Venezuela: from a society of cowards to a nation of decent citizens

Gustavo Coronel - The last ten years have been tragic for Venezuela. The deterioration is dramatic and easily verifiable with statistics, documents and photographs. During this decade a ill- educated man, lacking a national vision, surrounded by a team of collaborators that range from the intellectually mediocre to the openly corrupt, but having the military on his side and immense oil income, has imposed his almost total will on our Venezuelan society. Venezuela’s hemispheric presence and her role as member of the civilized community of nations have fallen to levels closer to Haiti’s than to Chile’s. In 1975 Venezuela had a HDI (Human Development Index) higher than Chile’s, Mexico’ s or South Korea’s. Today, it lags badly behind those countries, running with the pack of the most backward societies in the planet. A few days ago Hugo Chavez met in Caracas with a group of high-level bureaucrats and members of the Venezuelan industrial and financial elites to discuss “new economic measures”, in order to revive the moribund Venezuelan economy. Looking at the televised faces and behavior of the bureaucrats and the industrialists present at the meeting I came to the conclusion that our main problem in Venezuela is one of moral cowardice. During this meeting Chavez “graciously” eliminated a tax that he had created months ago, promised the businessmen a one billion dollar fund to start “new business” and made a few jokes at the expense of some members of the audience. These men laughed at the jokes and applauded at the handouts being thrown at them by the strongman. No one stood up and left, although they were treated in an imperial manner by the autocrat. They were happy enough to be given more opportunities of enriching themselves. No one questioned the fundamental lack of economic policies and the total ineptitude shown by a government that has received over $600 billion during these years and has almost nothing to show for it.The essential tragedy of Venezuela is that we have allowed our society to reduce its standards to the level of the man who is imposing his will on us. We have not been able to defend and maintain our standards. Our civic posture is degraded. We have shrunk down to the size of the moral dwarves who are now in power. When we look at ourselves in the mirror we do not seem to notice the dramatic, negative changes. Venezuelans make up one of the most narcissistic societies in Latin America and that explains why, according to Chilean pollster Latinobarometro, we perceive ourselves as the “happiest” country in Latin America, in spite of being ruled by a clownish “caudillo” and having the highest rate of violent crime, the highest inflation rate and one of the highest rates of unemployment in the hemisphere. If I had told another Venezuelan ten years ago that our petroleum company would today be engaged in importing food and would be producing less than half of the oil it should; that the president would try to become president for life; that there would be some 50,000 Cubans in the country, some of them in key national security jobs; that the most popular TV station would be closed down and its assets stolen from them by the government, this Venezuelan would have called me insane. And yet, all of this and much more has taken place under the passive acceptance of the Venezuelan mentioned and millions of our countrymen,women. Even worse, many Venezuelans feel grateful to receive monetary handouts and small crumbs of “freedom” from a ruler who has violated almost every law in our country.This is hard to explain. I can only think of two possibilities: either we are a structurally mediocre and weak people or the enormous rain of petrodollars that has fallen on the country during the last years has lulled us. When I think about the first possibility I have to admit that Venezuelans suffered in silence and resignation several horrible dictatorships in the past. In special the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gomez lasted 27 years, from 1908 to 1935. During those long years an alliance was established between the despot and the industrial and business elites, at the expense of the nation, just as it is happening today. If this were the true explanation, Venezuela would probably be condemned to remain a backward country forever. I prefer the other explanation, even if it is not much better than the first one: that of a society temporarily flooded with petrodollars, everybody busy trying to obtain as big as possible a piece of the “cake, instead of thinking about democratic principles, ideals and “personal dignity. Today Venezuelans behave like children at a “piñata”, everybody flat on the floor trying to pick up as many toys and candies as they can. They do not seem to care if the guy holding the “piñata” is a gangster as, in fact, he is.As a Venezuelan “shareholder” I have little voting power (one in 16 million votes) but have the right to advance some recommendations, as follows:• Venezuelans have to come together, as soon as possible, into a national pact for democracy and national decency, in order to re-establish the political and social standards that have been lost during these last ten years. We cannot allow Hugo Chavez to convert Venezuela into a socialist, fascist, military-driven society. We cannot allow a man lacking the most basic sense of presidential dignity to entrench himself in power. Legitimacy goes far beyond the electoral event and has much more to do with performance. If performance fails democratic, accountable and transparent standards, there is no legitimacy and the people are entitled to act to oust this man from power. • The concept of individual leadership, as in providential leadership, is not what Venezuela requires. We should be looking at a collective type of leadership, one in which some Venezuelans can be leaders in some aspects and followers in others, in a managerial, rather than a messianic mode. This will not be easy. Possibly, Venezuela will have to go through a post-Chavez transition where a decent, democratic citizen, not a Mahdi-like personality, can lead the country until basic institutional order has been restored. We will probably need a Gerald Ford.• The new leadership should emphasize the great areas of policy where the country has suffered most under the inept hands of Hugo Chavez: education, civic education, structural health programs, modernization of infrastructure, opening up to private investment, both domestic and foreign, under clear and stable rules of the game, recovery of the oil industry. The poor should be given special attention, not handouts but true support and empowerment.• No sector of society should be excluded from participating in the reconstruction of the country.• The recovery of Venezuela after the Chavez nightmare will take two generations. It should not be delayed one minute longer than it is absolutely necessary.