MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th September, 2022) After a new proposed constitution that could bring various progressive changes failed to pass a referendum in Chile, a young college graduate shared with Sputnik why her generation would continue to push for similar reforms in the country.
When Francisca Hale completed her 4-year journalism program and finally graduated from her university last week, she had high hopes that the new constitution filled with progressive social changes, such as guarantees on women' rights, could pave the way for an exciting new beginning of her career.
"The new constitution was the first constitution that had gender equality. It actually talks about gender equality in all personal aspects, like work aspects. It would have been the first in the world. That would have been a very good change, because, you know, women have been treated like minorities, even though we're like 50% of the planet," Hale, 24, told Sputnik.
Unfortunately, for those who could have benefited from the proposed changes in the new constitution like Hale, the results of the referendum on Sunday turned out to be disappointing. About 62% of voters in Chile rejected the proposed constitution, while 38% voted in favor, according to the Chile Electoral Service.
In addition to improving women's rights, the proposed constitution would have also brought progressive reforms on environmental protection, animal rights, LBGTQ rights and the rights of indigenous people in Chile, Hale added.
Despite the impact on her personal life, the young college graduate was more concerned about other underprivileged groups who missed this great opportunity to improve their rights and life conditions.
"Even as a woman, as a queer woman, and also a woman who has mental illness. That is also something the new constitution talks about, you know, the importance of mental health. I think I may be underprivileged in some aspects, but I also think that there are people who need more help than I do. They have the right to ask for it. They need to be stopped being seen as a burden. For example, the new constitution talked about people with autism and the neurodivergent people, who were usually seen as a burden," she said.
The latest push for social changes and reforms in Chile started in October 2019, when a planned subway fare hike triggered a massive civil disobedient movement led by mostly young students who decided to express their anger by evading payment for the subway.
The movement led to violent clashes between young protesters and the police, as a number of subway stations were lit on fire and several shops were looted. Sebastian Pinera, who was the Chilean president at the time, declared a state of emergency and mobilized the nation's military in a an attempt to restore order.
Although the social unrest in 2019 did not lead to Pinera's resignation, his grip on power was significantly weakened in the following years as his right leaning political stance stood in the way of the younger generation's call for social changes. After the Pandora papers were leaked in October last year, Pinera faced a formal impeachment that failed to pass Chile's Senate.
In the general elections in Chile in November last year, a young left-leaning candidate, Gabriel Boric, defeated a right-wing candidate to become the nation's youngest ever president to be elected into office at the age of 35.
After a national plebiscite in 2020 approved the decision to draft new constitution to replace the existing one that was formed under the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, Boric led the efforts in pushing for various progressive changes to be included in the new proposed constitution.
The progressive social changes Boric has been advocating received wide support from the nation's younger generation including Hale.
However, the rejection of the new proposed constitution demonstrated the challenges for such changes to be accepted by the majority of the population in the country.
From Hale's perspective, the right-wing party's public campaign against the proposed constitution took advantage of misinformation to play with people's fears for changes.
"For the right-wing campaign, there was a lot of misinformation, which, I personally think, is why the right-wing won this time. We're not moving forward with this draft. That makes me really sad. There was a lot of insecurity about what's going to happen. A lot of people misunderstood that like:' Oh, just because we rejected this draft. It means we're going to do a better one.' No, that's not the plan at all. We're kind of stuck in a limbo," she said.
The journalism student gave an example on how the right-wing campaign tried to discredit the proposed changes in introducing sex education at an earlier age.
"For example, the new constitution talked about sex education in a sense of starting it early on, such as explaining to kindergartners about their body parts and what consent is. It's not actually trying to explain to kindergartners something they wouldn't understand. But there was a very dirty campaign (from the right-wing). They were outside kindergarten classes and giving a flyer to parents showing a cartoon of a little girl playing with sex toys, saying 'oh, the new constitution is going to let me do this.' It's insane. Even though it's 100% false information, that is the point. I personally think it was a very dirty campaign," Hale said.
Nevertheless, as Hale prepares to start her career as a reporter, she hopes to bring more facts to the larger population in Chile.
Compared to the existing constitutions in a large number of countries in the world, the proposed draft in Chile included social changes that would have made it one of the most progressive constitutions in the world.
"It honestly makes me super sad that we fumbled the bag. It was almost like an international failure at this point. We just have to keep moving forward," Hale said.
The young college graduate believed that her generation would continue their efforts to advocate for similar social changes, despite the recent setback.
"I think change is inevitable. It's going to happen whether people like it or not. I'm hoping for the changes that would benefit people who are underprivileged in some aspects. That's because we live in a society that's centric around people who don't need help and people who are not underprivileged. The changes have to be for the people and by the people. I personally just don't care about what rich white men have to say, because they're the most privileged people in the world. I hope the changes can represent the people who have been waiting for such changes for many years," she said.
Hale also explained why her generation had been the driving forces for changes.
"I think younger people are always the voice of change, because older people are very used to what they used to do, no matter it benefited them or not. And I think younger people strive for a better environment. That's because we have to strive for our future, while the older generations have already lived. I feel like older generations need peace for their elder years, but they also need to understand that we need to also strive for ourselves," she said.
