Obama versus Morales (Part I)

Quite a few people have been asking me about the significance of an Obama victory for future US-Bolivian relations. Rather than in the ideas professed by both countries, this is a question that seems inspired by the significance of two such unlikely presidents who seem charismatic, intelligent and honest (not characteristics apparent in George W. Bush, unfortunately).

The symbolic significance of a first black president of the US is difficult to miss. Obama was, after all, born before the Civil Rights Movement that brought to the world the image of a divided America that didn’t afford constitutional rights to its black population. Nobody could possibly have dreamed then that a generation later they would have one of their own as president.

Even Evo Morales has commented on the significance of a member of the ‘oppressed black population’ (his words) becoming president of the most powerful nation on earth. But I still think that his own rise to the presidency of Bolivia is much more significant for being so much more unlikely.

Significantly, Obama never campaigned on a black-issues ticket. Instead, he emphasised his credentials as representative of the American people and the American dream. He has, however, made much of his being an outsider of the Washington-style cronyism and built a campaign on the need for change and hope.

And yet, it is difficult to see him as an outsider when, after all, he belongs to an educational elite, having studied at Harvard school of law. Donors to the presidential campaign also know when to back a winning horse and made him the highest spender ever in a presidential campaign. In this regard he represents a black middle class with the intelligence, skills, determination (and the means) to aspire and reach the highest office. But this, he has done from within the system and in any case, we already have the cases on Colin Powell or Condoleeza Rice as examples of black political achievement.

No, the rise of Evo Morales to the presidency of Bolivia is much more significant because he truly represents the abandoned majority of the country. He is one of them, someone whose family survived the economic penuries of the 1980s; he is someone who had to work from a very early age – like hundreds of thousands of children do in Bolivia – to contribute to the household’s economy; and he is someone who, in spite of never having reached university, was able to lead a political coalition of social movements that did away with the old ‘partidocracy’ – a corrupt and self-serving political system – to create something truly new in Bolivia’s political history by bringing new forms of citizen participation and engagement to politics.

For these reasons, I think Evo Morales is the true outsider both socially and politically.