A democratic reform lesson from Chile
The true meaning of “Reformasi” must be revived without any compromise on its original aims for democratic institutional reforms.
By Dr Boo Cheng Hau
Any democratic reform is not about revenge between leaders. It is neither a drama where leaders of past political rivalry put up shows by hugging and embracing each other.
It is about what we have learnt from mistakes we have made before in history and pass on the valuable lessons to the upcoming generations, especially the new leaders, to avoid repetition of the same mistakes.
It has to be based upon collective efforts in a process of learning in providing future growth of human civilisation. In more precise terms, any institutional reform has to transpire into a constitutional reform eventually.
In 1973, Chileans elected a socialist president Salvador Allende who was replaced by Augusto Pinochet after a military coup, marking the beginning of an era of brutal military junta rule with years of political persecutions which resulted in at least three thousand political dissidents found dead or missing and more than a hundred thousand detained without trial and two hundred thousand forced into exile.
The intellectuals, like the neo-liberal economists, Chicago Boys, actually provided the ideology and socioeconomic models by manipulating resources to keep Pinochet in power for more than 30 years.
The Chilean economic model in those days was much similar to what we have had in Malaysia, with the additional racial twists to create an elite class, who controlled almost every aspect of Chileans’ life from military, politics, the economy to social development.
They looked something like a free market economy but in actual fact they were similar to socio-economic models that concentrate the political and economic powers in the hands of a few cronies.
Perhaps many will attempt to be apologetic for Malaysia’s past economic and political reprisals by arguing that the imposition of the Internal Security Act which empowers the powers-that-be to detain dissidents without trial was much less severe as compared to the Chilean experience under Pinochet’s rule, and some even argue that the powers-that-be in Malaysia were much more humane. It shows just how the Stockholm’s psyche has got into some former ISA detainees.
The pro-establishment methodology of interpreting past historical mistakes has become the root cause for Malaysia’s inability to move forward, far from being even able to achieve any democratic reform.
The true meaning of “Reformasi” must be revived without any compromise on its original aims for democratic institutional reforms.
In 1980, the Chilean military junta invited civilian intellectuals to rewrite a new constitution which was passed through a referendum that was meant to legitimise military-linked crony elite rule instead of commencing a true democratic reform.
Chilean opposition parties rose and protested over the constitutional referendum, that was seen as an effort to whitewash Pinochet’s human rights violations.
Free market is meant to benefit the people by-and-large through the creation of greater wealth. Nonetheless, a nation could be torn into a civil-war-like state when the neo-liberalised market was meant to create wealth for a crony elite class as in Chile under its former military rule, resulting in an acute wealth distribution disparity and a high unemployment rate, and worst of all, a politically divided nation.
Chilean economic recovery started only after a true democratic reform was put in place by removing military power in the National Security Council and until Pinochet’s immunity was removed and he was prosecuted in court. Its democratic reform was considered on its way only in 2005 when military power was empowered to the civilian elected executive.
Since 1980, Chile has gone through 50 constitutional amendments before reaching the present democratic state. Between 2006 and 2010, Chileans elected a female social democrat and paediatrician Michelle Bachelet as their president and she was re-elected for another term between 2014 till now. She has carried out major social democratic reforms that have brought about not only a more stable democratic Chile but also ensures that the Chilean economy moves ahead at an encouraging pace, with or without her.
Even though Bachelet is expected to be out of office soon, Chile has gone through a successful democratic transformation from a dictatorial state to one of the most democratic and dynamic economies in South America. Its poverty rate and unemployment rates have diminished tremendously after its democratisation process.
In conclusion, dictators such as Augusto Pinochet could have been the liberators of their own tyranny. But in reality, the bitterly painful past can only be put to rest through a long, hard due legal and constitutional process.
Dr Boo Cheng Hau is the DAP’s Skudai state assemblyman.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
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