The President speaks

Hipólito Mejía makes no effort to be smooth and cares even less to cultivate a likeable image. In fact, he enjoys playing the iconoclast and revels in a public persona that often portrays him as rude and authoritarian. Mejía is open about this: “If I need to squeeze people I will. I will not allow any abuse and if people say that is being authoritarian, then okay I am authoritarian. I need to impose to get results, to make things happen. If not, nothing will ever happen.”

“Countries should follow their comparative advantages…If there is going to be a free trade agreement in 2005, I will be ready for free trade. There is no drought or frost here. I am convinced that we can compete.” Hipolito Mejia

Furthermore Mejía claims, “I have zero tolerance for crime.” His aim is to leave the Dominican Republic “morally cleansed” by the end of his term. He says that, “If anyone steals they will be jailed. This rule applies to everyone. I have even got 10 people of mine in jail. I will not pay any kickbacks. I am not required to give anyone anything.”

Yet there is a large element of bluster in all this. Mejía is a political realist with an agenda that he needs to fulfill. To do so, he needs to abide by local political rules and customs. At the same time Mejía said to LatinFinance more modestly that, “I like to reach consensus agreements. All the reforms have to be agreed with the opposition, even though we have a majority in the legislature.”

The President is attempting to reconstruct the Republic’s public institutions: for example there is a new structure being enacted to ensure the independence of the central bank. Mejía’s aim is for this to ensure that economic policy, particularly monetary and fiscal policy, can become less politicized. “Fiscal policy in the Dominican Republic,” he says, “has totally dominated monetary policy and became very politicized. There has been a lot of corruption. Now the central bank in my government will have a juridical framework that makes it independent. The central bank will not be subject to political pressures and it will now be more democratic.”

Politics needs to be contained, he believes, in order to reduce the damage it can do to the country’s institutions and wider society. “Politicians undermine the good concepts of economics. Political demagogy does great damage to decisions that should be absolutely independent and that affect the country’s economy.”

Banning reelection, he believes, is essential. “One of the many disgraces of our country is reelection. I am against reelection for those who are in office now and for those who were here before.” Politicians who serve one term only, he believes, will be less tempted to indulge in wasteful populist policies of the kind that have marked much of the country’s history. Joaquín Balaguer, who dominated the Dominican Republic for decades, won seven presidential terms.

If only personality politics can be reduced, then the country’s institutions can begin to gain a measure of respect and credibility. “I want institutions, not people. I do not want people to perpetuate themselves in office by reelection. I do not want history to treat me as a tyrant,” affirms the President.

Mejía believes an independent judiciary can crack down on corruption better than a politically inspired witch-hunt. He has set up an independent audit body to investigate corruption. He is decentralizing government by increasing the powers of municipalities in the belief that by being closer to their electorates, local politicians will be more responsive to their needs.

He wants also to change social policy, which throughout Latin America was a political tool used by politicians as a source of patronage rather than as an instrument of social improvement. Mejía says that, “The role of the state should not be to give things to people, but to give people self-control to participate, with self-respect.” Social policy would be more effective if the recipients of aid were given greater involvement and responsibility in government projects.

The government has begun giving money to low-income families that send their children to school. The mother of each child regularly attending public school is to get a Ps300 monthly allowance: a program that is intended to benefit 25,000 children.

Mejía is a former businessman (see box) and believes that the less government involvement in the economy there is, the better. He says, “So much was regulated before. I want to have the state as a facilitator with clearly determined rules.” He is a supporter of free trade, convinced that this will allow the country to make the most of its natural strengths in agriculture and food processing.

“Countries should follow their comparative advantages. For us this is in coffee, sugar, tobacco. We have good vegetables. Our tomatoes and cucumbers are all hand-picked for the US market. We are competitive in sugar with the US and EU. If there is going to be a free trade agreement in 2005, I will be ready for free trade. There is no drought or frost here. I am convinced that we can compete. There is technology in Israel, Spain, Italy and France that we can buy.”

He is proud that the Dominican Republic has increased its output of staples like milk, rice and beef by a third, and has cut imports. The country is now self-sufficient in food and even exports surpluses.

Trade can help pull the country and its most backward regions out of poverty. The government is encouraging agricultural investments in high value-added crops that are not as subject to volatile prices as are most agriculture commodities. Mejía wants the country to grow more flowers that can be flown to the US market.

Power shortages have hampered economic development in the Dominican Republic for years. The government has run up substantial debts to the privatized power companies, which Mejía has begun to pay. Public fury over shortages has led to rioting, but Mejía says that additional capacity has eased the problem. “Production is in balance with demand,” he says.

Unfortunately, he adds, customers also have responsibility for the situation, because so many refused to pay for the power they consumed. He says, “The poor have to learn to pay for electricity. That is not nice, but they need to do it. They already pay for their phones, they pay for their beer. It is important to have electricity, so they should pay for it.”

Mejía needs to improve incomes and raise the quality of people’s lives significantly if he is to consider his term as President a success. He has begun by making labor laws more flexible in the poorest parts of the country in the hope that this may encourage investments and job creation. Agreeing that creating jobs and raising incomes is one of his government’s most difficult challenges, he says, “This is not easy. It is the hardest thing to do, but we are determined to do it. Among the government’s initiatives are construction projects and newly created rural production zones that can create up to 100,000 new jobs.”

Although the Dominican Republic has grown rapidly in the last five years, it is still a poor country. “There was growth, but for most people it was as if there had been no growth for all those years. It was fictitious, it only benefited the rich groups. Everyone needs to pay their taxes and have a commitment to society. But there are people who have not paid anything ever. There is more tax evasion than you can imagine. Now they will pay.”