance was crowned by Chile's admission to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the rich countries' club.
These will be hard acts for Mr Piñera to follow. On the economy, he promises to create 1m jobs and to raise the growth rate to 6 per cent from 4 per cent over the last decade. But it is unclear how he wants – or should – change policies of proven success. On this continent of extreme endemic inequality, Chile has had impressive success in shrinking the slums and lowering poverty. A higher growth rate must not come at the expense of the poor.
Mr Piñera's private interests – he is dubbed "Chile's Berlusconi" – also remain a source of concern. Unless he relinquishes control of his corporate empire and avoids giving business connections political influence, he may paradoxically be worse for Chile's economy than the country's pragmatic left.
The biggest question is how he will address the painful legacy of Pinochet's crimes. The rule of law has yet to be fully restored: only recently have the dictatorship's murderers and torturers begun to face justice. His political affiliations notwithstanding, Mr Piñera must unequivocally support this process. His slimmest of mandates reflects Chileans' desire for change – not for backsliding into the past.
Two decades after toppling General Augusto Pinochet's bloody dictatorship in an upset plebiscite victory for the opposition, Chileans on Sunday took the presidency away from the centre-left Concertación coalition, handing the tycoon Sebastián Piñera a razor-thin majority. Mr Piñera must now show that the right has decisively broken with the past and that he will not undo his predecessors' social and economic achievements.
In large part Mr Piñera's victory had to do with an electorate tired of the same coalition holding the presidency for so many years. Concertación did not help itself by putting up as its candidate a former president, the Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei (himself the son of an earlier president). But the fact that voters can peacefully throw out old faces shows that Chile's democracy has solidified. In that sense, even Concertación's narrow loss is a monument to what it achieved in power.
Besides a successful transition to democracy – in a region on a slide back to rule by caudillo strongmen – Concertación can be proud of its economic record. Chile has enjoyed solid economic growth in all but two years since Pinochet's ouster. Shrewd management of volatile copper revenues gave it room for manoeuvre in the current crisis. This month the performance was crowned by Chile's admission to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the rich countries' club.
These will be hard acts for Mr Piñera to follow. On the economy, he promises to create 1m jobs and to raise the growth rate to 6 per cent from 4 per cent over the last decade. But it is unclear how he wants – or should – change policies of proven success. On this continent of extreme endemic inequality, Chile has had impressive success in shrinking the slums and lowering poverty. A higher growth rate must not come at the expense of the poor.
Mr Piñera's private interests – he is dubbed "Chile's Berlusconi" – also remain a source of concern. Unless he relinquishes control of his corporate empire and avoids giving business connections political influence, he may paradoxically be worse for Chile's economy than the country's pragmatic left.
The biggest question is how he will address the painful legacy of Pinochet's crimes. The rule of law has yet to be fully restored: only recently have the dictatorship's murderers and torturers begun to face justice. His political affiliations notwithstanding, Mr Piñera must unequivocally support this process. His slimmest of mandates reflects Chileans' desire for change – not for backsliding into the past.
