By Luis Manuel Aguana
Just as I loved science fiction in my younger years -and still do-, I'm
fascinated by politics fiction after I'm old. Both somehow make the things they
present real. It is the exercise of the concept of "self-fulfilling
prophecy", being something that ends up being realized because you want
it. Those old enough will remember how in the 1960s all science fiction series
presented videotaped phone calls as normal at a time when the telephone networks
were just passing off dial-up phones in developed countries. In Venezuela we
only had rotary phones. Now portable video calls are commonplace like in the
futuristic cartoon series "The Jetsons" and "Star Trek,"
even better because they're free.
I remembered that it was from the extraordinary political fiction film
of 2002, "The Sum of All Fears", starring Morgan Freeman and Ben
Affleck, that the phrase "Be careful what you say, words have a
habit of turning into politics". 18 years later, the United States
still fears and has prepared itself to prevent the explosion of a nuclear bomb
of terrorist origin on its territory, as the film very well exposes as a
certain possibility, which would be the beginning of an atomic war of
unpredictable consequences.
That is why everything that is expressed, written and discussed on
social networks, which is the new framework for national and global
information, will sooner or later end up becoming politics, just as video phone
calls and so many other wonders described by science fiction became reality.
In Venezuela we have not even begun to debate how we would like our
political future to be, beyond the commonplaces provided by an absolutely
devalued political class and its new protagonists, who have learned all the bad
habits from their mentors who still live off Venezuelan politics, to the
misfortune of us all.
At the dawn of a new political dawn in the country, which with the favor
of God Almighty should be very close, from the first day after the departure of
those who have led the misfortune of Venezuela, what we see in our immediate
future is those who were associated with the regime (and beware if not the same
criminals disguised and mixed with those who claim to be opponents). That is
what I unfortunately see in our immediate future. Nothing so far tells me that
it won't be like that, regardless of who ends up displacing Nicolas Maduro
Moros from power, either from outside or inside.
And it is not too difficult to predict that the G4 will take control of
the next transition, with traditional political factors putting people in that
government completely in line with the power strategies of the major parties.
Sounds obvious, doesn't it? And also logical. None of the parties that control
the official opposition will want to be left out of what happens after Maduro's
departure. But what about us? I'm talking about civil society calling for
substantial change. For the vast majority, the official opposition will be
satisfied with restoring the comfort of a country that existed before the
Chávez disaster in 1998. And many would consider that "enough" given
the impressive state of destruction achieved during these last 20 years. And
"it would be enough" many would say. But it would be a new deception
of extreme gravity because Venezuela and the world have changed in all these
years of massive internal destruction.
To begin with, where would the money come from to try to return to the
"status quo" of 1998, without the oil industry - in Human Resources,
organization and equipment - that we had in that year and the international
markets that were lost because of that destruction? That Chinese vase broke
irretrievably. The old political leadership of the official opposition - and I
say old because everything is old - will try to sell us a government plan to
manage a completely destroyed building. That is as if what they are offering
you, after the destruction of your home by a brutal earthquake, is a plan to
live indefinitely in air-conditioned tents without lifting a finger to build a new
one. Or worse, they offer to build the same house without the slightest change
in its architecture to prevent it from being destroyed by a new earthquake in
the future, without giving you the opportunity to dream what the new one would
be like, because in the end you have to do it all over again.
Well, from today I start dreaming about my new home because the one I
have is completely destroyed. And I am not going to allow those who take power
after Maduro to avoid it by trying to return to a past that will never happen,
whether it is due to interests, corruption, ignorance in the management of
public affairs, or simple lack of love for Venezuela. I'm going to dream about
the video calls of the 1960s because that's the future I want. And since words
have a habit of becoming political, I submit to public discussion some issues
of fundamental importance that in my opinion should become a reality and mark
the country where the new generations would live. We must discuss the Big
Change that the country needs in the window of opportunity that opens with the
transition of Venezuela after this tragedy.
And for example, what minimal changes am I
talking about? What would the architecture of that new house where we would
live be like? I will describe above only some of the rooms (reference points)
to see if you like the model. Later we could see the
detail of each one:
·
The representation of the
people must control the Executive. It can no longer be tolerated that any
President of the Republic who comes along does whatever he pleases with the
Venezuelans and the Public Treasury. No President can create or eliminate
Ministries or manage budgets at his own discretion, or remove us from
international Agreements without the consent of the people's representation.
His power must be reduced, cut up and handed over to the Municipalities and
States, establishing a new Federal Pact;
·
State representation in
Parliament must be restored. This means restoring the Senate of the Republic
and giving it full control over the promotions of the Armed Forces and the
final approval of laws. That cannot
remain in the hands of any President of the Republic;
·
Municipalities and States
must have the economic and political capacity to provide the quality of life
that their citizens demand. Power must come as close as possible to the
citizens and this is only possible by reversing the pyramid of power. The
autonomy of States and Municipalities must be established as soon as possible,
so that citizens can take control of their destiny in every corner of Venezuela;
·
The States must rethink how
many Municipalities they should have according to their population reality,
starting by converting the current Parishes into Municipalities. It is not
possible to continue living with a citizen reality of 335 municipalities
throughout the country and expect good public services. Caracas must have around 30
municipalities to be properly managed in all its services;
·
The oil industry needs to
be thoroughly rethought and new terms for the distribution of income that are
completely different from the current ones. The industry must be Energy and
each State must control at all levels its own resources, including oil and
mining, by establishing its contributions to a federal fund. If it has more, it
will contribute more to the Federal Pact;
·
All land must have an
owner. There cannot be a single meter of land in Venezuela that is
"property of the State", except for those decreed as natural
conservation areas and they would not be "property of the State" but
of all Venezuelans, as a result of environmental protection laws;
·
An URGENT change in the
criteria for citizen representation in Parliament is required. Members of
Parliament must be real representatives of their states, not of the parties
they serve in. That the representation of the States in Parliament should leave
the Legislative Assemblies and rotate throughout the legislative period. We
must break the dictatorship of the parties over our people's representatives.
The parties would only have the option of representing the people for the posts
of Deputies, Governors and Presidents of the Republic. The Mayors and Councillors would be
exclusively from the field of Civil Society;
·
By redoing the role of the
States and Municipalities, the nineteenth figure of the Constitutional Situation
should disappear because each State should contribute, not be contributed, to a
federal fund that supports services common to the whole Republic such as the
Armed Forces or Investigative Police of federal rank (which could be the
CICPC);
·
Education, Justice, Health
and the Police must be at the level of States and Municipalities, with common
national guidelines. Water and
electricity should be controlled and guaranteed locally;
·
Justice must be federated
and each state must support and have a final federal instance, a Supreme Court
of Justice, with a system of independence of judges to the point of thinking
that they are indefinite (for life) until they prove that they do not deserve
it, through strict anti-corruption controls; and a judicial career system as
closed and strict as that of the military. This would be the only way to
guarantee justice for all.
These are some of the rooms in the new house
I want for my country. They are not all there and some of them are just ideas
that should be discussed and improved in that rethinking of the country. "We
have to rethink VENEZUELA. We have to REINVENT DEMOCRACY. We have to REFOUND
THE COUNTRY" as our ANCO communiqué of March 28, 2020, the Big
Change (http://ancoficial.blogspot.com/2020/03/comunicado-anco-todos-los-venezolanos.html).
Have you seen any political factor in
Venezuela talking about these transcendental issues that would affect our lives
in the future, in this tragic hour when we are all in the middle of the
countryside crying because our house is destroyed? No, have you?
A unique opportunity opens up to us NOW THAT EVERYTHING HAS BEEN
DESTROYED to project a new home for future generations. If we don't draw it,
describe it, and less discuss it, it will never become a reality. If video
calls hadn't been introduced to people in the 1960s we wouldn't have them
today. I may not see those changes, but maybe if my granddaughter, and all the
grandchildren of Venezuela, who I hope will be living in this beautiful
country, which I still consider the best in the world, at that time. For that
reason, and that reason alone, it is worth continuing to work stubbornly for
that change expressed in those words to become a political reality…
Caracas, April
17, 2020
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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