Ariel Sribman Mittelman *

Ideas and discourse are extremely important in politics. In some cases they explain a pre-existing reality; therefore it is necessary that they explain it well. In other cases, ideas and discourse to pre-exist reality and create it, so it is convenient for them to produce useful realities for the general interest. But ideas and discourses taken to certain extremes are dangerous, because they tend to collide with reality, which is almost always more elastic and heterogeneous than the rigid ideological molds to which they try to submit. And the danger is even greater when, faced with this conflict, those who struggle for power seek to impose ideology over reality. If the imposition of the main ideology is a conflicting phenomenon, it is understood when it is an undernourished ideology.

The multinational character of Bolivia is an ideological creation. Attention: it is neither more nor less than the unity of the Bolivian nation. In postmodern terms, both are social constructions. Unless a Bolivian’s blood test reveals genes different from those of the rest of humanity, it will be necessary to accept that their nationality (whether uni- or pluri-) is a category with arbitrary boundaries drawn by the human mind. These are the limits that can and do change often.

So far there is nothing different from what is happening in the rest of the world. The differences begin when we see that it is a messianic multinational ideology full of gaps. Messianic because happiness is expected from it, as if it were the arrival of the messiah. Instead, certain political and social leaders promised the people that multi-ethnicity would be a universal cure-all. Therefore, it is placed everywhere as a charm. It is enough to review the Bolivian constitution of 2009 to find a multinational state, a multinational government, a multinational legislative assembly, a multinational constitutional court, a multinational electoral body, multinational identities, multinational diversity, multinational consciousness of the people, the multinational character of the cabinet of ministers. .. Like King Midas, multinationality turns everything it touches into gold.

On the other hand, it is full of gaps because the Bolivian theory of multi-nationality, from its emergence in the early 1980s until today, has not managed to overcome certain contradictions or establish a series of solid foundations, first-order definitions. Without going further, he did not explain the difference between a nation, a nationality, an ethnic group and a people. He did not explain why some communities would belong to one and other communities to another category. And this is not an insignificant problem: their status as a nation is what would (supposedly) give them the right to self-determination. In other words, it would have relevant legal and political consequences.

In reality, at this point the defenders of Bolivian multi-ethnicity fall into the same error as the Catalan separatists: they insist on the justification that their communities constitute a nation and that this nature gives them the right to self-determination. However, the Charter of the United Nations does not speak of self-determination of nations, but of peoples. With that, it might suit them to pursue other, more profitable goals and give up the mantra of the nation, as good as it sounds and useless.

On March 29, the Bolivian government approved Supreme Decree No. 4900 “approving the Manual on the Use of the Bicentennial Commemorative Sign of the Plurinational State of Bolivia”. Therefore, he insists on the usage that derives from Law no. 1347 of 2020: Law on the Bicentennial of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. Bicentennial of a multinational state? Wasn’t it founded in 2009?

One might think that the writers of these texts have lost their enthusiasm for plurinationalizing everything. However, this is where the contradictions of all ideologies and conflicts with reality come to the fore. First, the body in charge of organizing the ceremony is called the National Council, and the guidelines to be followed are the National Strategic Plan. Suddenly, multinationality disappears, without really knowing why the Council and the Plan are not multinational.

Second, the commemoration of the bicentenary offers a scenario where it is very difficult for any ruler to resign. Not even if, as in the case of Bolivia, it is about celebrating the birth of a European-style republic, which in many respects took over the institutional model of the United States, the black beast of multinational anti-imperialism. (It is interesting to ask, for example, why today multinational Bolivia still has a president and a vice president: these are not institutions copied exactly from Aymara institutionalism).

This celebration includes celebrating the birth of a republic whose name was deleted in the 2009 Multinational Constitution because “republic” connoted the oppression of indigenous peoples. The republic was oppression, the multinational state is dignity. But the multinational state is barely 14 years old, while the republic will turn 200. Without a doubt, 200 is more magnificence that 14. To raise the brightness of the bicentenary, therefore, and to take away from us what we celebrated.

King Midas also turned food he tried to put into his mouth into gold. Dying of hunger and thirst, he begged Dionysus for help, who gave him such power.

In 2022 Chile overwhelmingly rejected the proposal of the Constituent Assembly. One of the fundamental reasons was the multi-nationality introduced by the text. Right now, the creators of the new Constitution are engaged in saving the (pl)national issue in its draft. Meanwhile, Diaguitas demands that Argentina be recognized as a multinational. On the other side of the world, Australia is preparing a referendum to introduce an advisory body into the Constitution to give Aboriginal communities the right to vote. Nothing multinational. It is not that the Australian option is better: what is relevant is that it shows that there are other ways of dealing with a similar claim. The imitation of multinationality is tempting but dangerous: like all imitations, it heralds sharp conflicts between ideas, discourses and reality.

Dionysus told Mida to wash in the Pactolo river. After she touched it, the river was filled with golden nuggets. (OR)

* Ariel Sribman Mittelman is a political scientist and professor of Latin American studies at Stockholm University. Doctor of political science from the University of Salamanca. Specialist in succession and vice presidency in Latin America.