Citizenship deserves healthy political discussion

Michael Taylor
Michael Taylor

Global Courant

When a presidential candidate proclaims, promotes or presumes that they have “won” an electoral forum, they only exhibit a short-term vision that denotes ignorance and evokes egomania. Sometimes such messages are spurred on by those close to them, who are unaware or ignorant of the primary purpose of this type of informative activities: to present the differentiating proposals of their government plan backed by quantifiable data or evidence of feasibility. Simple.

As a result of propaganda concepts induced by marketing approaches and not so much political, much less philosophical or ethical, an attempt is made to turn certain forums into a rally, a brawl, a histrionic exhibition and even a farce, either due to a lack of clear rules, seasoned conductors or due to logistical slip-ups in the management, formulation or distribution of the topics on display. Guatemala continues to be a country with many lags and needs thanks to the same politicking and its patronage, demagogic and polarizing recipes.

In the twenty campaigns of presidential pairings, the proposals to optimize health services in quality and coverage, to improve education at all levels, to combat chronic and acute child malnutrition, as well as the generation of employment opportunities or entrepreneurship, from which the transformation of road infrastructure and the promotion of productivity, the attraction of investments under a framework of legal and macroeconomic stability cannot be separated. They all point to the same thing, under assumptions of the fight against corruption, modernization of the State and the provision of citizen security. So why not reach agreements?

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If such issues are basic and almost appear in government proposals, it is sterile for presidential figures to get involved in controversies over aspects of method, instead of concentrating on the substantive agreements that allow and force the undertaking of a national consensus agenda, they choose who is chosen. Guatemalan development priorities, diagnosed over and over again by local and international research centers, are now commonplace. If you add to this the careers of the applicants, there should be no greater difficulty in addressing them in a live discussion.

The civic contribution program of the Association of Managers of Guatemala promotes, in each electoral process, forums and debates with candidates for the Presidency, as an informative contribution to voters, without partisan preference or bias. Without a doubt, the AGG debate constitutes a serious and benchmark event, which is why it would be broadcast by Prensa Libre and Guatevisión. Unfortunately, the event scheduled for today had to be canceled due to “the ambiguity and lack of certainty of participation shown by some candidates that caused the conditions for this exercise to be considered democratic,” according to the statement released last Saturday.

Throughout the campaign, Prensa Libre and Guatevisión have presented a large open forum to all Guatemalan citizens with extensive interviews with all the presidential candidates through their Free Decision space. The programs can be seen even through social networks and also the analysis of profiles carried out with the collaboration of experts, analysts, reporters and editors. Our mission is with Guatemala and our commitment is with the Guatemalan citizens.

Citizenship deserves healthy political discussion

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