opinion

"If I was playing third base and my mother rounded third with the winning run, I'd trip her up," said Leo Durocher, baseball player and manager. Leo Durocher was a notorious baseball manager but is really remembered for his dictum: "Nice guys finish last." He also said: "Win any way you can as long as you can get away with it." I have little doubt that President Hugo Chávez has replaced the reading of the Venezuelan Constitution by the constant study of Leo Durocher's complete works. The philosophy of Durocher led inevitably to violence. Leo was one of the most violent managers the game of baseball has known. His competitive spirit was overpowering and unchecked by moral concerns or civility. In sports, the meaning of fair play establishes that the game has to be played by the rules, with respect for the other side. The advocates of this civilized attitude say: "It is not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game."

Well, sports are very much like Life. In life, winning at all costs leads to all kinds of violations of the human condition. In fact, winning at all costs deprives winning of its real meaning, which is prevailing over the adversary under equal conditions. No honorable person can feel satisfied winning by cheating. Sooner or later this win is de-legitimized.

Even monkeys believe in fair play. A recent study of monkeys done by the State University of New York, at Stony Brook, shows that these animals practice fair play in sharing their food with other monkeys, even when offered rewards not to do so. The researchers believe that this behavior has helped them to cooperate and survive in better style.

While our remote ancestors practice fair play, the members of the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chávez are hard at work at the National Assembly, trying to modify the internal rules of this body, so that they can take decisions by simple majority and pass --- in bulldozer fashion --- a new Law of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice. Why is this new Law required by Chávez? Because the government has lost control of about half of the 20 members of the TSJ --- 10 of the members do not blindly obey what the government orders any longer --- as a result of the split between Chávez and his former mentor Luis Miquilena.

In order to recapture this control, the government needs to pass a new Law increasing the number of members from 20 to 32. Not because such an increase is needed to guarantee a better legal performance, but because this increase is needed to give government political control. The new members, obviously, would be unconditional followers of the government.

And, you might ask, why this gross, undignified maneuver? Well, because when the government sees that the referendum is near and inevitable, they will go to the TSJ with some sort of claim of illegality and the TSJ --- then in their hands --- will comply and invalidate the referendum.

It does not matter a hoot to Chávez that this gross and undignified maneuver might be the final straw that breaks the camel's back. As in the case of Leo Durocher, he thrives on violence and conflict, which, he says: "is the weapon of those who have the right on their side"?

What I am describing is now underway. The National Assembly is on the verge of changing the internal rules to pass the new Law of the Supreme Tribunal. This will be a mad race now, between the forces which promote the referendum and those which oppose it. The cheating, the low blows, the tripping up of Durocher's mother rounding third base are all happening right now.

When President Chávez said that he would not move a finger to promote the referendum, he sounded reasonable since he was not expected to help those who look for his removal from office.

But fair play commands him to behave in a dignified and clean manner.

This nasty piece of work I am describing is not the only dirty trick the government have been utilizing --- the government agents in the Electoral Council have been dragging their feet in a most obscene fashion, trying to put obstacles small and big in the path of the referendum.

All the financial and organizational resources of the State are, at this moment, at the service of the supreme objective of delaying or, better, rendering the referendum impossible. And, as Leo Durocher said, do it any way you can as long as you can get away with it.

This is the reason why I say to our readers that here is no sense of fair play in the Venezuelan government; there is no sense of decency.

Talking about football, Vince Lombardi said once: "Winning is not everything --- it's the only thing." Surely this cannot apply to social processes where the will of the people cannot be smothered by blind ambitions of power. When the will of the people is sacrificed to the needs for personal gain, the whole meaning of the social contract crumbles.

We do not exist as a nation to be a prize for those who need to win at all costs.

We exist as a nation to demand from every member of our society to give his or her best to contribute to the common good, even if that means to lose gracefully.

These things, I thought, were basic principles that every decent citizen would understand.

But I guess I was being naive in believing that a person thrust into a leadership position would grow spiritually to rise to the honor and the occasion --- I was mistaken.

There are many who are so mean and mediocre that, when put in a position of leadership, come to think that the rules and the laws of the land do no longer apply to them.

This is the tragedy of Hugo Chávez and this is the reason history will be unkind to him.


Gustavo Coronel is a 28 years oil industry veteran, a member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), author of several books. His e-mail address is ppcvicep@telcel.net.ve< /i>


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