Book Review;Chile;Man of themoment
书评;智利;谁主沉浮;
The Southern Tiger: Chile s Fight for a Democraticand Prosperous Future. By Ricardo Lagos with BlakeHounshell and Elizabeth Dickinson.
《南虎:智利为民主繁荣的未来而战》,RicardoLagos、Blake Hounshell 和 Elizabeth Dickinson 著。
In 1988 General Augusto Pinochet organised aplebiscite that he was confident would grant himanother eight years of absolute power. RicardoLagos, a hitherto little-known Socialist leader, used a live television programmethe first tofeature opposition politicians since Pinochet s military coup of 1973to defy the climate offear that was the dictator s most powerful political weapon. Pointing his finger at the camera,he addressed him directly, saying that it was inadmissible that he sought to remain inpower. Ignoring the presenter s attempt to cut him off, Mr Lagos said I am speaking for 15years of silence.
1988年,奥古斯托皮诺切特将军举行了一次全民公投,他自信这次公投会让他再独裁八年。社会党领袖里卡多拉各斯当时还鲜为人知,他利用电视直播节目挑衅恐惧气氛,人们担心这次公投是独裁者最强大的政治武器。这是自1973年皮诺切特发动军事政变以来,反对派政治家首次在荧屏亮相。拉各斯用手指指着摄像机,直接对皮诺切特发表演说,表示不许他继续掌权。拉各斯无视主持人打断他的企图,说道:我在为15年的沉寂代言。
It was a turning point. The opposition went on to win the plebiscite, ushering in Chile stransition to democracy. Mr Lagos would become a minister in the first two democraticgovernments, and was elected Chile s president in 2000. By far the most interesting andmoving part of his memoir concerns his patient and difficult work to build opposition to thedictatorship.
这是一个转折点。反对派接着赢得了全民公投,迎来智利向民主的过渡。拉各斯成为前两届民主政府的部长,2000年他当选为智利总统。迄今为止,他的回忆录中最有趣最感动人心的部分是他极具耐心又历尽艰难地建立了反对独裁的在野党。
After Pinochet overthrew the elected far-left government of Salvador Allende, almost 3,000people were murdered or disappeared, 29,000 were imprisoned and some 200,000 sought refuge abroad. Mr Lagos, an academic economist, wasan adviser to the Allende government but not a member of it. After the coup, he taught inthe United States, before returning to Chile in 1978. He played a prominent role in coaxinginto existence a broad centre-left front, called the Concertacin. He disagreed with the far-leftover its refusal to rule out violence against the regime. That didn t spare him from beingdetained for 18 days after a failed assassination attempt against Pinochet by communists.
皮诺切特推翻了极左的民选萨尔瓦多阿连德政府之后,有近3000人被杀害或失踪,29000人被监禁,几乎所有被监禁的人都受到了折磨,还有大约20万人到国外避难。理论经济学家拉各斯是阿连德政府的顾问,不是政府成员。政变后他在美国任教,直到1978年才回到智利。争取民主联盟是智利明显中间偏左的阵线,拉各斯在耐心成立它的过程中发挥了突出作用。他不赞成极左派采取暴力抵抗政权。共产党人企图暗杀皮诺切特失败后,这点并未让他免于十八天的拘留。
In the first of its two decades in power the Concertacin had to govern in Pinochet sshadow. That was changed by the dictator s arrest in London in October 1998 at therequest of a Spanish magistrate; by the Chilean Supreme Court s decision to lift hisimmunity and by the revelation that he had stolen $30m. As president, Mr Lagos oversaw anational dialogue about the past that saw the army own up to its abuses and apologise forthem. He is surely right that the process of reconciliation, of finding out the truth aboutwhat happened and punishing the abusers where possible, required both time and politicaldetermination.
争取民主联盟执政二十年,起初不得不在皮诺切特的阴影下进行统治。1998年10月应一位西班牙法官的要求,独裁者皮诺切特在伦敦被捕,智利最高法院决定解除他的豁免权,他侵占3000万美元一事也被披露,这些改变了这种局面。过去军队承认滥用并为此道歉,作为总统,拉各斯监督有关这段过去的全国对话。他无疑是正确的,找出所发生事情的真相,并在可能的情况下惩罚滥用者,这样的和解进程既需要时间又需要政治决心。
In office Mr Lagos tried to combine a free-market economy with public policies designed tocreate a less unequal society. He had some success: he signed free-trade agreements withthe United States and the European Union and created new anti-poverty, health and housingprogrammes. This modern and moderate social democracy is an implicit rebuke toAllende, whom he is reluctant to criticise directly.
执政期间,拉各斯试图把自由市场经济与公共政策相结合,而这些公共政策旨在创建一个少些不平等的社会。他取得了一些成功,与美国和欧盟签署了自由贸易协定,并制订了新的反贫困、健康与住房计划。这种温和的现代社会民主是对阿连德含蓄的指责,他不愿直接批评阿连德。
Despite its title, the book is infuriatingly perfunctory in its treatment of Chile s impressivesocioeconomic progress under the Concertacin. Mr Lagos s presidency merits just twochapters, one of which focuses on foreign policy. It was to the author s abiding credit thatChile, a member of the UN Security Council at the time, refused to back George Bush s rushto war against Iraq.
智利在争取民主联盟执政时所取得的社会经济进步令人印象深刻,但本书不顾它的标题,对这点的处理敷衍塞责,让人气愤。拉各斯总统任期的功绩只有两章,其中一章还侧重于对外政策。智利当时是联合国安理会成员国,它拒绝支持乔治布什匆忙发动对伊战争,这点让拉各斯享有了持久声望。
Mr Lagos broadly welcomes the student protests that broke out in Chile last year, after theConcertacin left office. These are the children of Chile s democracy, born after the fall ofthe dictator and raised in a country that has come to expect and demand responsive andresponsible government, he writes. But he doesn t say what he thinks of the student demandto abolish for-profit education. The reader is left wondering whether he might have donemore when president to reduce income inequality through tax reform.
去年争取民主联盟下野后,智利爆发了学生抗议活动,拉各斯明白地表示欢迎。他写道,这些学生是智利民主的儿童,出生在独裁者下台之后,成长在期待并要求政府敏感负责的国家。。但他对学生要求废除以营利为目的的教育没有表示看法。当总统要通过税制改革来减少收入不平衡,拉各斯是否可以做得更多?他把这个问题留给了读者猜疑。
The Southern Tiger is occasionally marred by the breezy Americanisms of Mr Lagos sco-writers, journalists at Foreign Policy magazine. But between them they have produced areadable book about the consolidation of democracy in Latin America. The pity is that itcould have been a much more profound one.
拉各斯的合著者是《对外政策》杂志的记者,他们轻松活泼的美国风偶尔给《南虎》投下了败笔。不过他们与拉各斯通力合作,写出了一部有关拉丁美洲巩固民主的书,值得一读。可惜的是,本来该书可以写得更深刻些。
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