I am not as stubborn as I appear to be. I am firm, because I have to be, but I constantly reflect on my actions, on the policies I am promoting and on the attitudes I am adopting. I have had the honor of holding the office of President of the Republic twice and I can state straightforwardly that this is not a position for those who believe they are infallible, for those who are not willing to review their positions, for those who are not capable of retracing their steps.
Anyone who aspires to occupy this position must understand that in a democracy as mature and complex as ours, intransigence is a luxury that the president must renounce, even if the opposition does not.
In the time I have been in the Government, I have had to yield several times in my positions. Because I respect the institutionalism of the country, and because circumstances demand it. Everyone knows that I did not believe it was convenient that the FTA be approved by means of a referendum, but, when the Supreme Electoral Tribunal authorized the collection of signatures for it to be carried out, it was the Executive Branch itself that requested the summoning of the Legislative Assembly.
Good and bad. At the beginning of my mandate, I had assured that I would promote the implementation agenda regardless of the approval of the Treaty, but when the FTA went to popular consultation, I was clear in stating that the triumph of the NO would also mean the end of the implementation agenda. A few days ago, on the occasion of the processing in the Legislative Assembly of the General Telecommunications Law, I agreed that fixed telephony should be excluded from the legislation, despite the fact that I originally considered that there would be benefits for users if it was left in the bill. The reason for these changes is very simple: if I do not give in, the country does not move forward; if I do not compromise, the country stagnates. And this is not only true for me, but also for any political or social leader who is interested in working for Costa Rica or intends to govern it.
Even though I have made my life a constant search for dialogue and exchange of opinions; even though I have spent my days in academic and political discussions, it is always a challenge to achieve a fluid communication with the opposition. And I will be very honest: it is an even greater challenge to achieve a fluid communication with the Citizen Action Party. The reasons are many, but I think they go through a vision of the world that I do not share with those who integrate, or at least with those who lead this party: the vision according to which Costa Rican politics is a fight of the good against the bad, an encounter between enemies. It must be quite difficult to dialogue with an enemy, and certainly it must be very difficult to dialogue with someone bad, but I am neither the bad guy nor the enemy: I am the president of Costa Rica, and a long time ago I stopped being a contender.
The majority of Costa Ricans elected me to lead this country, and the majority of Costa Ricans voted in favor of NAFTA: that is what obliges me to stand firm in my positions. I have given in and I can give in even more on some aspects, but the only thing I will never give in on is exercising my leadership and fighting for the welfare of Costa Rica. I want dialogue because Costa Rica needs dialogue, but dialogue cannot mean accepting literally everything they want to impose on us.
The letters of the PAC. I have eagerly sought a meeting with Ottón Solís, but he refuses to meet with me alone, and calls “secrecy” what I call “privacy”. It is a pity, because in my political life, national and international, I have reached important agreements, and I believe that none of them have been reached in front of a camera lens or in a press conference: I have reached them in the privacy of a conversation in which two human beings settle their differences and work on their coincidences. That is what I want:
a dialogue with a real willingness to talk. Not a meeting that comes with documents that condemn me in advance. Not a date to summon journalists and give them the next day’s headline. Not an excuse to postpone the decisions that have to be made. I want the country to get out of the current stagnation, and I am taking the step forward: I have laid my cards on the table, but I need the PAC to lay out theirs as well.
Whoever behind every conversation sees a trap; whoever behind every political decision sees an act of corruption; whoever behind every agreement sees a hidden interest; whoever behind every initiative sees a double intention and behind every word a lie, observes things with a glass that is opaque and moreover obtuse; a prism that only allows black and white; a dark soul that only sees shadows in every flash of light. Perhaps it is time to remember that the progress of a country is a collective task, and that a destructive opposition is perhaps the worst way to claim the Presidency: Costa Rica is not the phoenix, and if the PAC comes to govern it, it will not make it rise from its ashes, but will have to build a future with the help of those it considers “good”, and with the help of those it considers “bad”.
To yield is not to surrender. To compromise is not to give in. To talk is not to betray. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, courage is what it takes to stand up and say things; but it is also what it takes to sit down and talk things out.
OSCAR ARIAS
President of Costa Rica