 |
|
|
 Editorials | January 2007 
Mexico is Still Trapped in Decades Old Crises
 Carlos Luken - MexiData.info
| | Mexico remains paralyzed by a stagnant political arrangement that never worked in the past, and is today still present. |
Mexico, blessed with culture, heritage, and a deep respect for its ways and traditions, has struggled to achieve the difficult balancing act of moving toward progress while preserving its own particular lifestyle.
Unfortunately, in doing so it has also inadvertently preserved its corrupt and dysfunctional political status quo.
In Mexico this state of affairs represents a bountiful life of wealth and privilege that befalls a chosen few, who take pains to appear to change in order to stay the same and live at leisure.
The leftovers of a fading political system continue to control the country and its future, while a new breed of politicians are apparently jockeying to position themselves to follow in their predecessor’s footsteps. Small wonder that many impatient Mexicans now mock their democracy with the cliché “changing to remain the same.”
As a case in point, Mexican officials and lawmakers have long and adamantly insisted on the urgent need for energy reform, yet few changes have been made. The sectoral need for foreign investment, and its corresponding shortsighted rejection with claims of a loss of sovereignty, are anachronisms in a country where oil resources are plentiful and capital scarce. Moreover, few can explain the stagnation that has led to depletion of Mexico’s major oil fields and its increased reliance on foreign imports of refined fuels and gas.
Mexico’s labor laws are another example of archaic legislation, throwbacks to the first half of the last century in a collection of confused and unworkable regulations that are out of step with the modern globalized economic environment. New laws were dictated to benefit and protect official labor unions in order to barter their support and votes, and as unions became detached from the governmental structure their leaders became independent and richer. Unions are now being structured as non-taxable business enterprises, and leaders are using their members as leverage to gain power and political positions. As well, they use cohorts in Congress to smother unwanted advances, colleagues who quickly modify any real changes that might squeak through.
Fiscal reform has also been a habitual argument for decades. The Mexican tax system is a jumbled mess of unworkable and unenforceable codes and regulations. At first glance Mexican tax laws appear to have sharp teeth, but in reality they have no bite (unless it’s a “mordida”). Mexico is one of the world’s worst tax enforcers and collectors. As with most legislation, loopholes are normally negotiated jointly with legislative initiatives. Interested parties lobby heavily to attain exemptions that will benefit their concerns, whereas other officials will join in to create administrative havoc in order to benefit from corrupt interpretations of vague jurisprudence.
Education is in disarray much for the same reasons as labor. The anarchic educational workers union system that provided the government with absolute patronage for more than half of the 20th Century has grown obsolete, and it is now splintering into adversary groups whose leaders are after money and political positions. To acquire power they buy their members by promoting tolerant legislation and unjustifiable benefits for many undeserving educators and activists.
After milking the cash cow almost to death, most of Mexico’s pension funds are all but insolvent. In the past decades there have been several warning signs that responsible lawmakers and officials have put forth only to hit stonewalls of denial from those who are unwilling to pay the political costs required to fix the structure. Thus the outdated, under funded and overburdened pension system is heading for collapse.
And now Mexico is facing yet another acute crisis. Once one of the world’s foremost food producers, the country’s populist governments sought to win rural support and votes with free flowing subsidy policies that lowered productivity, encouraged incompetence and raised prices to levels where food must now be imported. Too, rural chieftains control blocks of farmer’s, using them as fodder for political reasons and goals.
Mexico remains paralyzed by a stagnant political arrangement that never worked in the past, and is today still present. Whether from the right, left or center, officials and legislators are more concerned with not losing privileges and power than in making comprehensive changes to an obsolescent system that is ruining the country and eroding any hope for advancement and democracy.
Mexican citizens can no longer improvise, or naively believe that changing political actors will solve long-standing and deep-seated troubles. The people must actively participate in overhauling Mexico’s self-centered partisanship structures, and demand on leaders who will worry about solving problems rather than just staying in power.
Carlos Luken, a MexiData.info columnist, is a Mexico-based businessman and consultant. He can be reached via email at ilcmex@yahoo.com. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us