Continuing the push for automatic voter registration

As I posted here, a few of us circulated a letter which was signed by academics, journalists, and others with an interest in public affairs, demanding that the political system implement automatic voter registration. Currently in Chile one has to register to vote, and voting is mandatory. Many people, especially youth, do not like the idea of making that kind of life-time commitment.

From a letter, a kind of movement has emerged. In this week's Qué Pasa magazine there is a profile of the movement. They interviewed some of us, which was fun because when you get 10 academics and politicians in a room being interviewed, the result is similar to when a robin returns to her nest and tries to feed ten hungry chicks.

Notwithstanding, it is good that we are getting exposure, as the ultimate objective is to pressure the political class, and especially those in Congress, to move forward - quickly - on a constitutional amendment passed in 2009, and which would totally change the electoral game. We might not see a massive movement of young people into the voting booths, but it would certainly increase the legitimacy of the system

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The Economist's dim view

Once again The Economist takes a critical view of the government's handling of the student movement.

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Navia nails it

Here is Patricio Navia's comment on last week's shameful takeover of the ex Congress building in Santiago, which houses parliamentarians' offices and committee rooms.

Money quote:

... la falta de democracia se corrige con reformas democráticas, no con interrupciones del proceso legislativo.

What is particularly sad is that many in the Concertación were temped to support the demonstrators, confusing populism with popular will, and demonstration with democracy. Over the following days they backtracked, but one can't help but feel that the Concertación has unlearned the lessons learned so painfully after 1973: that democracy, and democratic institutions, matter.

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Storming the Bastille

Last week a group of sixty or so protesters stormed the former Congress building in Santiago, interrupting a Committee meeting to which the Education Minister had been invited, and refusing to leave until parliamentarians signed a letter committing to a constitucional amendment on a series of points including the holding of binding referendums.

This in itself is cause for concern. More worrying was the reaction of the President of the Senate, Guido Girardi, who took the easy, populist route and declared that as the parliament is a public institution and belongs to the people, he would not have the protesters removed. Worse still, was the fact that most of the Concertación supported Girardi's decision.

Jorge Correa Sutil, however, a former minister and Constitutional Tribunal judge, reacted thusly in a letter to El Mercurio:

Señor Director:

Un grupo de personas se tomaron dependencias del Senado. Su presidente declaró que mientras él estuviera en el cargo, no desalojaría con Carabineros, pues el Senado era "el lugar de los ciudadanos". Los ocupantes lo abandonaron luego de obtener que un grupo de parlamentarios se comprometiera por escrito a una reforma constitucional de su agrado.

Como los ciudadanos de Chile son iguales ante la ley y el presidente del Senado, segunda autoridad de la República, no puede discriminar arbitrariamente entre ellos, Girardi notifica a los grupos de presión que pueden tomarse las dependencias del Senado y permanecer ocupándolas por la fuerza hasta tanto no obtengan un compromiso de legislar a favor de sus intereses. Entre ellos, quedan notificados los evangélicos que se oponen a la legislación que favorezca las uniones homosexuales, los familiares de presos que pidan leyes de amnistía y cualquier otro grupo con la audacia y organización suficiente. Si son desalojados antes de obtener sus proyectos de ley favoritos, podrán acusar a Girardi de hacer discriminaciones arbitrarias.

De no ser censurado el presidente del Senado, el Parlamento haría bien en derogar el artículo de la Constitución que declara que Chile es una república democrática, pues en las repúblicas los ciudadanos deben ser tratados como iguales, y en las democracias los legisladores no hacen ni discuten proyectos bajo medidas de fuerza.

Jorge Correa Sutil

Pressure

And from the "Stupid Things People Say" Files, the Minister of Justice announced that promotion of judges would depend on a review of how they are sentencing those arrested during the student demonstrations. This has lead to the Judges Association to declare that the judiciary has never been put under this kind of political pressure, not even during the dictatorship.

I suspect that this has less to do with any sort of authoritarian crackdown, and more to do with wishful thinking, clumsily stated. Even so, justice ministers should not be making clumsy statements based on their wishful thinking.

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Automatic Voter Registration Now!

A few colleagues and I circulated a letter which was published this week, signed by over a hundred academics, columnists, television personalities and other concerned citizens, demanding that Congress pass the legislation required to move forward on a constitutional amendment already passed in 2009 regarding the automatic voter registration. We later held meetings with the Secretary General of the Government, Cristian Larroulet, the president of the Senate's Constitution Committee, Soledad Alvear, and more meetings are planned for next week.

The group is called Salvemos la Democracia!, which is a slightly histrionic indication of where things stand in Chile right now. We hope to later be able to bring other issues to the fore which politicians seem unwilling to deal with, but whose resolution would help a great deal in addressing some of the political disenchantment currently being manifest in the streets.

I reproduce the letter below. The idea was to bring together young people, from across the political spectrum, and who were not active on the front lines (ie. elected) of politics.

Chile tiene en la actualidad uno de los sistemas de registro electoral más extraños del mundo: en la Constitución existe la inscripción automática desde abril de 2009, pero en la práctica seguimos teniendo la obligación de inscribirnos en un registro disponible en ciertos lugares, en ciertos días y cierto horario.

Si todos los sectores políticos manifestaron su voluntad de eliminar esta verdadera barrera a la entrada a la participación política, ¿qué pasa que la inscripción automática hoy no está vigente? Se requiere de una ley que la implemente. Los responsables han aludido la dificultad técnica de incorporar parte importante de los no inscritos al padrón automático. De esta manera se pone en riesgo su implementación para las elecciones municipales del 2012 y presidenciales – parlamentarias 2013.

El resultado del actual sistema: después de 21 años de democracia, más del 90% de los mayores de 45 años votan, pero sólo el 20% de los menores de 30 años lo hace.

Chile tiene la capacidad de acelerar el proceso y cumplir lo señalado en la reforma. Lamentablemente la inscripción automática significa para muchos representantes mayor incertidumbre respecto de su propio resultado electoral, escenario que prefieren evitar. El incentivo pareciera estar en dejar las cosas como están, mientras se sigue debilitando la representatividad de nuestra democracia.

Los firmantes de esta carta, formando parte de un movimiento ciudadano transversal, no buscan una ventaja electoral para un partido o sector político determinado. Del mismo modo tienen visiones distintas respecto del debate de fondo sobre la voluntariedad u obligatoriedad del voto. Entre ellos también existen diferencias respecto de las otras modificaciones que requiere nuestra democracia. Aun así, todos coinciden en que el estado actual sólo consolida un padrón estrecho y avejentado a la vez que augura menos competencia y participación electoral; la inscripción automática es paso esencial y prioritario para revertir la crisis de representatividad.

Por lo anterior, especialmente en un año en el cual la juventud se ha tomado la calle para expresar su deseo de incorporarse al debate público, se hace urgente que los actores políticos cumplan su compromiso. Sabemos que nuestras instituciones públicas son capaces en corto plazo de salvar las barreras técnicas que implica este desafío. Lo que demandamos es la voluntad política para que esta reforma se haga operativa antes de las próximas elecciones municipales. Estamos contra el tiempo y no podemos esperar un día más.

A través de esta carta y los abajo firmantes exigimos al Gobierno, Congreso y Partidos Políticos que discutan con urgencia inmediata la legislación que permite la pronta implementación de la inscripción automática.

Sebastián Iglesias, Cristóbal Bellolio, Sebastián Bowen, Claudio Fuentes S., Jaime Bellolio, Marcela Ríos, Robert Funk, José Francisco García, Tomás Chuaqui, Lucia Dammert, Francisco Javier Díaz, Patricio Navia, Jorge Navarrete, Juan Pablo Luna, Nicolás Grau, Mauricio Dorfman, Humberto Sichel, Felipe Heusser, Marcelo Brunet, Luis Felipe Merino, Rodrigo Castro, Danae Mlynarz, Eugenio Guzmán, Cristóbal Aninat, Lucas Sierra, Oscar Landerretche, Julio Pertuzé, Alejandro Micco, Stephanie Alenda, Andrés Valdivia, Claudia Heiss, Daniel Hojman, Aldo Schiappacasse, Juan Pedro Pinochet, Claudia Sanhueza, Eduardo Engel, Javier Couso, Andrea Betancor, Aldo González, Andrés Azocar, Camilo Ballesteros, Cecilia Castro, Sebastián Cantuarias, Gonzalo Müller, Consuelo Saavedra, Ángel Soto, Vlado Mirosevic, Jorge Contesse, Gonzalo de la Maza, Sergio España, María de los Ángeles Fernández, Pedro Glatz, Cristóbal Huneeus, Alex Godoy, Alejandra Jorquera, Soledad Teixidó, Marcelo Mena, Claudio Castro, Juan José Ossa, Rodrigo Jordán, Matias Asún, Daniel Manoucheri, Rodrigo Guendelman, Fernando Paulsen, Claudio Agurto, Luis Argandoña, Davor Mimica, Javier Sajuria, Alfredo Joignant, José Miguel Benavente, Rolando Jiménez, Monserrat Nicolás, Carlos Correa, María Gracia Subercaseaux, Roberto Méndez, Kenneth Bunker, Andrea Repetto, Harald Beyer, Camilo Feres, Cristina Bitar, Felipe Melo, Elisa Zuleta, Axel Káiser, Andrés Kalawski, Diego Schalper, Gloria De La Fuente, Pamela Díaz-Romero, Manuel Antonio Garretón, Matías del Río, Juan Carlos Eichholz, José Viacava, Pablo Ruiz-Tagle, Patricia Politzer, Sergio Micco, Kenzo Asahi, Leo Prieto, Patricio Fernández, Max Colodro, Cristóbal Tello, Cristóbal Yurazseck, Javier Fano, Esperanza Cueto, Javier Sanfeliú, Pablo Lira, Juan Manuel Astorga, Andrea Sanhueza, Rossana Castiglioni, Francisco Javier Urbina, María Olivia Recart, David Altman.

T-shirtism

A soccer game was held today. Not unusual for a Sunday afternoon in Santiago.

But this time, citing security concerns, one of the teams, Universidad Católica, announced that they would limit the amount of Colo Colo supporters in their stadium (which is located in one of the city's finer neighbourhoods). Policy duly took up the task of ensuring not only that Colo Colo supporters did not enter the stadium, but that they did not get anywhere near the stadium. People wearing Colo Colo t-shirts were taken off buses headed in a suspiciously sports-fanatical direction. Those who refused to halt their travels or show identity cards were arrested -- about 100 people in total.

Some are accusing the police of being classist, as Colo Colo fans tend to come from a lower middle class background. This may be, or maybe not. Far worse, it seems to me, is to be detained by policy, and in some cases arrested, on the basis of the T-shirt one is wearing. At at time when the country is tense, student leaders travel to Europe to wallow in admiration from aging revolutionaries, when the crisis of capitalism is leading to occupy movements around the world, Chile is dedicating its precious resources to making sure we wear the right T-shrit. Nice.

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The Chilean spring in the Canadian fall

For some time the foreign media have been observing Chile's student movement, usually with a sympathetic eye. A few days ago the Guardian published this.

It is inevitable, I suppose, for the press to take kindly to the David and Goliath narrative which the students inspire. So the experience of sharing thoughts on current Chilean politics with 'Chileanists' from around Canada and the United States at a seminar at the University of Toronto's (my alma mater) Latin American Studies programme.

Along with some admiration for the students, there seems to be real concern for where Chilean politics is heading. McGill academic Philip Oxhorn said it best, I think, when he pointed out that social movements are very good at demanding rights but very bad a governing. The current impasse between the students and the government is pretty much about this point. How much will the students be allowed to influence political decisions over things like the budget? Should the be allowed to do so? Who do they represent? Is it good for democracy for a social movement to shove the political parties aside? But on the other hand, why have the political parties been unable to take on their cause?

The general consensus among the eggheads was that Chile is in for interesting times, that this may not be a good thing, that the political and economic model was ripe for change, but the political and economic elite has been unwilling to bring about this change. And yet, as Patricio Navia pointed out, polls do not show a groundswell of support for an outsider, populist candidate. Chileans seem to prefer insider soft-populists like Golbourne and Bachelet.

Interesting times.