This society for decades has turned its back on itself, denying truths to live among lies, holding with its narrative a containment mesh to avoid falling into the void, making its progress a kind of miracle that overlaps illegality, to impunity, to corruption, to violence, to the economy of war, to inequality.
The moment for reflection and boredom arrived and materialized in a popular election that this Sunday brings Gustavo Petro Urrego to power.
One affirmation is widely heard by Colombians: the country will be in different hands.
But what is it to be different?
From the hand of Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez, people from unknown geographies do not arrive, or with strange customs with whom they do not share a language, or a flag.
Those who arrive are Colombians who have had fewer opportunities, who have seen their rights violated, who have had few microphones turned on so that their version of life counts.
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The inauguration of Gustavo Petro as president of Colombia, live
Seen without the ideology of the extremes, those who assume the task of governing in the 22nd year of the 21st century, are those who, before the centralist gaze of "the usual ones", consider as those "others", those who do not have on their list of telephones with the contacts of the political elites because they do not know and do not recognize each other.
There are many accumulated years in which "the usual ones" have pointed to "the others" with their fingers, from a distance, seeing "the ones over there", "those people" as simple spectators and recipients of their self-protagonism .
Citizens considered as simple applause committees.
An attitude that created a dividing barrier that became a political habit.
History fully accounts for this with the bipartisanship of the fifties, or the forced multiparty system of the rest of the 20th century until now, the beginning of the 21st.
This political habit of excluding "the others" triggered a process of degradation in the recognition of the concept of Nation.
Those who were not from the circle or who did not attain the education that, in the opinion of the system, granted the skills and knowledge required to govern were disqualified.
This disqualification deepened when they passed to the identification as suspects, and from that suspicion directly to the list of enemies and as enemies to the irrational argument that led to violence.
But the paths of civility are finally traveled in pre-modern societies like ours.
The guerrillas wanted to take power, and the end of their claim - which lasted five decades - is a Peace Agreement that served as a starting point to legitimize those "others" to open up the space without fear of the label.
In the contradictions of the Colombian miracle, through the vote and not the gun, the "others" are assuming governance.
This is the challenge.
In Colombia, the great reforms necessary for the modernization of public management have not been carried out, as well as the cultural changes that transform peoples.
In the last 30 years, with a Constitution that emerged from political agreements, there has been a great vacuum of moral authority of the presidents and political leaders who, with good will in some cases, remained lukewarm so as not to risk generating opportunities for change that would bring equal rights to those "others", frustrating the inclusive spirit of the Constitution.
This process isolated "the usual" from the periphery, from the base, from people, from victims, from women, from blacks, from indigenous people.
They moved away from understandings labeling fatalities as inevitable, their cultural expressions as eccentricities or oddities, or seeing as curiosities the daily lives of searching and survival, and while the State did not reach the towns, corregimientos, some new "others" emerged. with an accumulation of frustration.
If the place of birth was remote, in the province, and people thought or lived differently from "the usual" they immediately became "other" and over the years, a moment in history came that, when it determines the change, it is infallible, plus the information and the rhizomatic effect of social networks,
Being a majority implies a great responsibility, and that is what all Colombians today ask of Gustavo Petro, that he be responsible with his government actions and with the way of communicating them, of sharing them, that he be serious in international relations, that he be consistent with the realities of the economy and that it be creative within the constitutional framework to put Colombia on a path of true progress.
That breaks the vicious circle and does not turn "the usual ones" into new "others".
That the national agreement that today seems to give it governability is not a delirious frivolity of greatness, but a real greatness, that it achieves the required reforms, with more realism than symbolism.
It takes a grounded Petro, leader,
pragmatic to advance in the transformation and change of a State that has pachydermia and drowsiness as its characteristic.
This purpose collides with the implicit belief that many of those who voted for Petro harbor in their hearts that they will be better than “the usual ones”.
This expectation is based on assuming that they are better people, that they are more honest, that they make better decisions, that they know how to understand a reality that others have ignored, that they can achieve equality, equity, justice, peace, prosperity and happiness.
These promises are not minor.
Being “other” takes more effort.
The bar of excellence will be higher.
Not having the experience of governing demands humility and a lot of empathy if the moment is of union and not of a new exclusion.
And being better is a higher requirement.
A serious matter, very serious.
Wishing for it and proclaiming it will not solve the problems.
The promised peace is far away and the journey is full of thorns, ill-wishers, opponents, and also enemies.
Although the symbols and new faces that arrive in our reality will serve to breathe other airs, - quite contaminated with the discredit of the insipid government that ends - they will not solve overnight the anxiety for improvement that the streets demand.
All mandated changes bring illusions and opportunities.
We have always been the same, we just didn't recognize each other.
The period of history that begins today comes with a wide-angle lens that broadens the vision of the country, includes the Nation, summons the periphery and mixes it with the center.
From now on Gustavo Petro and his cabinet will no longer be considered as "the others" because they have come to power.
Not entering the category of "the usual" is the great challenge of a mandate that is proclaimed popular and that promises real change.
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