A Mexican patriot outlines needed political and economic reform

When I transformed myself from an Ensenada vacation home owner into a full time working resident, in the early 1980's, Ernesto Ruffo was the mayor and the first Mexican politician I met. I had been active in politics in the United States and known my share of politicos. Ruffo struck me immediately as not being a typical politician. Soft spoken and eloquent, he expresses himself with simple logic and language that is easy for all citizens, regardless of education or sophistication, to understand and relate to. There is a sincerity and honesty about the man that communicates caring and dedication. A man called to politics because of ideals not ambition. These qualities generated a phenomenon called RUFFOMANIA that was spawned when he stood up to the centralist, federalist government who was taking almost all the tax pie and leaving only crumbs to manage a growing Ensenada.

A member of the tiny opposition PAN (National Action Party) party, with only 60,000 members nationally, Ruffo was a true iconoclast. When he ran for governor in 1988 the most common comment I heard from Ensenada residents, regardless of political party, was that Ruffo would win the votes but not the election. The PRI party, which had controlled the presidency, the congress and all the state houses since the beginning of the Republic, would not allow this upstart rebel from the provinces to become the first non PRI governor. The cynicism regarding fixed elections surprised me. PAN party members expressed their lack of faith in Mexico's centralist tyrannical system with an air of resignation and PRI party members expressed their belief of a "rigged against Ruffo" vote count with an air of arrogance and scorn.

Ruffo won the election and the respect of the new PRI president, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, who needed a clean election result in a major political race to counter the charges that his own election win was due to vote tampering. Thus a new political movement emerged in which, eight years later, more than one third of the nation's citizens are under PAN leadership at the state and municipal levels. Ruffo thus became the obvious choice to lead his party to the presidential palace in the next presidential election in the year 2000. At mid year (1996) Ruffo surprised his party by refusing the leadership role. Instead Ruffo is rallying Mexicanos to change the centralist system of government rather than just change titular heads from one party to another. His unorthodox view is that a change in party leadership will not solve Mexico's problems. That no party or politician can succesfully lead this country until the autocratic, centralist system of government and control over the economy is transformed into a decentralized and democratic model for doing business and managing affairs of state.

The history of Mexico's centralist autocracy

One reason most folks find Ruffo so credible is that he does not seek to impassion voters with emotional arguments or charge his opposition with commiting political evils. What he is asking his countrymen to do is abandon their cynicism of government and free themselves of a national inferiority complex in order to become responsible for change in, not only in the political arena, but in the business sector as well. To understand, without a sense of shame, the incompetence of their nation and realize that it is a natural consequence of history. He asks his countrymen to abandon an age old fatalism that allows corruption and centralist power to continue as a Mexican legacy. He does this in typical Ruffo style, explaining logically and simply how Mexico evolved into the nation it is. He doesn't seek political scapegoats or emotional quick fixes but rather provides a step by step process for a true evolution into a competent and truly democratic Mexico.

Ruffo, when speaking to businessmen, challenges their belief that Mexico is a modern nation. He asks his audience to estimate how many of their employees could succesfully complete a simple work project without constant supervision and direction from management. He offers that probably one worker in twenty could pass such a test of self directed job completion and until that ratio of competence is narrowed to one in five, Mexico will not emerge as a truly modern nation. Ruffo insists that it is not a question of inherent inferiority of Mexicanos that is the cause of incompetence but merely a historical reality born out of necessity; to place control and responsibility for many in the hands of a few.

The first government effort to rule Mexico by Spain consisted of a few viceroys responsible for managing a huge land mass that extended from what is now California and the southwest to the Guatemalan border. The region was inhabited by approximately six million indigenous people with a multitude of distinct tribal cultures speaking more than 48 different languages. Out of necessity, Mexico began its history with an autocratic centralist system to rule its vastness and diversity. Continuing Mexico's history lesson, Ruffo maintains that the first thoughts of Mexico as a nation state were at the turn of this century when revolutionary armies rode the trains across Mexico and realized how vast it was. When the first independent government was established there were only a handful of European trained men who out of necessity continued the legacy of an autocratic centralized form of government.

It is arrogant for gringos to ridicule Mexico's inability to compete with the United States as a model of modernity. The U.S. has a two hundred and twenty year history as a republic and Mexico has yet to celebrate one hundred years as an independent nation. Ruffo points out that Mexico really did not have a true democratic attempt at leadership until the presidency of Lazaro Cardenas, a 1930's socialist reformer. Given Mexico's short history, it is understandable why the vestiges of an autocratic system are still firmly rooted in Mexico's political milieu.

Another important historical reality is that Mexico, unlike the United states, did not kill most of the native population in the process of becoming a nation state. Mexico still has a huge problem of integrating its native work force into the industrial mainstream of its economy. A third of Mexico's populace whose cultural traditions are thousands of years old and do not include a 20th century work ethics. Mexico City (15% indigenous), for example, has the largest native population of any major city in the world.

The comparison of Mexico's centralist history and tradition with that of the United States' more decentralized history is one of Ruffo's main themes for understanding Mexico's needs to change her political and historical destiny. The country must take major steps toward state's rights and decentralized control. The United States colonies were the first forms of government as our nation state emerged. The founders of the country were very protective of states rights and the spread of the nation in its westward development followed the independent and democratic colonialist model.

Ruffo's proposals

The most important step, according to Ruffo, for improving the stability of Mexico's economy is to reform the national bank's decision making process so that it is independent of the president's executive power. As long as the bank is beholden to the president the economic decision making for the issuance of currency and credits will be based on the perpetuation of power and not the common good of the nation. Ruffo does not have to reach very far back in history for a dramatic example. The 1994 economic policy decisions regarding the peso were based on winning the election, not on the economic betterment of the nation.

A reversal of tax revenue sharing from its current - 82% for the feds, 12% for the states and 4% for municipalities is a Ruffoism that started his crusade to change Mexico's political destiny. This change of revenue sharing would not only bring more needed services directly to the people but it would also promote more efficiency in a system that, as mentioned earlier, has three times more government workers per capita than the United States. Ruffo's insistance on greater state (versus federal) conrol over police authorities has greatly reduced corruption and abuse of power. Prior to Ruffo, Baja's PRI controlled government was transparently corrupt and abuse of power, particularly by the judicial police, was the acknowledged norm.

An overhaul of the sharing of power between the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government is vital to Mexico's future. Until you live in an autocratic country like present day Mexico you cannot fully appreciate how well "balance of power" works in the United states. Opinion polls told us in 1996 that Americans were fed up with the executive/congressional gridlock that shut the federal government down in that year. My reaction wass Bravo! The checks and balances and sharing of power is what keeps the United states from veering too far off political course and in my mind is the principal reason for America's economic and social stability. The shutdown in the federalist U. S. system demonstrated that with strong state and municipal governments the nation's ability to function was not seriouly impaired. In Mexico, such a federal shutdown would cause chaos and national paralysis.

Ruffo insists on the development of new infrastructures within the political parties to assure a democratic and open process for choosing candidates and solutions to issues affecting the country. In keeping with his style of objective and responsible ownership for change, without blaming the opposition, Ruffo chides his own party's antiquated processes and need for reform. To address the incompetence in government Ruffo suggests his party create a university to train future leaders.

Ruffo knows from direct experience, as the first PAN governor of a Mexican state, that leadership is developed and not just a function of desire for changes in the system. Fortunately for Baja California, succeeding Ruffo, Governor - Lic. Hector Teran Teran recognized the valuable lessons learned by his predessor's young cabinet and the development of leadership that could only be earned by serving in office. Teran, upon taking office, wisely left most of Ruffo's cabinet and governmental functionaries in place to exploit that learning and experience.

The above are just a few of the reforms and lessons our previous governor is teaching us in moving Mexico into a new modern era of government and economics. These are my selective observations of Ruffo's plan to reform his nation before any man, including himself, can govern effectively. I am still a neophyte when it comes to Mexican politics and culture but one thing is for sure: many more Mexicanos are mad as hell and for the first time not willing to take it anymore. It is appropriate that one of Ruffo's favorite musical artists is Bob Dylan, whose song about change in the U.S. "Blowin In The Wind", became the anthem for the sixties. Ernesto Ruffo has and definitely still is affecting change in Mexico's, political, social and economic landscape - RIGHT ON RUFFO!.