A powerful tsunami swept through Chile in the October 25 plebiscite. He advanced slowly and calmly, exhaling hope and dignity. Their result was overwhelming, but without the noise or fury that some had predicted in terror campaigns.
Like water advancing in a tsunami, it was occupying empty spaces, filling streets, squares and wasteland. He sneaked through grooves, co-clicking channels, vericuetos and pipes. He tried to get around the walls, because he didn’t want to destroy or threaten anyone. I was just trying to talk to your vows. The water didn’t obey anyone who wanted to send it. Its magnitude and strength, to everyone’s surprise, came almost to fill the pits surrounding the castles that are above the hills.
At dusk the tsunami receded, making the water very calm to his home. He left his wet footprint and message well printed on the ground.
That night, many elves and giants celebrated without scandal. The giants, fearful of the elves, must have secretly celebrated in their homes, among whispers and glasses of champagne, believing the commands of this story. The elves, on the other hand, danced together their hope of dignity in the streets and squares, without fear and without violence. The criminals who always destroy, loot, burn everything and water the party, went angry to get drunk on their own, because that night he had far won the reason and the democratic vote. Violence and useless fire this time had lost their voice.
The outcome of the plebiscite has only one objective interpretation: the strong majority ordered a draft New Constitution to be made, in a 100% elected Constituent, Joint Convention. For 9 to 12 months you must agree for 2/3 on the rules of that draft Constitution and then submit it to a plebiscite. Point.
But that reading is one-time. The result allows other interpretations to be made because the social reality and subjectivity of voters are more complex than a pencil and a role. Also because the vote was so majority, forceful and participatory despite the pandemic, it seems clear that it transcends the constitutional problem.
Chileans are not fools and understand that with the Apruebo they only kicked the start to a long, tortuous and somewhat insecure path. But much shorter, more accurate and durable than the Reject alternative. They also know that a New Constitution will not now solve its concrete and urgent problems, but will facilitate solutions in the future.
Those political leaders who insisted that a New Constitution will not solve these concrete and urgent problems, unfortunately for years have done little to enable them to be resolved in a reasonable and gradual manner. Rather, they’ve put a lot of obstacles in place. If they had really wanted to agree on these progressive developments, I am sure that it could have been and the October 2019 earthquake would not have occurred. But from so much clenching the fist, stretching the gum and filling the sack, clinging unusually to ideologisms that are not dogmas of faith, the story ended up paradoxically punishing them. Like on that TV show, they fell into their own trap! They got shot in the butt. Because the overwhelming citizen majority got bored, preferred to cut through the healthy and approve of a new court scratch, designing and plebisciting a New Constitution.
The middle, low and transverse sectors of Apruebo also sent another message and mandate with the tsunami. They now urgently need concrete solutions to these same real health, housing, education, social security, employment, income, etc. There is no need to wait for the New Constitution to be issued. Legally and politically, there is no inconsistency between these three areas of work: that of the Executive, the Legislative and the Constituent. None should be paralyzed, even if someone from the Rejection tempts to play “One, two, three, mummy is!”
The Government must improve its management and efficiency now, not everything is solved by laws and regulations, but also with creativity and better administration. The National Congress has to put on its batteries and move quickly into agreements and approvals of the laws necessary to solve such problems; and the Constituent Convention should be devoted exclusively to the draft of a new Constitution. Of course there will be interactions between these powers and organisms, because institutionality and the separation of powers in reality are not divided like knife-cut cuts. But immediately, let everyone do their job well and solve the urgent problems of people, now.
Citizens in the medium and vulnerable sectors also called for something as elementary and easy as being treated more humanely, more dignified and respectfully. To be respected for their legal rights and not to abuse their weakness. They don’t want to be be be belittled for their social, racial or economic status, will it be too much to ask?
The plebiscite was also a tsunami of hope for the transverse majority of the Apruebo. How long will that feeling of hope last? We don’t know. Maybe very little. Hope is a precarious, fleeting and easy-to-frustrate feeling. Hope is not optimism. It’s just a passive feeling that harbors a volatile expectation, an illusion, that expects something better, but expects it from others. If we don’t move fast, hope can vanish. If we do not process and resolve the geological and structural flaws behind frustration and injustice, there will be new earthquakes like 9/18, and in the wake of these new tsunamis like this year’s 25/0 plebiscite. There are no tsunamis without a previous earthquake, and there are no earthquakes without geological faults and tectonic plate movements. And if we continue to be crazy, scared of earthquakes and hit with tsunamis, playing crazy and trying to heal the disease at the tip of paracetamoles and Band-Aid patches, a cataclysm will come upon us and God catches us confessed.
The content poured into this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador.
