translated from Spanish: Dirty clothes are washed at home but the king’s is washed in the square

A good political decision is evaluated with the perspective that time gives and today, months after the replacement of mayors and councilors, the main objective of the replacement, has borne fruit. There was an all-powerful lord in San Ramón, a Queen in Maipú and another, people like one (at least it was said so) in Vitacura that when the power turned its back on them, when they no longer played the music; those who adored them, begin to forget them and the dance of Chinese dishes begins to become a thread of earthenness.
In recent weeks we have witnessed the collapse of at least two icons of our local politics, the former mayor of Vitacura and the constituent Mr. Rojas. There have been voices (related or condescending to one and the other) who want to turn a blind eye and who speak more of bonhomie than of public rigor when referring to their actions, but the media (the fiber of a democratic system) have been responsible for crucifying them in the public square, exposing situations that will have to be known by justice, in one case for possible embezzlement of public funds and in the other for possible falsity in the declaration of interests, or is it not false that the economic debt declared by the constituent was the product of a false cancer?
Popularly elected offices are to serve, not to serve themselves and every time a corrupt official appears or takes advantage of an office in his own favor, institutions are weakened and the democratic system is undermined.
My dream is that the election of public offices would be among all those who have the pre-established capacities to exercise the office and not among those who postulate, in such a way that public service becomes an obligation and not a privilege as it can be conceived today. But this is more than anything a theoretical aspiration. In practice, the fewer public burdens there are, the greater the sense of well-being for the population. The important thing is what the state is able to give us and not what we are able to give to it or to the community.
In the case of parliamentarians, their dedication to placing their “pingos” in positions where they can be of help for a new election is known, but with respect to their hunting grounds, apart from the electoral machines that they have developed in their localities, these are, at least apparently of a lower incidence.
Understanding that the republic (as opposed to the monarchy), is the system for which we have chosen and fought many generations ago and that democracy is the system that most adequately administers the struggle of powers within it, I think it has been a success that the replacement and the limit to re-election has been installed as a basic principle to govern within our social contract, now we are going for compulsory voting.

The content expressed in this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador.

Original source in Spanish

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