* Curious scorpion policy
* Lots of racket and little administration
One would think that the first government of the left, with the public discontent that was publicized in the presidential campaign, even setting up a centuries-old lawsuit against national history and with the previous riots as an implicit method of threat and pressure, would have achieved extraordinary management in the first anus. It was not so. On the contrary, it has been twelve months of rhetoric and incontinent activism. Also showbiz episodes to excess, fast-paced family scandals and the well-worn record of stirring up daily political brawls to camouflage the lack of results. Likewise, there has been a string of unfulfilled appointments and ups and downs of all kinds in the presidential agenda, for no reason in sight, in the same sense as the strange prolongation of the infinity of trips abroad. And it is easy to verify, in turn, an unusual lack of budget execution and continuous lapses in public policies, sometimes supported by mendacious reports, also without the essential structuring on crucial issues and in accordance with minimal administrative principles.
It is therefore overwhelming to observe how everything is difficult for the government, self-imposed in a trunk of hooks, not to say that acting as a kind of scorpion. And it’s not at all because of the opposition or big debates in Congress; nor by international forces, climate change or extraterrestrial phenomena (which are now the order of the day in the United States); much less can it be said, at all, that he did not have the constitutional, political and economic instruments at hand, including a huge tax reform, to carry out what he wanted. In fact, the government has been given a red carpet since its inception. What’s more, the second presidential candidate in votes took a resounding political flight and most parties (even without having endorsed him in the campaign) fell flat, at the time, to support him to the letter in Congress. For their part, the courts and control bodies have maintained a rigorous institutional activity, without bias or anything that is not duly enshrined in the law. In short, it is difficult to find a more favorable political scenario to advance a government program, perhaps if it were understood that the expensive art of governing is not acting to the noise of coconuts and the throb of the day, typical of retail politics. .
For now, after one year of management, the result is that 50 percent of the country considers that the situation has worsened and only 35 percent that it has improved (CNC survey). This is not without significance, since it is becoming increasingly clear that the perception of the previous government becomes relevant in the face of the negative state of mind in which the current administration is sinking. Which for some is saying a lot. Even former presidents such as Juan Manuel Santos and Iván Duque agree that the most serious thing for the country, as things are and without clear paths, is that the government does not know where it is going. Perhaps, in addition to this and in our opinion, it also leaves everything half done. Of his own, the president spends his time trilling announcements and believes that the presidential voice alone is a magic wand that translates his desires into immediate realities. But in a country like Colombia, which needs effective action and permanent coordination, he cannot simply hold onto Aladdin’s lamp and give himself the sad pleasure of wasting time on fables. Or believe that the problems are going to be solved with the inane ministerial carousel.
The recently deceased British teacher and extraordinary Colombianologist, Malcolm Deas, suggested that the worst enemy of our nation is bochinche. Well, in those we walk today more than ever. Just like in that sense, the words of the hero Francisco Miranda would seem prophetic, when he served as a bad scapegoat for Independence: “Bochinche, bochinche, these people don’t know how to do anything but bochinche.” Given this, it can also be clear, according to Rafael Reyes, that the country needs less politics and more administration.
Indeed, after 12 months, the government remains obsessed and even indigestible with politics (“the cause” as they call it) and detached from the administration. It is probably due to that universal political lesson that the left is often effective in opposition but highly ineffective in administration. After all, no one would doubt that it has been an exemplary year on the matter.