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Like many authorities, Ennio Vivaldi (70) Calls Chilean women and men to vote – with the necessary safeguards – this Sunday. The rector of the University of Chile foresees that the participation of young people “will be key”, due to the characteristics of this plebiscite.
“A year ago – and I say it with great satisfaction – we called on our community to comment on the issues that were being discussed at that time, in full swing, such as holding a plebiscite, changing the Constitution … And student participation was Extraordinary, I would say unpublished. It had been a long time since there was a call to the students that had so much echo. For this reason, I am sure that if the young people voted in an internal process, with much greater reason they will go to vote this Sunday.
In the last votes of the Date there has been very little participation …
It would be better to ask them what happened there. I believe that there is a crisis between the youth and formal politics, and the Fech and a large part of the student movement have to rediscover a path of influence in national life. In my generation, I would say that 90% of the students were aligned with some political party of the time. Today that is not so.
The doctor also highlights the importance of the elderly coming tomorrow to pay: “Protocols, procedures and norms have been defined. If the person is clear about what precautionary measures to take – such as wearing his blue paste pencil, his mask and perhaps his alcohol gel -, what time he will have preference at his polling place, he should not have any fear. It is super important that this Sunday those of us who are seniors go to vote and that our age group is manifested, because there are many problems in this section that the country must face in a new Constitution ”.
In the text “We have to talk about Chile”, promoted by you and your UC counterpart, Ignacio Sánchez (signed by more than a thousand people), they wonder if the plebiscite will be a day of winners and losers? What do you think?
Making a new Constitution is something that is valid for everyone and with which everyone identifies, therefore, it makes no sense to make any division, much less between winners and losers on Sunday night.
What do you think is the best option for the country?
As rector I have to tell you that the University of Chile is a pluralistic, secular and convening entity, where all ideologies are represented, and rather than favoring some of them, what one seeks is to give space to the exchange of ideas. I consider myself a man of the left, but it is not true that this is a university of the left. That said, it is easy to know what my position is, which is not relevant.
In your opinion, what aspects should be in a new Constitution?
Assume realities, and the first is that Chile is a very unequal country. The current Constitution could be defined as an apology for selfishness, individualism, each one on his own. And that is the product of the extreme application of certain ideological characteristics. I think one of the most important things (of a new Constitution) is to rescue the idea of the common good of the nation and rebuild the public in all its spheres, in that of thought, in communications … Reconstruct the public in the areas specific, such as education, health, housing and welfare. Not having done that before, I think it has been very damaging and damaging. If you ask me what are the factors behind the social explosion, I immediately tell you the destruction of public education.
What was the mistake made in Education in the last three decades?
All ideologies (governments) were not able to see that public education is the most important factor of national cohesion. It is even a factor that attenuates the perception of conflict, because it places in the same environment – and that was my experience as a student at the Liceo de Concepción – people from the most diverse socioeconomic origins, that is, there is an instance of recognition and dialogue . The educational system that emerges from the current Constitution encourages and induces segregation, because it tells me “look, if you can pay a little more, pay more so that your child does not join the poorest”, which is a crazy thing. The expansion of university enrollment was also conceived as a matter of commercial transaction, beyond wanting to incorporate sectors that until then had not been able to have a university education. Another example that is a consequence of a Constitution is the health area, where the emphasis was placed on hospitals and clinics and they forgot about clinics and territorial health, which generated a very great weakness when facing this pandemic .
Do you think that the plebiscite will decompress the violence that took place again last Sunday on the anniversary of October 18?
Definitely. Any reasonable person understands that a path opens up here to build a new society. I would hope that if it is clear to young people, above all, that the task to which they are being called will have a real impact on their lives, they will bend to it and understand that it is absurd to insist on a violent path.
