Should Panamanians postpone all arguments for the pope’s visit here?

There are calls — for the sakes of politeness, Panama’s reputation, the economy, security against subversives and terrorists and what have you — to put off political disputes while the many thousands of pilgrims and Pope Francis whom they have come to see and hear are in this country. 

We could embarrass ourselves in the eyes of the world in many ways. Panama has a talent for that which surfaces from time to time anyway.

However, retirees say that during the papal visit they will continue their protests for a raise in their benefits. Members of the local Venezuelan community are annoyed at the Vatican’s decision to be represented at Nicolás Maduro’s inauguration — even though the opposition that most of that community here supports decided to boycott the elections. A lot of other people, some due to basic theological differences, others incensed by the child abuse scandals that have been rocking the church for years, are taking this as the season to say nasty things about the Catholic Church or its pontiff.

Nobody should lose his or her freedom of expression on account of a religious event. As a matter of law — if Panama actually does have the rule of law — no such ban could be legally enforced. Righteous criticism of religious authorities is at least as old as Christianity. If you look at world or Panamanian history, it’s something for which many people died.

However, as a matter of persuading people to support a cause, it’s smart politics to tone down any protests as the World Youth Day pilgrimage unfolds. It’s a matter of ordinary politeness to do so.

What’s the biggest danger? We will probably know that in hindsight. But one foreseeable problem would be that one or more of the branches of government would use the distraction of the papal visit to do some infamous thing. Better if the National Assembly and the Supreme Court hold no sessions, and President Varela issue no decrees, while Pope Francis is here.

They shot the man dead. But not his dream.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a man of rather ordinary frailties, a mortal who could be and was killed. The spiritual heirs of those who hated him have finally placed one of their champions in the White House.

Lots of damage has been and is being done, but that’s likely to be ephemeral. For every white supremacist there are two Americans who have taken the most salient points of King’s message to heart.

We pay our respects on what would have been the birthday of a man who was slain nearly 51 years ago. But wherever there are Americans, his truth goes marching on. 

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Let’s behave well for our young visitors

 The kinds of ugliness that might happen are predictable in our times and place. Young Catholic pilgrims from all over the world, coming to Panama for World Youth Day. The kids getting gouged on taxi and even bus fares. Businesses raising their prices for the occasion, mostly at the expense of people who live here but with this, that or the other excuse. Vile xenophobes venting against the young foreigners.

Mostly these young people will not have much money. But if they are treated will and enjoy their stay they may come back in a few years as more ordinary tourists with more money to spend.

 World Youth Day will be a fleeting event. It will not be a sufficient show of piety to maintain Juan Carlos Varela’s Panameñista Party in control of the presidential palace. It may, if things turn out right, be a worthwhile investment in that intangible but quite valuable asset, Panama’s reputation.

Be courteous, be helpful, be protective.  It’s not only the decent thing to do, it’s a necessary defense of Panama.

Continuing crimes against privacy and election integrity

In the run-up to the 2014 elections we learned that the Martinelli team was using a sophisticated computerized campaign list that contained data that could have only come from the government, which by law had a duty to keep that stuff confidential. Who was on the government payroll, who received which public benefits, who is related to whom, those sorts of things from the Electoral Tribunal and from the various ministries.

At the time the response was that Martinelli did not abuse the public trust in the way that it appeared, that such lists can be privately bought. But then, that would just mean the receipt of stolen property, if one wanted to look at it that way. Buying a list of stolen government data is still the illegal use of confidential information.

Ricardo Martinelli’s Electoral Prosecutor Eduardo Peñaloza could not be bothered. 

Now we have seen more than a million signatures submitted by independent candidates for president, and several of these hopefuls have submitted forged signatures of names taken from confidential Electoral Tribunal data. One candidate even admitted it, and a couple of others are likely to say that they paid these contractors to gather signature and know nothing about how they did it.

So the election crimes of 2014 continue into 2019, with little prospect of any serious and impartial investigation, let alone enforcement of our laws. It’s somewhere along the slippery slope from a flawed democracy to a failed state.

Bear in mind…

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Parties and elections in 2019 — or is it just a mirage?

by Marco A. Gandásegui, hijo

The economic powers, after the destabilization caused by the 1989 US invasion, managed to find a balance between different political forces. Each of the three traditional political parties represent clans whose goal is to reach the presidency to share the wealth of the people. Despite all the obstacles introduced to the Electoral Code, there is still a kind of chaos in the struggle for political power. Although we know who the presidential candidates are, there are no polls that say who the favorites are.

As little is known, some companies have privately reported results of surveys that they have conducted. If the elections were in early January the PRD candidate, Laurentino Cortizo, would win with 36% of valid votes. Rómulo Roux, from the CD, would follow with 23%. Third would be José Blandón of the Panameñista Party with 13%. The FAD, the party of the popular sectors and its candidate, Saúl Méndez, would have 5%. The rest would be distributed among independent candidates. If Cortizo does not make mistakes (according to the criteria of the economic powers and the United States), he can win the May elections. If at any time the Cortizo track gets entangled, the experience of 2009 can be repeated. That’s when when Martinelli and Varela were summoned by the American Embassy to join forces to defeat the PRD’s Balbina Herrera. In 2019 that would be a combination between Roux and Blandón.

There is even a third option. If in the last stretch, the ‘traditional’ candidates lose the favor of the economic powers and Washington, they can raise the flag of the independent candidate Ana Matilde Gómez. In the end, the campaign can focus on ‘demonizing’ the traditional parties and their candidates by associating them with corruption, political patronage, deceits and even deaths that have occurred in 30 years of misgovernment. The economic powers have resources and networks with the capacity to create what seems to be chaos and, at the same time, it can make a mirage appear with the solution.

On a global scale, 2019 promises to be a very difficult year with tensions centered on the reaction of the US to the economic and geopolitical rise of the Peoples Republic of China. The effects of this struggle on Latin America are unpredictable. Brazil is sailing apparently rudderless and Mexico has a leader who thinks of his country for the first time in 80 years. Panama, in turn, faces the new year with elections in May and an economy that tends toward short-term stagnation.

Panamanian presidential elections offer no novelty. The economic powers and the US Embassy have limited the national debate to issues of no substance. From 1989 to now Panama has had six presidents, three political parties and a single government program: the neoliberal “Washington Consensus.” In May the same three neoliberal parties will clash. There will be a party representing the popular sectors — the FAD — and three independent candidates.

The three neoliberal parties — Partido Revolucionario Democrático (PRD), Cambio Democrático (CD) and Partido Panameñista — are considered “traditional'” since they are not only “neoliberals” they are also defined as “Pro Mundo beneficio.” They do not offer government programs to the extent that their proposals are known and practically written on stone. In the economic sphere, they promote flexibilization (informality) of the labor force and government regulation (intervention) which benefits the sectors that are part of the economic-financial power (transit, speculator and dispossessor). Socially, they favor reduction of public services (education, health, public safety, housing and others) that reduce income for the financial sector. Culturally, traditional parties promote globalization and its anti-national values.

Although they do not present government plans, traditional parties’ operatives consider it very important to monitor the behavior of the GDP and coordinate plans to administer the national budget. In close collaboration with the IMF and the World Bank, the political party that wins the elections arrogates the “right” to manage the budget by distributing the country’s wealth in a way that best determines the political correlation of forces. Although a large part of the citizens are not informed about the meaning of these elections, they sense it and do not want to miss out on some of the handouts that come with the so-called “election festival.”

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