The Bolivian president-elect is enjoying a high for the time being, writes Faiza Rady "We have won and a new page in Bolivia's history has been turned", said 46-year-old presidential contender Evo Morales to a raving crowd dancing in the streets of the Bolivian capital La Paz to celebrate the victory of their left-wing Aymara Indian candidate. Morales' campaign platform included: the nationalisation of strategic industries, free public health and education, the redistribution of land to those who work it and an end to neo-liberal policies. A former coca farmer, a trade unionist and leader of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), Morales claimed victory after former president Jorge Quiroga, a rightwing neo-liberal conservative mostly representing the rich eastern part of the country, conceded defeat on Sunday night. The two rival candidates couldn't be more different, both in ideology and style. US-educated, Quiroga worked as a high-level IBM executive prior to his brief ascent to the presidency in 2002. Cast true to type, he is of European descent, upper class, impeccably groomed and manicured and naturally reserved; while the dark-skinned indigenous president-elect sports jeans and t-shirts and projects his people's charisma and vibrancy of speech and manner. Still, the speed and ease of Morales' victory stunned even his own constituency of the poor and the working class. Sunday's early exit polls already gave Morales more than the 50 per cent he needed to capture the top job, though opinion polls had earlier projected he would only command 35 per cent of the vote. A high school dropout from a destitute family who lived in a one-room shack with no water or electricity, Morales will be Bolivia's first ever indigenous and working class president. In a country with a majority native population of 65 per cent hovering around or under the extreme poverty level of one dollar a day, his victory signals a historic turning point. "The people want change," says unemployed silver miner Bernadino Montesinos, who was quoted on Z-Net. "Foreigners have looted Bolivia's natural resources and traditional political parties do nothing for the people." Montesinos has a point. Since President Victor Paz Estenssoro started liberalising the economy in 1985, privatisation of the public sector resulted in widespread unemployment and creeping poverty. A byproduct of privatisation, downsizing the country's chief industry -- the tin sector -- led to the loss of 25,000 jobs since the early days of political reforms. Other industries collapsed altogether. Unable to withstand the onslaught of cheaper subsidised foreign dumping, Bolivia's fragile industrial base was rapidly dismantled in the 1990s. In the wake of unbridled privatisation, the gap between rich and poor increased. Besides being the poorest country in Central America, Bolivia also shows the highest level of income disparity. According to World Bank statistics, the average income disparity between the wealthiest fifth and the poorest fifth of Latin America's population is estimated at 30:1. In Bolivia, it is 90:1. The Bolivian poor evidently believe that Evo Morales will turn things around. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez agrees. Hailing the victory of an indigenous trade unionist and grassroots political activist, Chavez believes that "Bolivia is writing a new page in its history." Morales, in turn, pledged to ally himself with progressive anti-imperialist leaders in Latin America like Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro, whom he regards as his political mentors. On Tuesday, Morales vowed to make good on his campaign pledge to fight for his country's right to grow coca, a plant that is used to manufacture cocaine. Bolivia is the world's third largest producer of coca and is, as such, at the forefront of the US-launched coca eradication efforts in the region, dubbed Plan Dignidad (Dignity Plan). US aid to Central America is contingent on the enforcement of this plan. "There will be zero cocaine, zero drug cultivation, but not zero coca," said Morales, defending his people's nutritional use of the plant. "Long before coca was used to make cocaine, the indigenous people of the Andean region, the Aymara and Quechua, chewed coca leaves as a dietary supplement. The consumption of coca leaves and tea is part of the daily life of Bolivia's peasants, miners and workers. Plan Dignidad is seen as an attack on the indigenous people's way of life." Another of Morales' campaign pledge was to establish a people's constituent assembly, based on the Venezuelan model of grassroots democracy. Elected by the people, the assembly will draft a constitution which will be ratified through a referendum. Among other fundamental democratic rights, the assembly will legislate indigenous rights, nationalise the country's gas industry and enforce an agrarian reform that has been on the books since the 1952 peasant revolution. According to the 2005 UN Human Development Report, unequal distribution of land is a major contributing factor to income disparity and the prevalence of extreme poverty in Bolivia. Thus, 100 rich landowning families own a staggering 25 million hectares of land, while two million peasant families control a mere five million hectares. According to simple arithmetic this means that 100 large landowners own five times more land than two million small farmers. In addition to enforcing agrarian reforms, nationalising the gas sector -- or at the very least -- gaining a majority public control of its shares is crucial to the MAS agenda. Bolivia has vast natural gas resources, the second-largest in the world -- yet, with their per capita annual income of $890 Bolivians are the poorest people in Latin America. Since nationalisation and income redistribution is a priority for Morales, his constituency is banking on change. "Gas will be nationalised," promises Morales, adding that "the sanctity of contracts will be preserved." The president-elect sounds confident enough, but will he be able to deliver in the face of major opposition from the US-backed business and land-owning elites? This remains to be seen. Meanwhile, Morales and the Bolivian poor are enjoying a honeymoon.
