Uruguay, the small country, has a big lesson for the democracies of Brazil and USA- The Week

By the US standards, the Uruguayan election campaign was boring. No polarization, no hate speeches, no fake news, no lies, no attacks against the election system, no threats to challenge electoral outcome, no vulgar language and no abusive behaviour. The debates were decent and the campaigns were civilized.

The election process was conducted competently and transparently and the results were announced quickly. There were no anachronistic procedures or attempts to rig as happened in the USA.

Both the winner and the defeated are moderates and pragmatic. The opposition candidate who won did not threaten to undo what the ruling party had done.

Since the restoration of democracy from military dictatorship in 1985, the Centre-right and Centre-right have been in power alternately. The conservatives ruled for four terms from 1985 to 2005 followed by three terms of Centre-left from 2005 to 2020. The conservatives returned to power in 2020 and they have now been replaced by the leftists.

The only difference Orsi would make in foreign policy is that he would show solidarity with the leftist governments in the region unlike his predecessor who aligned himself more with other conservative presidents.

In domestic policies, Orsi would spend more on social welfare but would let the private sector also flourish without constraints.

The President-elect Orsi is a former history teacher who was elected twice as mayor of a town. He says he would not occupy the stately presidential house, following in the footsteps of ex-president Jose Mujica who set an example of austerity and simplicity. Mujica was described by BBC as the ” world’s poorest President”. He refused to move to the official residence and continued to stay in his ramshackle farmhouse, driving his own 1987 model Volkswagon Beetle, working on his field, growing flowers and vegetables . He lead a simple and unostentatious life. He donated 90% of his salary to charity. Mujica was a leftist guerrilla fighter and was put in jail for fourteen years by the military dictatorship. So when he stood for election, there was fear that he would be vengeful. But he forgave the military and showed magnanimity and pragmatism. In one of his campaign speeches, Mujica vowed to distance the left from “the stupid ideologies that come from the 1970s — I refer to things like unconditional love of everything that is state-run, scorn for businessmen and intrinsic hate of the United States. He said, ¨I’ll shout it if they want: Down with isms! Up with a left that is capable of thinking outside the box! In other words, I am more than completely cured of simplifications, of dividing the world into good and evil, of thinking in black and white. I have repented!”

Although the economy is small, the country has very low levels of poverty and inequality. Uruguay is part of the Mercosur customs union which includes Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia.

The Indian IT giant TCS opened its first Latin America office in Uruguay in 2002. Gabriel Rozman, an Uruguayan took TCS across Latin America and scaled up the operations. The TCS Chennai office building, the largest in India, was designed by an Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott.

The small market of Uruguay is big destination for India’ exports. Last year India’s exports were an impressive 521 million dollars. This is more than India’s exports to the neighboring Cambodia (185 million dollars) or Kazhakstan (237 million) whose populations and economies are much bigger.

Uruguay is considered as the Switzerland of South America. Many rich Argentines and Brazilians as well as other South Americans spend vacations in Uruguay, have houses there and keep their money in Uruguayan banks.

Uruguay is in the vanguard in Latin America in legalizing same-sex marriage, consumption and production of Marijuana and abortion rights. Uruguay passed a law in December 2013 decriminalizing, legalizing and regulating the production, sale and consumption of cannabis

Of course, Uruguay is a small country of 3.6 million population sandwiched between the big brothers Brazil and Argentina. But the little Uruguay has a big lesson for Brazil and USA which have suffered the disgraceful culture and dangerous power of violent far-right extremism. Uruguay has demonstrated to these countries and the world that politics can be pursued without extremism, hatred and polarization.

There will never be an Uruguayan Trump or Bolsonaro.

The author is an expert in Latin American affairs