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	Africa"s first-ever elected Female Leader takes power in Liberia by Ebba Kalondo Mail & Guardian Online - South Africa   Monrovia, Liberia. 16 January 2006 (Mail & Guardian)   Thousands of women from all over the continent travelled to celebrate not only the inauguration on Monday of Liberia"s 23rd president, but also, more importantly, to witness the installation of Africa"s first-ever elected female leader, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.   Johnson-Sirleaf"s inauguration ends a two-year transitional period that saw an interim government led by Gyude Bryant take over in October 2003 after former president Charles Taylor was forced into exile in neighbouring Nigeria in August of the same year.   The 67-year-old economist and former top United Nations official defeated former football star George Weah in a surprisingly orderly and peaceful election campaign last November to win the presidency in a country that is only starting to emerge from 15 years of a brutal civil war that left the mineral-rich nation"s economy in tatters.   But the ranks of the more than 85% of Liberians who are unemployed have now also been swollen by thousands of former combatants, many of them illiterate children who have committed atrocities against their own villagers.   While Liberians are impatient for quick and visible changes to their daily lives, reintegrating the indisciplined former fighters back into their traumatised society remains a hard but necessary task for the new government.   Expected to announce her Cabinet later this week, Johnson-Sirleaf is almost certain to include former warlords to help her negotiate the dismantling of the remaining militias. It will take all her formidable political experience to stop the plunder of the country"s mineral resources, a process that is believed to be led by former rebels turned politicians.   Donors will also want assurance that the new president will curb rampant government corruption in order to disburse crucial aid to help Liberia rebuild basic services where electricity, running water and hospitals remain a luxury.   Yet despite the immense task ahead, the atmosphere in Monrovia on Monday was festive and the main street newly spruced up by former combatants paid $10 a day for their efforts to welcome a host of international dignitaries.   No less than five African presidents and UN Deputy Secretary General Louise Frechette were present at the inauguration ceremony. United States First Lady Laura Bush and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were also among the many high-level visitors in Monrovia.   Analysts say apart from the many expectations of Johnson-Sirleaf"s new and as-yet-untested government, Liberians also expect concrete and enduring assistance from the US to keep the fragile peace in Liberia, on which many states in the West African sub-region rely for their own stability.   A clear change of guard was under way on Monday as the pounding of drums replaced the traditional 21-gun salute during the open-air inauguration ceremony. Liberians dearly hope they never have to hear the sounds of gunfire in their country again.   16 January 2006   Annan hails inauguration of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as Liberia’s new president. (UN News)   United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today hailed the inauguration of Liberia’s new president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman elected to lead an African nation.   “I also congratulate the people of Liberia who, through a peaceful and transparent electoral process, have given Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf an historic mandate to lead the nation towards a future of lasting peace and stability,” Mr. Annan said in a message on the inauguration, which was held in Monrovia with numerous dignitaries in attendance, including the UN Deputy Secretary-General.   The establishment of a democratically elected Government in Liberia culminates the peace process envisaged in the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 18 August 2003. During this period, the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia (UNMIL) supported national efforts to achieve the transition to democracy by providing a secure environment, disarming more than 100,000 ex-combatants, facilitating the return of tens of thousands of displaced persons and refugees, and helping organize the recent free and fair elections.   The Secretary-General acknowledged that Ms. Johnson Sirleaf''s administration faces a number of pressing challenges in a country still reeling from the effects of war, including restructuring the security sector, strengthening economic governance, stimulating economic growth, strengthening the rule of law, protecting human rights, consolidating State authority and reestablishing basic services.   “In the face of these challenges, the people of Liberia are being given a unique opportunity to join together, to build a just and inclusive society, which assures the participation of all people, irrespective of political or ethnic affiliation,” he observed.   Mr. Annan called on the international community to assist the new Government in these endeavours and pledged the UN''s continued support “as Liberia lays the foundation for a better future built on peace, stability, democracy and rule of law.”   Dakar/Brussels, 13 January 2006   Liberia: Staying Focused. (International Crisis Group)   2006 is a decisive year for Liberia and with it West Africa. Just as Liberia once dragged its neighbours into a horrific war, it could now – with good policy and strong donor support – become an anchor for stability in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire.   Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s inauguration as president on 16 January 2006 completes a credible election process, the first of the country’s four major peacebuilding challenges. Economic governance and security sector reform, the second and third challenges, are being addressed and must remain priorities: getting them right will give Liberia an excellent chance at long-term success. But inadequate follow-through on the Governance and Economic Management Assistance Plan (GEMAP) and the training of the new army will endanger the entire reconstruction and peacebuilding process.   Donors imposed the intrusive GEMAP regime on the transitional government because of their acute concern at the lack of accountability for reconstruction funds: accepting GEMAP is a heavy price for any government to pay, and donors have as a result some further responsibilities of their own. They must now put money on the table, including funding slowed or frozen in 2005, and channel as much of this as possible through government ministries. The urgent need is to repair decimated infrastructure as soon as possible: there is no electricity, piped water, telephone lines, or sewage system, and many roads are often or always impassable. There also needs to be established quickly an IMF Staff Monitoring Program and an accelerated path for forgiving the country’s $2.9 billion debt.   The fourth challenge, judicial reform, needs much more attention. Very little has yet been done: the new government will have to find creative solutions, and donors will need to provide significant funding.
	Chileans elect their first woman president by Reuters / Open Democracy / The Guardian Chile   09 March 2006   Interview with Michelle Bachelet Chile"s new President, by Spiegel - Germany.   Michelle Bachelet, 54, who will be sworn in as Chile"s next president this Saturday, discusses efforts to deal with her country"s difficult Pinochet legacy, Chile"s dramatic economic growth and Latin America"s leftward swing.   Spiegel: Ms. Bachelet, your country is experiencing growth rates most Europeans can only dream about and you"re being celebrated as the symbol of Chile"s transformation from dictatorship to democracy. Besides, you"re also a socialist even (US President) George W. Bush can tolerate. Under these circumstances, governing must a lot of fun.   Bachelet: What"s most important to me is to be able to fulfill the hopes of as many citizens as possible. You"re right, I am South America"s first democratically elected female president. I perceive running the government as an honorable task, but also one that comes with a great deal of responsibility. That"s because the Chileans expect me to pay more attention to social justice and bring more democracy to the country.   Spiegel: You are a single mother, a physician and an agnostic. You have appointed ten women to your cabinet, and as many men. That"s the equivalent of a small revolution in a country marked by such strong Catholic and male-dominated traditions. Has Chile changed that much?   Bachelet: Women are the heads of one-third of Chilean households. In other words, I"m a completely normal woman in Chile. In fact, we have experienced a cultural shift in the last 30 years. Many women run social organizations, are union leaders and play important roles in their children"s schools. The only place where women were still absent was at the higher levels of government. My predecessor Ricardo Lagos"s decision to place women in powerful positions in the Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry was ground-breaking.   Spiegel: On Sept. 11, 1973, you watched - from the roof of the medical school - the bombing, ordered by General Pinochet, of the building that housed the offices of President Allende, the Moneda. Now you"ll be moving into that building. What does that dark chapter in history mean for Chileans today?   Bachelet: It"s part of our history. We must take pains to process the things that happened to us, in the interest of truth, justice and providing compensation for all victims of political violence, regardless of their political affiliations. Full respect for human rights, not just civil liberties, will play a very important role in my administration.   Spiegel: Are the recently begun trials of former military leaders splitting Chileans into two camps? Pinochet and his family are under investigation for tax evasion.   Bachelet: A country that has experienced such deep trauma as Chile can never be completely healed. I"m a doctor, so allow me to use a medical analogy to explain the problem: Only cleaned wounds can heal, otherwise they"ll keep opening up again, and will likely become infected and begin to fester. It"s clear to me that the truth must be brought to light. Of course, there are those - but they"re a minority today - who just want to sweep everything under the rug. In a constitutional state, the government must take steps to ensure that the judiciary can operate without obstruction. The fact that I was elected shows that Chile has a mature society. And that"s why most citizens insist that no one should be allowed to place themselves above the law and escape punishment.   Spiegel: Your father, a general loyal to Allende, was arrested, tortured and died as a result. As a politician, you have avoided talking about reconciliation with past adversaries. Instead, you"ve referred to the process as a "reencounter." Why?   Bachelet: Reconciliation also means that the victim must forgive the perpetrator. But not everyone is capable of forgiving. It depends on the experiences of the individual, on that person"s ability to overcome them, and that"s not something that you can order everyone to do. But the government can establish the conditions under which the different camps can encounter one another in joint projects.   Spiegel: You and your mother were also arrested, and you were tortured at the intelligence agency"s notorious Villa Grimaldi prison. Years later, you encountered one of your tormentors in an elevator. Your eyes were bound when you were in prison, but you recognized the man by his odor. How did the two of you react to the encounter?   Bachelet: It just so happens that this man lived in our building and used the same elevator, quite a coincidence in such a large city as Santiago. It wasn"t easy for me at first. I found it deeply disturbing. It was also difficult for him, because we ran into each other at a time when he was facing various charges in court, charges for which he was eventually sentenced. Perhaps it was even more difficult for him than it was for me. I had already reached a new phase in my life at the time. But whenever he saw me or my mother, he was forced to think of his own crimes, the crimes for which he would be held accountable.   Spiegel: You lived in East Germany after fleeing from Chile. (Former East German President Erich Honecker"s widow) Margot Honecker lives in Santiago today. Did you invite her to your inauguration?   Bachelet: I have only met her in person once here in Santiago. It was at the funeral of the president of the Chilean Communist Party. But I have always made it clear that I was treated very well in East Germany when I was forced to leave Chile with my family, and I have very fond memories of my temporary home.   Spiegel: What does the disappearance of East Germany mean to you personally? And what does the collapse of most of the world"s communist regimes mean to you as a socialist?   Bachelet: People must choose their own what type of society they want to build. The world has changed tremendously since the end of the Cold War. However, I do believe that many people still yearn for greater equity, that they finally want to see an end to poverty, a world in which everyone has the same opportunities.   Spiegel: You were Chile"s defense minister for almost three years. Do you believe that the military leadership can now abide by democratic principles?   Bachelet: Yes, all of our institutions operate democratically today. For some time now, the armed forces have accepted the fact that the president is their commander-in-chief, and that the president exercises this power through the defense minister. In our case, women will assume both of these offices.   Spiegel: Will women serving as commanders-in-chief be more successful at integrating officers into society who have spent far too much time rattling their sabers?   Bachelet: I made sure of that when I was defense minister. I completely opened up military service to women, and I made it possible for women to advance to the highest ranks. I also took pains to bring soldiers into contact with civilians, and I ordered military training to include instruction on the workings of the constitutional state and the importance of human rights.   Spiegel: Despite all progress, some still claim that there are two parties in Chile, the military and big business, and that if those two entities are fully operational, the country can even afford a socialist government. Is there any truth to that?   Bachelet: Pinochet no longer plays a role in politics. A military career is a profession like any other. That was something I managed to make sure of as defense minister. The military no longer holds any claim to power today. As citizens, soldiers have the right to vote. I don"t rule out the possibility that many voted for me. After all, they know me. The business community also knows that I will continue to encourage growth. But I have made it clear that decisions over economic development will have to be made as part of a social dialogue, one that involves the government, employers and workers.   Spiegel: Last year"s constitutional reform finally eliminated the system of appointing senators, which Pinochet introduced. As a result, your coalition of democratic parties has the majority in both houses of parliament. Which remnants of dictatorship do you still plan to wipe out?   Bachelet: The election system, most of all, because it doesn"t reflect the true relationship among the parties. We must also safeguard the rights of indigenous peoples in the constitution. One of my biggest concerns is to get citizens to be more involved. This is why I want to decentralize administration and give regions and municipalities the opportunity to make direct decisions.   Spiegel: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has invented what he calls the "axis of good," in which he includes his country, Fidel Castro"s Cuba and the Bolivia of former coca farmer leader Evo Morales. Will you also become a member of this club?   Bachelet: I don"t want us to launch another Cold War, nor do I think it"s a good idea to divide the world in good and evil. One should never condemn any regime from the start. I want to work with everyone to combat the true threats to Latin America - widespread poverty and the fact that many, indigenous peoples in particular, as well as women and children, are not receiving their fair share of progress.   Spiegel:We"re likely to see a continuing shift to the left in this year"s elections in Latin America. What"s behind this?   Bachelet: Many citizens are dissatisfied with the way some economic models have affected their lives in the past.   Spiegel: Does the new Latin American left have a common denominator?   Bachelet: Our common goal is to enable our people to live better lives. But we use different strategies in approaching the shared challenge of bringing about more social justice. There are no standard recipes for all Latin Americans, not even in our cuisines. There are many problems - the energy supply, environmental issues - that individual countries can"t resolve on their own. The European Union could be our model in many respects.   Spiegel: Chavez is already calling on Chile to abandon its successful bilateral free trade agreements in favor of a Latin American alliance. Would you be open to the invitation, or is there a conflict in the works here?   Bachelet: I agree with many of my colleagues that we live on an extremely diverse continent. Nevertheless, I do believe it is possible to achieve a basic trade agreement in Latin America, one that we can all live with. I am optimistic that we will find this magic formula.   (The interview was conducted by Hans Hoyng and Helene Zuber. Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan).   Santiago, Chile. Jan 15, 2006   "Chileans elect their first woman president", by Fiona Ortiz. (Reuters)   Socialist Michelle Bachelet was elected Chile"s first woman president on Sunday, taking more than half the vote, consolidating gains the left has made in recent years throughout Latin America.   Bachelet, from Chile"s ruling center-left coalition, had 53.51 percent of the vote while opposition candidate Sebastian Pinera had 46.48 percent, based on a tally of 97.52 percent votes counted, the government Electoral Service said.   "I want to congratulate Michelle Bachelet for her triumph," Pinera, a moderate conservative and one of Chile"s wealthiest men, said in a concession speech on live television.   Bachelet, imprisoned and tortured during the 1973-1990 Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, will be the fourth consecutive president from the center-left pact formed in the 1980s to oppose Pinochet. It has run the country of 16 million people since Pinochet stepped down in 1990.   Supporters began celebrating at Bachelet"s downtown election headquarters immediately after the official results were read on television by an electoral official.   "It"s a great vote for the republic"s first woman president," said Sergio Bitar, a former cabinet minister and top member of Bachelet"s campaign team.   A Bachelet victory consolidates a shift to the left in Latin America, where leftists now run Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela. A socialist will soon take office in Bolivia and a leftist is favored to win Mexico"s July presidential election.   Bachelet, a medical doctor and former defense minister, will be only the second woman elected to head a South American nation, and the first who was not the widow of a former president.   16 - 1 - 2006   Michelle Bachelet"s triumph, by Justin Vogler. (openDemocracy)   Michelle Bachelet has ended the male dominance of Chilean politics and showed how democratic pluralism is blossoming in the post-Pinochet era, reports Justin Vogler in Santiago.   Michelle Bachelet, the 54-year-old paediatrician who once described herself as incarnating “all the capital sins: socialist, my father’s daughter, divorced and an agnostic”, is set to become Chile’s first woman president after winning 53.45% of the vote in the 15 January run-off election.   Votes are counted quickly and transparently in Chile. When Bachelet’s victory was confirmed at 6.30pm on Sunday, all over Chile her supporters poured onto streets and plazas to celebrate. Improvised motor cavalcades formed with flags flowing from car windows and horns blasting. Thousands of women donned presidential ribbons to mark their collective victory. By 7.00pm, Bachelet’s contender, billionaire businessman Sebastian Piñera, had graciously conceded defeat.   From an improvised stage in Santiago’s wide central avenue, the president-elect addressed a joyous crowd. “Who would have thought it?”, she roared. “Who would have thought it twenty, ten, five years ago that Chile would elect a woman president?” Choking back tears, Bachelet went on to promise a new style of politics. “More consensus orientated, more participative; I’ve been the citizen’s candidate and I will be the citizen’s president.”   Chile’s rightwing press tried desperately to portray the race as a close one. But with countless opinion polls confirming her commanding lead, few doubted that Bachelet – representing Concertación, the broad coalition of leftist parties and Christian democrats who have ruled Chile since Augusto Pinochet stood down in 1990 – would win.   Religion, money and gender   The election result owes something to an environment of political and economic stability. The Chilean economy grew by nearly 6% in 2005 and the outgoing president, Ricardo Lagos, enjoys popularity ratings of more than 60%. But there are deeper factors at work. The election reveals how far this once pious, conservative country has come. As Carolina Toha, congresswoman and close Bachelet aide, told me: “Bachelet’s election is a manifestation of profound changes sweeping across Chilean society. It shows how Chile has been rapidly liberated from a huge amount of fear, trauma and hypocrisy in the last few years.”   Such value-shifts were played out in the campaign. In an appeal to the religious vote, Piñera had firmly opposed abortion and gay marriage and cast himself as a “Christian humanist”. Bachelet left religion to her Christian Democrat partners who skilfully sidestepped her agnosticism and identified her with progressive Christian values.   As the campaign progressed, Bachelet increasingly emphasised the theme of gender equality. She promised equal representation of men and women in her cabinet, and in the final televised debate called on people to vote for her as a woman:   “A president has to understand a country’s needs. I am a mother and a doctor; I know the needs of my family and those of my country. Together we restored democracy and now I invite you to help pass another milestone. Make history and choose Chile’s first woman president.”   Bachelet: from exile to stateswoman   Michelle Bachelet’s father was an air-force general, Alberto Bachelet, who served in Salvador Allende’s government and died under torture following the 1973 coup that brought Pinochet to power. Michelle and her mother were held at the notorious Villa Grimalde torture centre before being exiled, eventually reaching East Germany.   Michelle returned to Chile in 1979. After a rapid professional and political rise that included two years as health minister and a masters’ degree from the Inter-American Defense College in Washington, she became Latin America’s first woman defence minister in 2002. Her successful, reformist two-year term in the post made her favourite to win the presidency.   Isabel Allende – socialist congresswoman, daughter of Salvador Allende and cousin of the author of the same name – told me in a recent interview: “This was the first time in Chile that a presidential candidate has emerged by popular demand and not through negotiations within the political parties.”   The journey to La Moneda palace has not been smooth. The initial attacks on Bachelet as a Marxist proved counterproductive in a country long tired of ideological animosity, so the next tack was to portray her as a political lightweight. The Oxford-educated historian Alfredo Jocelyn-Holt called her “a populist product of media marketing”.   Carlos Huneeus from the Centro de Estudios de Realidad Contemporánea (Cerc), a Santiago-based think-tank and polling agency, rejects this assessment. “The media and the polls helped position her but didn’t create her”, he says; rather, they revealed Bachelet’s personal strength and political ability. Huneeus attributes the president-elect’s success to her being a socialist who has both tamed and wooed Chile’s authoritarian military.   Myrna Troncoso, president of the Agrupación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos y Eject (Association of Relatives of Disappeared and Executed Political Detainees), pays tribute to Bachelet’s “stateswomanship”: “she left aside her personal feelings and worked with men who tortured her and her mother and murdered her father.”   Adios Pinochet   On the other side of Chile’s historic divide, many in the armed forces have a high regard for a woman who, as one middle ranking army officer told me, “speaks our language and understands our codes”. As the first socialist to embrace the military since the 1973 coup, Bachelet has become a symbol of national reconciliation. Many in the military have quietly welcomed Bachelet-style reinvention.   For sixteen years Chilean politics has been divided between those who voted on different sides in the 1989 plebiscite called by General Pinochet to endorse and extend his rule. Piñera’s eruption onto the scene as the right’s de facto leader has at last broken that mould. Crucially – unlike his conservative cohorts and past rightwing candidates – Piñera voted against Pinochet in 1989. Thus, from both sides the 2005-06 election is a milestone in the process of Chilean democratic consolidation.   The emergence of a democratic post-Pinochet Chilean right is the culmination of a long process that has progressively seen Pinochet discredited and sidelined. In 1997, when he retired as army commander-in-chief and awarded himself the position of life-senator, Pinochet was still a pivotal figure in Chilean politics. Isabel Allende says that two events outside Chile – Pinochet’s 500-day detention in London in 1998-2000, and the subsequent discovery of multimillion-dollar bank accounts in his name in the United States – have decimated the 90-year old ex-dictator’s public image and left his lawyers fighting off numerous lawsuits.   “There are people who justified the human-rights abuses saying it was necessary,” said Allende. “But robbery is a different matter. In the parliament you see long-term Pinochet supporters feeling very uncomfortable, they can’t justify it any longer.”   Michelle Bachelet has said pledged to change the binominal (or first-two-past-the-post) electoral system that Pinochet bestowed on Chile’s infant democracy. This effectively guarantees the political right the same parliamentary representation as the Concertación with as little as 33% per cent of the vote; smaller parties, notably the communists, are denied any representation.   The right agreed to vote through a raft of constitutional reforms in 2005, eliminating the post of life-senator (also granted by Pinochet to other heads of the armed forces) and restoring civilian authority over the military. Introducing a system of proportional representation to replace the binominal system is widely regarded as the last step in Chile’s long transition to a fully entrenched democracy.   South America: the politics of inclusion   Marta Lagos, director of Mori Chile, sees a continent-wide pattern in Bachelet’s election; those long excluded from politics – for reasons of class, race or gender – are finally storming the governmental strongholds. Brazil’s Luis Ignácio Lula da Silva was a metal worker; the dark-skinned Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chávez the son of a village schoolteacher; the president-elect of Bolivia, Evo Morales, will be the first indigenous politician to reach the summit of power in the hemisphere since Mexico’s Benito Juárez in 1858.   The trend will surely continue. The Argentinean senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner may succeed her husband Néstor Kirchner as the next president. Peru’s election in April promises a runoff between the indigenous nationalist and Chávez protégé, Ollante Humala, and the conservative woman candidate, Lourdes Flores – alike testifying to the passing of an era in which South American politics was the exclusive domain of the white, male, middle classes.   Michelle Bachelet is not the first woman to become a head of state in the hemisphere. Argentina’s Isabel Perón took power after her husband fell ill in 1974 and, in 1997, Guyana’s Janet Jagan - widow of long-term president Cheddi Jagan – became the first South American woman elected to the presidency. But as Steve Anderson, director of the Santiago Times observes: “Bachelet is the first female president in South America to be elected strictly on her own merit and not as the wife of a ‘great man’.” Visit the related web page
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