Prime Minister Cameron. Do Chileans Care?

As this column notes, I was in London when Tony Blair, leading something called New Labour, won the 1997 British elections. No matter what one's political stripes, it was an extraordinary time, coinciding with a surge in British pride, nationalism, and not a little bit of marketing, that had not been seen since the 60s. Looking back, much of it was pretty tacky (think Spice Girls and Tellytubbies). But there is no question that Blair's election brought about a major change in how British politics is done.

So I thought I would jot down a few thoughts in El Mostrador -- written before the coalition talks were settled and Cameron took over as PM. What I find amazing, however, is something unrelated: of all the columns I have written in El Mostrador, this is the first one that is not about Chilean politics. And it is also the first one that has attracted no comments from readers.

Now, unlike on this blog, where readers are informed and interested and usually kind, comments in El Mostrador can be about anything, and more often than not descend into a shouting match between commentators and end up losing any relevance to the issue at hand. Nevertheless, I suspect that the absence of reader feedback on this article reflects the almost total lack of interest that Chileans have in the rest of the world -- unless they are asking what the rest of the world thinks of Chile.

On the one hand, this should not be surprising. Spending 400 years living on a virtual island will make anyone turn inward. But for over a generation, Chile has been one of the most open countries, trading with anyone, signing dozens of free trade agreements, and Chileans increasingly travel to the US, Europe and within Latin America. And yet, they just don't seem to care.
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Farce

Somewhat belatedly, here is something I wrote in El Mostrador this week.

And speaking of El Mostrador, I am beginning to understand what Karl Marx meant when he wrote that history repeats itself as farce. In the last 24 or 36 hours, the government of Chile has
made headlines twice for the same, badly handled story. First they named Mirko Macari, who is editor of El Mostrador, to head up the editorial team at La Nación, the government-owned newspaper. This was a big deal as Mirko's political sympathies are well known and not, precisely, pro-government.

But then yesterday afternoon La Segunda carried a headline that presaged what was to come. It said that the UDI was up in arms over the appointment. By the time I drove home last night, I heard Mirko being interviewed on the radio, confirming that his appointment had been withdrawn.

I have lost track now of how many appointments have been reversed or withdrawn since this government took office. The reasons are diverse, but the cause is the same: they don't do the necessary legwork beforehand. Either they don't check criminal records, or they don't check conflicts of interest, or they don't check with their coalition partners. At this point, though, having undergone a series of these mini-crises, one can only conclude that they just don't care.

It is baffling. Perhaps they figure nobody is paying attention. Perhaps their internal polling shows that the damage is transitory. But week after week, it builds an image. And it's not a good one.
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It couldn't happen here, could it?

This story is going to get nasty. And it will be an interesting test case of how the elite handles these things.

If the church in question, and the victims, were in some marginal part of Santiago, it would be easier to circle the wagons. In this case, it may be easier to cut the Father loose and hope that the story then quickly goes away.
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It's a small world after all

The task of reconstruction is so great that Chile cannot afford incompetence, laziness or corruption. That is why I hope for the best with this government. Yet day after day, the signs are not encouraging.

In the last few days the government has announced that it will purchase reconstruction materials from three large corporations, sidestepping any process of public tender. This is permitted, because of the extraordinary circumstances in the areas most affected by the February 27 earthquake.

But as this report shows, the personal links between government officials and the companies in question make the whole thing seem rather sordid. What's worse, it's a structural problem. Since Piñera named so many non-political, private sector types to high ranking posts, these conflicts of interest will appear again and again. In the long run, it will only serve to delegitimize the government and its parties, and that doesn't do us much good.
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Chutzpah

Piñera thinks that his first three weeks in office have been a tremendous success. In fact, he thinks he has already equalled, or in fact surpassed, the Concertación's record of achievement. That's great! Good for him. It just shows how efficient he is.

However, as I suggest here, sometimes in the interest of efficiency one can commit all sorts of mistakes that then come back and bite you on the head (or elsewhere). That is why most of last week was dominated by the errors committed in political appointments, some of which had to be rescinded, and the extraordinary sight of a Supreme Court judge saying that some formal legal steps had been missed in the implementation of a new law. Who cares? It's efficient!

To be fair, this week was a far better week for Piñera than last... he managed to sort of regain control of the message. But there is a fundamental problem that underlies everything that has gone wrong. In the private sector, one tries gain the maximum advantage in order to sell things, make things, earn money, etc. The law is often an impediment to efficiency, and certainly to profitability. But in government, the maximum advantage, the raison d'etre, is the law. One cannot bypass the law in order to do something else, because if it goes beyond the law, that something else is not only illegal, it is probably not something that government should be doing in the first place.

That is today's fight. They're still learning, and as I have repeatedly said here, it is unfair to criticise too much at this stage, given the lack of experience in government. Tomorrow's fight, however, will be when the Piñera government figures out how to work within the law and still maximise its advantage. When that happens, fasten your seatbelts.
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Early days

Michelle Bachelet's learning curve lasted at least two years, and she had extensive experience in government before becoming president. That is why it is unfair to begin dumping on the current government for what has been a pretty awful first week in office.... which is not to say that the major newspapers have not been unprofessionally fawning in their reporting.

One example is yesterday's emergency, last minute meeting between Interior Minister Hinzpeter and José Miguel Stegmeier, who had been named by this government as governor of the province of BioBio. Turns out Stegmeier had some dogdgy dealings with the unsavoury characters at Colonia Dignidad, a german colony in southern Chile which has been linked to Nazis, the military dictatorship, and child abuse. Even after decades, the entire truth on Colonia Dignidad has yet to emerge, and I suspect we have not heard the last of Stegmeier. He is, in fact, named in some ongoing lawsuits against the Colony.

The episode is an interesting case study. For one thing, the front page of this morning's Mercurio had two huge headlines on Piñera's hectic work schedule and the first aid package anounced by the government, and only a small square on the right hand column making reference to the Stegmeier affair.

Second, one has to ask what kind of vetting has gone on in government appointments. Are they really this hard up for people? Why is the right still linked to these characters?

Third, however, is that credit is due to the government, and especially the Interior Minister, for acting quickly. They did not try to justify, defend, deflect or delay. Hinzpeter called in Stegmeier on a Friday night, and fired him. It augurs well for the Hinzpeter method.
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The PPT Presidency

I know that Chile likes to show the world that it is a serious country, with serious, business-oriented leaders, but does Piñera really have to start off his presidency with a Power Point presentation to visiting leaders?
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