What was heard recently on the radio and in the last Plenary Session by our mayor forces me to make a reflection aloud. Hearing the highest authority of Tinajo boast that "everyone calls him to pull his contacts" is not only a lack of respect for public administration, it is a direct attack on the dignity of every resident.
As a citizen, I refuse to accept that the well-being of my family or access to my rights depends on the "agenda" of a single person.
When a politician boasts of solving problems by picking up the phone and pulling strings in any area, be it health, employment, aid or administrative procedures, what he is really telling us is that the rules are not the same for everyone.
I wonder: what happens to the neighbor who doesn't have the mayor's phone number?; what happens to those who trust in institutions and wait their turn honestly?; how many people are cut in line by those who "pull contacts"?
That way of acting has very ugly names in democracy, but above all it is profoundly unjust. A city council is not a private estate, nor is public management a network of personal favors that are later collected. Politics should serve so that the system works for everyone, not so that the politician in office appears to be a "savior" in exchange for our submission.
We cannot normalize being treated as subjects who must ask for favors, when we are citizens with rights. My rights cannot be anyone's favors. Democracy is based on clear rules, on equality and on transparency; the opposite is returning to dark times of caciquism that our people should have already left behind.
I rebel against that idea that to get ahead in life you have to "know someone". I believe in a Tinajo where effort and law are worth more than a call from the mayor.