The most inspiring left wing leader

Johann Hari recently wrote a piece that interested me entitled “Amid dark times, meet the most inspiring people of 2009” including left wing Bolivian president Evo Morales:

“When Evo Morales was a child, the indigenous peoples of Bolivia weren't even allowed to set foot in the capital's central square, which was reserved for white people. Today, he is the President, and for the first time in his country's history, he is diverting the billions raised from the country's natural resources away from the pockets of US corporations. It is building schools and hospitals for people who had nothing, and poverty is being eradicated in a stunning burst of progress”

Much of this is true, public services investment has increased from 6.3% of GDP in 2005 to 10.5% in 2009 and as the report from CEPR states:

“It is worth nothing that this would not have been possible without the control that the government gained over its natural gas production and reserves”

There also appears to be a reduction in inequality in the years to 2007 with the Gini coefficient falling from 60.2 to 56.3.

Before reading I knew next to nothing about Morales but soon after I came across a blog post by Hersey Corner also about Morales in which he argued:

“That's one way of putting it. Another is that, like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Morales has embarked upon a programme towards almost unlimited socialist state control. He has already nationalised gas, oil, mining and telecommunications and begun Zimababwe-style land reforms. Other sectors of the economy, including electricity and the banks, are already being lined up. When one opposition leader spoke up against Morales, a mob of the president's supporters ransacked his house.”

The first point is simply an ideological point, and as a right winger the Heresiarch is likely to take this position, one that I strongly disagree with. The nationalisation has been used to combat poverty, reducing the number of Bolivians living in extreme poverty from 37% to 31% The second point is a serious accusation but there seems little evidence to back it up with.

Morales has grown the Bolivian economy:

                                           

“Bolivian President Evo Morales, who nationalized the energy industry and rewrote the constitution, heads for re-election Dec. 6 bolstered by an economy projected to grow faster than any other in the hemisphere this year.”

He won that election with 63% of the vote and his party Movement Towards Socialism won large majorities in both the houses of the Bolivian parliament.

According to this Guardian report opponents of his regime are concerned that:

“The charismatic Aymara leader would become more radical and polarising and usher in an authoritarian personality cult.”

It’s not clear why anyone would think that apart from a western neo-liberal suspicion of socialist countries in the developing world. It’s been seen before in the criticisms of Hugo Chavez’ Venezuelan government and it’s completely unfounded.

There is actually an argument to say that he hasn’t gone far enough, Mike Gonzalez writes in this CiF piece:

“While the past four years have brought great advances in the recognition of indigenous rights and culture, the communities remain poor. The next Morales government has a responsibility to reward their support with a more forceful redistribution of wealth and to continue the progress towards the "21st century Latin American socialism" that he and other Latin American presidents will be attempting to define at next week's conference of Alba, the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America.”

This “more forceful re-distribution of wealth” seems to be beginning with the new constitution and the redistribution of land that comes with it. This can only be a good thing for reducing inequality, something that has been needed for a long time. I wouldn’t go as over the top as Hari has done in his piece, the job is not yet done, but Morales seems the only man who can do it