Bernal, post-election inventory

The heads of the political parties and the most exalted exponents of realpolitic appear to have learned little or nothing from the recently held elections. This is unsettling, given that the absence of a true democratic rule of law will aggravate the situation through which the Panamanian people are going.

The outgoing government leaves us with an extensive litany of broken promises, of destroyed illusions, of frustrated hopes, of the restriction of liberties, of the decline in the quality of life, of increased criminality and a considerable growth of privileges for some and of the political corruption that goes hand in hand with impunity under the shadow of nepotism, accompanied by a very long chain of increasing unemployment, suicides, an ever-increasing prison population, of price increases of everything for everyone --- not only for the so-called “basic family basket” but for telephone bills, electricity, municipal services, gasoline, public transportation, insurance, medicine and, above all, taxes.

All of the above, although they refuse to admit it, was massively reflected at the ballot boxes, and has left a wake of “repressive manic depression” among many high officials who strutted around in their positions without looking at the unpopularity of their governmental policies.

The post-electoral inventory that our election results have brought us must not be limited to a simple score sheet of who won or who lost. It also includes the “Afudollars” scandal, the infamy of CEMIS and the imposition of the Supreme Court magistrates.

The election results set before us the “dismissed dismissal” of the HP-1430 helicopter case --- never before seen --- and the “freezer dollars” of the loyal functionary who “doesn’t believe in banks.”

In the poll results we are shown the “discretional funds” and the gutting of the Transparency Law, as well as the government’s denial to the right of information and the freedom of expression.

Also, the multiple rigged bidding processes or hand-picked contracts, some of which (very playfully, for sure!) proliferated scant months before the election; the miraculous Fiduciary Fund; the National Bank’s “financing” of bus driver “leaders;” the whirlpool of the PARVIS housing fund, the use of Seguro Social as a petty cash box by the central government, the revolving agricultural policies, the addenda in favor of Cable & Wireless and Union Fenosa, the obedient postures toward the Free Trade Area of the Americas and the International Monetary Fund --- they’re not left out in the results of May 2.

And what to say about the diversity of uninvestigated contraband? This is, drugs, cigarettes, stolen cars, fireworks and arms.

Also in the post-electoral inventory, reflected at the polls, are the votes of those who rejected the wiretaps about the “fax that scans” and “destabilization plans,” the fake cedulas of an Electoral Tribunal desperate in its “sí se puede” and soaked in the political parties’ electoral reforms, along with the tax tortures that are approaching in the coming months.

But there’s more coming, as if more than 50 months weren’t enough to strip away the public trust through their corruption and impunity.

The poll results, which had been expected, couldn’t have been less spectacular. They just showed us the cynicism and hypocrisy of those who mocked the more than 100,000 signatures collected by the Ecumenical Committee on the petitions for a constituent assembly.

With the election behind us, it’s once again up to the Panamanian people to raise the banners of moral and political restoration in our society by way of the demand for a constituent assembly, without any letup in the permanent rejection of the abuses of authority and the corruption that the mockers practice and promote.

Also in this section:
Rumsfeld, Iraq and the War on Terrorism
Lerner, Rumsfeld, sexual abuse and Iraq
Fisher, Coming full circle
Weisbrot, The economy and India's elections
Jackson, Suppress the Mireyista thugs
Bernal, Post-election inventory

opinion

Post-election inventory