No more (por ahora) for Uribe
Regarding the Colombian Constitutional Court's decision not to allow Alvaro Uribe to run yet again:
First, it is good for Colombian democracy.
Second, it would have been better for Colombian democracy if he had just said he wouldn't run and stopped the circus.
But this is like Hugo Chávez's famous "por ahora" speech:
"I heed and respect the decision of the honorable Constitutional Court," Uribe said. "I have one wish: The wish to be able to serve Colombia from whatever trench, under whatever circumstance, until the last day of my life."
Unfortunately, unlike Vladimir Putin he has no PM position to shift into. How Uribe shifts out of the presidency will be really fascinating, because he wanted to stay there. Really bad.
6 comments:
How can you possibly compare Uribe, for all his faults, with anti-democratic quasi dictators like Chavez and Putin. Or golpistas, in Chavez's case? That's simply ridiculous.
"Second, it would have been better for Colombian democracy if he had just said he wouldn't run and stopped the circus."
I can understand the ambitions of politicians. I can understand the narcissistic disorders and megalomania. Still it seems better for Colombia to have institutions, acting independently of the executive, to put a stop to the caudillos ambitions. To say no to a referendum of the people as a way of perpetuating executive power. Surely it is better, as far as democratic institutions and practices, that Uribe tried and failed to legitimize a third term. Now if only his cowardly neighbor would follow suit.
Thanks Mr Weeks
For opportune information, I had no idea of this important decision.
I agree 100% with the prudent and wise posts of Mr Weeks about Uribe and the inconvenience of a third term. I also agree with the second Anonymous of this page, 100% agreement.
To the first Anonymous I say that Uribe is psychological imbalanced, like Gordon Brown of United Kingdom but multiplied by one thousand.
Power corrupts people and drive them mad, I have read the many scoldings and rants against the Prime Minister of UK in the British Press. Ugly behaviour towards subordinates or other Respectable Brits.
Uribe is one thousand times worse, he always blames the lowest subordinates for Big Thefts, Sacking and Pillage against the National Treasure ( Taxpayers Money ), but it is the friends and relatives of Uribe that have pocketed the Big Agro Subsidies, and the poor peasant got absolutely nothing.
In the matter of Health Care, let's assume that Obama is a Dictator that legislates for Health Care in 5 minutes with the help of a secretary girl, tachygrapher or stenographer, and without the burden of Republicans, Blue Dogs and urchin brat Joe Wilsons.
That is Uribe, legislation in his chair and the Congress is a bunch of useless bums, many of them sent to Congress with the Money of Paracos, Narcos, Paramilitaries, Mafiosi, Drug Dealers, Narcotics Traffickers, and other "Street Smarts" .... like those that have immense super powerful businesses of Money Laundering of Dirty Money from Drugs.
Montesquieu 1689-1755, the French Philospher, Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, is our hero today.
He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, taken for granted in modern discussions of government and implemented in many constitutions throughout the world. He was largely responsible for the popularization of the terms feudalism and Byzantine Empire.
Without separation of powers there is no Democracy.
Uribe, narcissist, egolater, self-idolater, megalomaniac monster that wants to imitate Chavez, and Putin in enjoying absolute power has been defeated by French Philosophy and by Beautiful French Rationalism.
Montesquieu also elaborated a lot on the English Revolution, when Charles I was beheaded and England suffered the Puritan Dictatorship of Cromwell, the Lord Protector.
The English King Charles I was beheaded in 1949. The 1653 Instrument of Government (republican constitution) stated that;
Oliver Cromwell, Captain-General of the forces of England, Scotland and Ireland, shall be, and is hereby declared to be, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, and the dominions thereto belonging, for his life.
So even a Great and Noble Nation like England had many Lord Protectors that were as the Dictators of Ancient Rome.
The Institution of "Lord Protector" was nothing new during the Repugnant Dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell, it was a tradition of Regents and Shrewd Lords.
The Future of Foreign Policies :
Prophesizing.com
Vicente Duque
It is a good thing that the Court stopped this silliness in its tracks, and that Uribe is seeming to go along with the decision. Many Urbistas have been railing against Colombian institutions with words that seem straight out of the Latin American anti-democratic government lexicon. And Uribe himself has raised the rhetoric at times. But in the end, this is a good thing, and shows that democratic institutions - and some of the post-91 procedures have worked.
Limitations to the Power of Rulers : Absolutism and Despotism : Montesquieu, Montaigne, and La Boétie - Glory of Ancient French Political Philosophy
The Colombian Constitutional Court forbids further discussions in the future for all presidents about prolonging their mandates, as Anti-Constitutional, Opposed to the Laws, and against Tradition, History and Customs.
The President of Colombia Alvaro Uribe and his Congress have subjected and submitted to the power of the Constitutional Court.
And the most intellectual newspapers and magazines resurrect the Glories of Ancient France : Montesquieu, Montaigne, and La Boétie.
Montesquieu (1689 – 1755) is the theoretician of "Separation of Powers" : Executive, Legislative and Judiciary. But there were two Great French Philosophers of Political Theory before him.
With Help from Wikipedia, let us study these two Great Men - I extract very few excerpts from long articles in that wonderful Encyclopedia :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89tienne_de_La_Bo%C3%A9tie
Étienne de La Boétie (1530 – 1563) :
La Boétie was a French judge, writer, political philosopher and friend of Montaigne, author of the Discourse on Voluntary Servitude (Discours de la servitude volontaire)
He served with Montaigne in the Bordeaux parlement and is immortalized in Montaigne's essay on friendship. La Boétie’s writings include a few sonnets, translations from the classics, and an essay attacking absolute monarchy and tyranny in general, Discours de la servitude volontaire ou le Contr'un (Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, or the Anti-Dictator).
The essay asserts that tyrants have power because the people give it to them. Liberty has been abandoned once by society, which afterward stayed corrupted and prefers the slavery of the courtesan to the freedom of one who refuses to dominate as he refuses to obey. Thus, La Boétie linked together obedience and domination, a relationship which would be later theorised by latter anarchist thinkers. By advocating a solution of simply refusing to support the tyrant, he became one of the earliest advocates of civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance.
It was once thought, following Montaigne's claims, that La Boétie wrote the essay in 1549 at the age of eighteen but recent authorities argue that it is "likely that the Discourse was written in 1552 or 1553, at the age of twenty-two, while La Boétie was at the university."[2] The essay was circulated privately and not published until 1576 after La Boétie's death. He died at Germignan near Bordeaux in 1563. His last days are described in a long letter from Montaigne to his own father.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_de_Montaigne
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533 – 1592) :
Montaigne had a direct influence on writers the world over, including René Descartes[2], Blaise Pascal, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Stefan Zweig, Eric Hoffer[3], Isaac Asimov, and perhaps William Shakespeare (see section "Related Writers and Influence" below).
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The spirit of freely entertaining doubt which began to emerge at that time. He is most famously known for his skeptical remark, 'Que sais-je?' ('What do I know?'). Remarkably modern even to readers today, Montaigne's attempt to examine the world through the lens of the only thing he can depend on implicitly — his own judgment — makes him more accessible to modern readers than any other author of the Renaissance.[citation needed] Much of modern literary non-fiction has found inspiration in Montaigne and writers of all kinds continue to read him for his masterful balance of intellectual knowledge and personal story-telling.
The Future of Foreign Policies :
Prophesizing.com
Vicente Duque
Its someone else's turn. I wonder who the US will pick?
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