HOW ONE PARTY CAN HAVE AN ADVERSE LASTING EFFECT

HOW ONE PARTY CAN HAVE AN ADVERSE LASTING EFFECT

Introduction

            The Mexican PRI stands for Institutional Revolutionary Party written in Spanish as Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI). The party goes on record as having ruled Mexico for over six decades without giving up power, and most interestingly, opposition existed all through. It is believed the reason the party reigned for such a very long time without much worry is that the party leaders stayed grounded and loyal to themselves and their interests. These meant they were united on one course, which stayed in power the longest time possible. This long tenure of despotism did not go well for the Mexicans, as it is evident this bred a lot of impunity in the state. The electoral body was bribed more often to manipulate election results; the ever-rising cries of repeated election fraud proves this. The PRI also enjoyed the “love” from their humongous crowds of voters. This was enough to keep them in power for decades. PRI would later leave a very large scar in the lives of the Mexicans with an ailed regime, where corruption was a norm. This crippled the country economically, socially, and politically as well. Mexico ranked higher among corrupt countries on the corruption meter; this crippled foreign relationships as no one would want to do business with a corrupt state. PRI is remembered for breeding drug lords, and a lot of drug trafficking business to a neighboring state and even to larger extends of Latin America. On international standards, this ruined the Mexican’ reputation. The seeds of corruption would remain deeply rooted in the country’s regime for long.

PRI Effects to the Economy

            Based on a majority of global international organizations devoted to measuring corruption indices in countries, Mexico ranked among top corrupt countries in Latin America. Three out of ten Mexican individuals paid or received a bribe in deferent forms. Research has it that over 5% of the government contracts meant for the public ended up in corruption deals. They were later taken up by people who didn’t deserve it and denying those who genuinely merited for those positions.  As if that was not enough, the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) spent over 1trillion Mexican pesos that is close to $50billion US dollars annually on corruption deals to avoid following protocols set up in their business setting either acquisition or getting institutional licensing and related kinds of stuff. What was even shocking and proof that the Mexican PRI failed its people is that over 10% of the Mexican national gross domestic product (annual GDP) ended up paying a variety of bribes.[1]The fact that PRI stayed in power close to 8 decades without much interruption from the opposition meant that the regime had genuinely denied the Mexicans their right to a better economic state free from corruption. They expressed their will over and over through the ballot but ended up wasted. It plunged Mexico into corruption ate up anything left for development.

Political effects of PRI

Democracy was sweeping across Latin America, but it took Mexico over a decade to be a political system that could at least be called a democratic system.[2] Where elections could be contested, and winners or losers genuinely accept the result and appreciate the electoral process. For Mexico, it was the exact opposite. Perhaps the delay can be termed as intentional by the regime itself. The state was lagging behind with a despotic type of political system. There were no clearly defined formal roles of political leaders, and elections were won based on how participants were willing to dish out handouts. It created an impression that politics in Mexico had to be made up of violence. The only way to power was through corruption. Politicians whose role was to serve the people now had no clue what exactly to do with the authority in their hands. Initially, leadership meant a representation of commoners. The elected leaders’ role was to represent the interest of those who elected them not to pursue personal interests. But during Mexico’s PRI era, the exact opposite was true. The PRI set a bad example in Mexican politics that was even emulated by the leaders who came after.

Social Effects of PRI Reign

Considering that corruption had become a norm during the PRI regime, this automatically qualified for denial of basic social services, including justice. The Judicial system had been corrupted and was easily swayed by bribes. According to Stephen Morris’ work, “Political Corruption in Mexico,” both the Judicial and legislative systems are regarded as one that could easily be manipulated. It was evident that people in power could easily meddle with the two organs of the government and walk away scot-free.[3] Mexicans were denied the right to transparent information from the media as the dictatorial state had taken over journalists and only permitted reporting what was best for PRI, resisting journalists risked assassination. The media would boldly sell fabricated lies to the voters without even a second thought. Another major social effect imposed on the masses by PRI was denying the public their right to express themselves through voting. Elections were always rigged, making the election process just a formality practice but with already pre-determined results. Individuals from PRI vying for any seats, be it the least powerful of the most powerful, had a 99% of winning the elections no matter what. This rendered the opposition irrelevant in their attempts to champion for change and a new democracy.[4]

How the 1985 Earthquake exposed the flaws of the Mexican PRI

Natural disasters like earthquakes, tornados, and tsunamis are occurrences that humans have little to no control over. But the action taken by the affected states really plays a big role in disaster management. The 1985 earthquake really proved the lies that the government had sold to their people all along, the Mexican regime ruled for long, but they had terribly failed to stay accountable to their citizens’ needs. The main demerit exposed among the leaders was their inability to manage the emergency response section as a government. The embezzlement of resources meant for emergencies put innocent lives on the balance in the case of a calamity. There were no enough funds available to initiate the rescue process. Well-wishers, who were ordinary individuals, took the initiative to save lives. This wouldn’t have worked effectively compared to a properly equipped state rescue team.

After the calamity, there were folks lucky enough to have lived through the demise. People had lost their homes, and businesses were buried, health facilities like hospitals too were swallowed. It was really disastrous considering it happened in a capital city with a very large population. The government’s main responsibility was to take care of those survivors, but they failed at this[5]. The rate at which the response team responded was upsetting. Individuals were to take the initiative of helping their own. The citizens donated clothes, beddings, and foodstuffs to support their colleagues. It’s an act not discouraged, but the whole process was not supposed to be dependent on such donations, there was a very stable government in charge of the state, but this proved how big of a failure the PRI regime was.

The level of urgency by a state to respond to natural disasters plays a big role in saving lives. The lack of order in initiating the rescue process led to many lives perishing, and the level of attention given to the survivors was below the expected threshold, considering the strength assumed to be possessed by a regime in power for over half a century. It took longer for the state rescue teams to show up, and people had to take matters in their own hands, which was a big risk too since most volunteers would definitely be lacking essential rescue skills. This was a big gamble with people’s lives. This clearly showed how unprepared the state was.

A state dominated by corruption; even architectural principals weren’t put into account. A densely populated town sitting close to a seismic wave epicenter meant in case of a disaster many lives and property would be lost[6]. But contrarily, the state official still unlawfully procured construction tenders of even more buildings in that place. During the occurrence of the event, there were still newly constructed structures connected to state officials. This concentrated a very big population around the city. Major institutions, including high-end hospitals, ivy colleges, were raised in this city. There was more to be done by the government in assessing the risk exposure in the region before giving the go-ahead to most of the structure development in Mexico City. Considering the existence of an epicenter within, it is disheartening to learn that there was no disaster management body set up by the government.

According to research done by the disaster development center of the University of Delaware, five years later. It brought to light some critical information. Before the occurrence of the earthquake, the central government had not put in place any disaster management authority yet[7]. This really sums up the kind of mediocracy practiced by elected leaders. A sovereign state with a political party over 60 years old, but they had never prepared for such a disaster. Considering the location of the Mexican city, it was pretty obvious that they were at risk of being hit by an earthquake. The idea to develop a movement to undertake disaster management was picked up but never authenticated and allocated required funds.

The existence of a failed regime was exposed by this natural calamity. The main objective of PRI was to benefit a few individuals and not to serve its people as claimed. There was a growing gap between the wealthy and the impoverished—this increased social inequality. The level of corruption can be linked directly to the state of the country around the time of the calamity occurrence. There was a failed political structure with leaders lacking the set skills to respond to emergencies and national disasters. First, besides not having a well laid out disaster management plan, the president held excess power. He controlled everything literally, even the smallest of activities required his decisions. That much bureaucracy meant a slow response to an emergency automatically. The president holding excess power really hindered planning. It meant following many protocols to get approval of any kind. The consequences really hit Mexico very hard, thousands of people lost their lives, tens of thousands lost businesses and their places of residence.

Corruption in the 1988 Elections and its impact on people’s trust

The elections of 1988 were to mark a turnaround of events in Mexico’s political history, especially the presidential position. The PRI reign seemed to be coming to an end after decades in authority. The people were going to exercise their constitutional authority to choose their leaders of choice. The incumbent president had already agreed to give up power. Unfortunately, he was not going to let PRI die. According to a section of the then incumbent president’s life history that was printed in a newspaper proved the masses fears right that indeed the elections had been rigged. Although intended to pass on a different message, written in a different tone that the PRI loyalists would love to hear, still the rest treated it as a confession. After the election results, the opposition leaders spoke in one voice, and this did not come as a coincidence, they termed the elections results unfair and fabricated.

There were slight improvements with the election process of 1988, but still, a lot of kinds of stuff remained unchanged. The PRI still had their flag bearer as the head of state. Again, these other junior seats were still being controlled by the PRI contestants. More than 90% of the senate leaders were from the PRI political movement. In the chambers of a deputy, more than half the elected leaders had an association with the ruling party.[8] This openly rendered the state a PRI government just like before. The masses had to live with this reality until the next coming elections and hope for something different. People lost trust in the electoral process, and some considered not taking part in future elections. The fact that people woke up to go vote for their desired leaders, individuals they believed would bring forth the kind of Mexico they needed, and later to realize that their votes did not count really killed their faith in the system. As a reward, a leader they did not really prefer is imposed on them by the oligarchs. The newly elect president promised to take his quest for a better economy even higher. But that was not enough to convince the common people that he would bring any difference. He was still deemed to be the heir of the filthy PRI approach to politics. Made up corruption, dishonesty, unaccountability, and egocentric form of leadership. In addition to this, there was a higher likelihood he did not genuinely rise to power; this was still going to make Mexicans less trusting of him.

Conclusion

PRI ruled Mexico for a very long time, and this turned out to be a long stretch of life under impunity. The country recorded high cases of corruption, and there was no election transparency, the judicial system was just a formality, the legislative system too was not spared as the state meddled with most of its affairs. The media only reported specific news. People were denied access to truthful information. Still, PRI was not willing to give up power. It still wanted to “serve” the people. With more than six decades in control, they would not have done any better with more time in power. The time was supposed to be used to develop the country’s economy, improve people’s standards of living by bridging the widening gap between the few wealthy and the majority poverty-stricken citizens.  Instead, the regime set an example of its own. The only way to win an election in Mexico was through fraud, leaders were to go for political seats to enrich themselves but not to serve their people, and the way to get a deal done was to grease some hands. This kind of “culture” would still be passed on in the Mexican political setting. That’s what the old PRI would be remembered for by a majority of the Mexicans, generations to come, a failed regime. The earthquake incident was enough proof that clearly exposed a failed system, a regime that did not put their citizens’ welfare first.

Bibliography

Andrew Reding MEXICO AT A CROSSROADS: The 1988 Elections and Beyond (World Policy Journal 1988), 615-630

Francis Hagopian & Scot Mainwaring, The third wave of democratization in Latin America: Advances and setbacks (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 110-115

Mark Anderson Fault Lines Mexico’s 1985 Earthquake and the Politics of Narration (The University of Georgia), 146- 148

Russel R. Dynes Quadrantelli E & Dennis Wenger INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANISATIONAL RESPONSE TO THE 1985 EARTHQUAKE IN MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (1990), 21

Stephen D. Morris, Political Corruption in Mexico (STE 314 USA; Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009), 1-2

[1] Stephen D. Morris, Political Corruption in Mexico (STE 314 USA; Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009), 1-2

[2]  Francis Hagopian & Scot Mainwaring, The third wave of democratization in Latin America: Advances and setbacks (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 110-115

[3] Ibid., 110

[4] Mark Anderson Fault Lines Mexico’s 1985 Earthquake and the Politics of Narration (The University of Georgia), 146- 148

[5] Ibid., 150-152

[6] Russel R. Dynes Quadrantelli E & Dennis Wenger INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANISATIONAL RESPONSE TO THE 1985 EARTHQUAKE IN MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (1990), 21

[7] Ibid., 22-28

[8] Andrew Reding MEXICO AT A CROSSROADS: The 1988 Elections and Beyond (World Policy Journal 1988), 615-630