Does it happen to you that you now have lower expectations from the Government Cabinet than before? With each election, my enthusiasm wanes and I apply that sentence that my father repeated to me in every depressive process: “Don’t expect too much from people. Better wait until they surprise you.” Because if the expectations are high, spite could be even greater.

This has happened to me again in recent days, when I see the drip irrigation that the new presidential task force has become. And although I didn’t often hear the clichéd phrase that I will rule with the best men and women, wherever they are, the saying that “no one from the previous government will remain” was heard again. And in order to fulfill this last claim, one often makes the mistake of opting for a second or third party, from the same ideological and political line that was already in place, which even meant the secret surrender of institutions to antagonistic political sectors. Or perpetuate corruption.

With the high level of demand for Masters and PhDs that education policy has demanded from the academy over the last two decades, has it been looked to in the search for ministers, under-secretaries, principals or governors? Have you contacted unions, universities and polytechnics in this investigation? Or at least, has the data on the academic success of the many, thousands, who received scholarships paid for by the money of all Ecuadorians for post-graduate studies abroad, which in many cases did not mean a happy return to work, been reviewed?

I think I am writing these lines in the middle of a deep attack of distrust… I try to remain optimistic…

And if none of that is taken into account, as is evident, since the same people who sought doctorates, accumulated honoris causa and politically used post-graduate quotas abroad are in power, then it is confirmed that they are not necessarily looking for the best. In the current ministerial drip-drip irrigation, an increasingly exalted element seems to prevail: blind and unfettered devotion, along with the teaching of what is lacking. It is understandable, seeing at the same time the pitfalls and upheavals that are happening in politics, but it does not guarantee the efficiency that is urgently needed by Ecuador, which has fallen into a deep economic crisis and a crisis of coexistence.

Then another thought occurs to me: just as a candidate is required to present his plan of government and can (never happened despite the evidence) be removed from office for not following it, the candidate should be required to disclose the names of the main figures of the government.who would be your working team. Politics, economy and security, at least in those three fundamental sectors. Because the role of those who will manage the country in these areas is so important that they should not be there without being co-responsible for the electoral success of whoever appoints them. Let the ministerial definition cease to be an unknown in which loyalty flirting with complicity and intertwined with unconditionality could prevail.

I think I am writing these lines in the midst of a deep attack of distrust. However, I try to remain an incorrigible optimist because my country needs that. (OR)