Politics: 50 shades of policy - Part II: Politics
The 50 points future President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced a week ago Sunday codify many of his most popular campaign commitments, but the extent to which they appear to have been slapped together in a slipshod and at times seemingly contradictory manner raise concerns as to just how much AMLO intends to respect institutional forms of governing or ride roughshod over the system to make it conform to his machinations. Throughout the guidelines there appears to be much more in the way of campaign rhetoric than any transition government plan. Some points betray a positively Manichaean view of reality and are laced with political vendettas while being bereft of elements essential to any state policy. He proposes a radical re-engineering of government in ways that would require sweeping constitutional reforms and even an overhaul of basic labor rights. Perhaps most troublingly, his insistence on inserting himself even more directly into the prosecutor selection process than the law or anti-corruption activists demand raises suspicions as to whether the prosecutor will enjoy room for discretionary action under a president disinclined to accept suggestions from anyone and who is the only person no one in his team is capable of contradicting
The 50 points appear to be an outline for making good López Obrador’s promise to forge what he has called a “fourth transformation” in the public life of Mexico, modestly placing his administration on the same historic plane as the establishment of Mexico as an independent country, the mid nineteenth century liberal reform period under Benito Juárez, and the Mexican Revolution of 1910.
Four long months remain in this transition period. On the dubious assumption that they are of such a mind, that should be enough time for López Obrador and his team to reformulate, polish and carefully present their ideas before formally taking the helm of government. The future administration is very likely to backtrack or simply opt to ignore some of these commitments, but keep in mind that all of these proposals were made by Andrés Manuel López Obrador himself. It seems the fourth transformation could benefit from a little more prudence and planning.
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