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Defender of what?

by Miguel Antonio Bernal

The Ombudsman (Defensoria del Pueblo) was a stillborn Panamanian institution. Even so, the most perverse and malevolent sectors of the local political class have lost no opportunity to depreciate it.

What is the main defect of the Defensoria, according to them? That it can become a people?s institution, for the people, working with the people. For this reason they have always tried to distort, damage and twist the figure of the Ombudsman. They have reached their goal so far, with the votes of corrupt "legislathieves," depriving the citizens of a real instrument to build the necessary rule of law. They will have their way again, by forgetting that, at least in Panama, when the purpose is to establish organisms of democratization, to be perfectionist is not a luxury but a necessity.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789) teaches us that "? ignorance, oblivion and to despise human rights are the unique causes of public sins and of the corruption of governments." However, the "partidocracy" has been organizing itself to renew its attacks. This time it?s through the so-called "Pacto Meta" (between the PRD and PDC) against whatever possibility of allowing the citizens of this country to participate more actively and positively in the defense of democratic freedoms and human rights.

It is evident that there is not the slightest intention to allow the Defensoria del Pueblo to become a symbol of independent democratic identity, one that?s not subordinate to any of the political parties. Neither do they want this institution to defend, promote or proclaim human rights in their broadest sense.

When, in 1997, the law that created the Ombudsman?s office was approved, we warned that some members of the presidential commission had put on a masterful deception. Time has proved us right. Panamanians won?t have any institution other than the existing judicial system that can defend basic human rights against abuses by authorities. We won?t have an Ombudsman able to resist abuses of power against Panamanians? private property or honor, or able to seek respect for due process and the presumption of innocence, basic human rights for the poorest sectors, or the efficient administration of justice.

The future Ombudsman has already a name, a surname and, most important of all, a party. Also a mission: to make the Defensoria a bureaucratic and inefficient organism. When Socrates was asked about his motherland, he didn?t answer "I am of Athens," but rather, "I am of the world." When the new Ombudsman is called upon to answer the question "What do you defend?", we already know the answer: "my job," because it won?t be possible to say "the people."