Uribe v Silva: Colombia´s combative democracy

Colombia´s Ex-President Alvaro Uribe went to war this week with his former defence minister Gabriel Silva in what Colombia Politics sees as the start of a long and ugly election campaign for 2014.

Uribe accused his old comrade, who was in post for the final year of government following President Santos´departure (to kick start his election campaign), of being a “social climber”, an “inept bureaucrat”, and an “opportunist”. Uribe also threatened to sue Silva for remarks the latter made about the ex-president´s reluctance to order a mission against FARC top brass Iván Márquez who, at the time, was hiding out in Venezuela.

Silva, an uber loyal member of President Juan Manuel Santos´ inner circle, had earlier in the week written a polemic attack on Uribe´s speech to last month´s U Party general assembly meeting, a piece that ignited the indignation of Uribistas and appeared to delight President Santos who promptly retweeted the article to his near 1.5 million followers.

Many see the president´s decision to forward the article as an implicit endorsement of Silva´s words. Since coming to power Santos has remained true to his promise not attack his former boss. But the gloves have now come off. At the U Party gathering Santos, although refusing to name his predecessor, criticised the action of the “ruffians” who came to event to try to show who was boss. Now, three weeks later and it appears as through Silva has been given a let off the leash – the president´s attack dog (allowing Santos himself to remain above the fray.

Colombia´s media is in almost universal agreement that this battle is unsavoury, and demeaning, concluding that both Silva and Uribe are set to see a negative effect on their standing among voters. For Silva this matters less, as he is a virtually unknown entity. The election aspiring Uribe, on the other hand, has more to lose, something Santos – the ultimate chess player – has quite clearly calculated.

Santos´ short and medium term electoral tactic will be to marginalize Uribe and try to cast him as an extremist, drunk on power and willing to promise and say anything to get back onto the national political stage. Uribe appears dangerously close to falling into this trap.

Shrillness will, in the long run harm Uribe. His base of supporters will remain but he will find it increasingly difficult to reach out to those in the centre, to build the coalition he needs, and he once relied on.

The media are wrong too to allow Santos to win this battle so easily. Sure, it was an odd move for Uribe to threaten legal action against Silva, but there is nothing inherently wrong with verbal conflict and a clash of ideas in the political process. By pretending that there is the media consciously or unconsciously negatively spin Uribe´s actions.

Colombia has long suffered from a certain tyranny of unanimity in which the president is the only figure that counts, and where -organized - opposition is virtually non-existent.

Opposition is healthy – indeed necessary – for democracy, and bloody, ugly, vicious fights are what all good, mature parliaments are made of. It is the way the voters find out the truth and they way politicians are forced to defend their decisions. It´s accountability, stupid.

The Colombian media complain of the so-called polarization of the nation as though it were a bad thing that not everyone agrees with the president, as though having a choice before the electorate were a vulgar and unwanted nuisance.

Colombia´s political oligarchy and closed political class has led the media to expect patrician governments. The history tells us that for decades the Conservative and Liberal parties alternated power, operating a virtual pact – “it´s your turn this time, and our turn next”.

Uribe´s campaign to return to power through the senate is forcing the governing classes to view politics differently, to begin to understand that bureaucracy is one thing, and that participative open democracy quite another.

The media may not like the fight much but they should rejoice it. Not only will it provide them with acres of column inches, it is also a sign of the birth of a more direct and combative politics.

Long may the fight live on.