Global Voices Online

Last week, Fernando Flores (ES), Senator from the leftist coalition, decided to suspend his party affiliation to the PPD because of a corruption scandal with other senators from the same coalition.

The week before, the worldwide ranking of transparency listed (ES), Chile at position number 20 and first in transparency in Latin American.

Referring to the positions of the coalition, Rodrigo (ES) writes:

Vemos acciones de defensa corporativa, aparecen comisiones secretas que ya no lo son y otras rebeliones senatoriales, como la Renuncia y declaraciones del Senador Flores al PPD – pandilleros y camorra - y sus consecuencias posteriores, para luego callar. Nadie podría aceptar a políticos electos con dineros del Estado y menos aún si con dineros públicos se llega al gobierno por medio de la intervención electoral directa o indirecta.. Ese es el gran dilema actual”.

We see corporative self-defense actions, secret committees that are no longer secret and other senatorial rebellions, such as the withdrawal of Senator Flores from the PPD- gang members and pure trouble - and their consequences, that later were silenced. No one could accept elected politicians with government money, and less so if that public money reaches the government through direct or non-direct electoral intervention. That is the current big dilemma.

Esteban Valenzuela (ES) gives us an approach of why these acts happens, posted in El Rancahuaso:

La crisis de estos días tiene dos raíces; el decaimiento de la ética personal que nos puede llevar a malas prácticas cuando la ansiedad de tener y poder nos lleva a perder el sentido de lo correcto y lo justo; y también la permanencia en Chile de un sistema muy centralizado de control político y asignaciones con discrecionalidad, que permiten redes de cooptación política, aprovechamiento de privados y empresas o abusos de funcionarios”.

The crisis these days has two roots; the decline of personal ethics, that could take us to bad practices when the anxiety of having power makes us lose the sense of what is correct and right; and also the continuance of the centralized system of political control and the random assignment of power and abuse of functionaries and private businesses.

Posted by Rosario Lizana