“Don’t ask what
your country can do for you
Ask what you
you can do for her”
As strange as it may seem, there are practical coincidences, not political ones, between António José Seguro and Pedro Passos Coelho. António José Seguro and Pedro Passos Coelho, after a period of political activity in their respective parties, both went into their private lives, with professional choices in the areas of Teaching and business. Afterwards, they were both silent.
Seguro returned to active political life and, with courage, ran for president of the Republic. He won the elections.
Pedro Passos Coelho was/is in Teaching and after a long period of political silence, he is now rehearsing a new path on his existential path. He has every right to do so if he understands that the country is not on the right path and the Government is not having the success and pro-activity that was expected of it. Pedro Passos Coelho is a reformist. Think about the country from a distance of decades and understand that “we’re not going to go there that way”….
Not “going there” means not transporting the country to a modern, more developed, socially more balanced reality.
This can only be achieved by changing what needs to be changed. Luís Montenegro started well, but now…. he seems to have run aground in the harsh reality of sailing on this huge transatlantic liner that is Portugal.
It’s strange to hear from commentators and personalities who don’t know what structural reforms are. Well, these are simple changes, some more complicated than others.
Regarding changes and security issues, allow me to tell you an episode that happened to me. A few days ago I wanted to go back to Mouraria to the famous Zé das Iscas tavern (skip the advertising) specializing in the so-called whose. I tried to make a reservation and the number was deactivated. I was surprised! As I knew that the owner has a second Zé das Iscas on Rua Gomes Freire, I booked it and went there. I asked one of the employees what had happened to the Mouraria unit. They told me that it had gone bankrupt because Portuguese people and tourists stopped visiting it, given the insecurity that exists in that area. And there went Zé das Iscas da Mouraria. This, dear readers, is not a perception of insecurity. The restaurant’s bankruptcy is an economic consequence resulting from the insecurity of an area rife with drugs and where a few days ago there was a shooting in broad daylight.
I confess that I don’t understand what locked police officers do in police stations! Why are there no patrols in cities? In this case in Lisbon. Do they have bureaucratic tasks? Notices of fines and courts? But isn’t it possible to hire clerks for these tasks and free up the police for what their role should be? Patrolling, movement in cities, surveillance, prevention. Damn, a police officer’s work tool is a gun and a baton, not a Bic ballpoint pen…
Here is a change that should take place in the police and it is a simple structural measure.
Then, of course, we have more complicated things. What will Social Security be like for our children and grandchildren in the future? What will reforms look like in 30 years? If nothing is done, they will be reduced. Today we have 1.7 active citizens for every retired person. In 30 years we will have an asset for every retiree. This is with the population decreasing and the elderly increasing… Therefore, changing Social Security now is a structural measure that safeguards future generations. This requires political determination.
This is not to say that the Government has not already tried changes in some areas of the national whole. New PPPs are planned in Health. Taxes have been reduced, but the current value of the IRC for companies, at 19%, is not competitive with the Irish one, which is 15% for most companies.
How can the silence of the Minister of Justice be explained by the disgrace that is the time it takes for a case to be resolved? And what is the Minister of Administrative Modernization doing to simplify a bureaucratic machine that blocks all initiatives, whether business, management or citizenship. Areas that need to be renovated.
Therefore, what is being done is not enough to obtain growth values that ensure the future of the next generations. Structural measures are necessary and in this aspect Pedro Passo Coelho is right. And the desire for change must be shared by all Portuguese people.
“Don’t ask what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for it.” A famous phrase by John Fitzgerald Kennedy that the country must embrace and I am sure that António José Seguro and Pedro Passos Coelho subscribe in full.
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