Bernal, Mirage of reforms

The mirage is an illusion of the imagination. The Diccionario de la Real Academia de la Lengua also defines it as an "optical illusion due to the total reflection of light when it passes through layers of air of different densities, in which distant objects give an inverted image, as if the soil below gives off the reflection of water, which happen mainly on desert plains and in the upper atmosphere over the surface of the sea."

It is not accidental, then, that the content of the recently announced tax reforms have immediately become part of the national landscape like an illusion of the imagination, like one more mirage. And it couldn't have been otherwise, from the moment that the outgoing and incoming governments agreed to reforms of the militarist constitution in order to avoid constitutional change via a constituent assembly, which is what the society, the state and the country urgently need. Let us not forget that the constitutional changes form the structural point of reference for the reasons behind the proposed tax reforms, for the free trade agreement that's being negotiated behind the backs of the population and with worrisome secrecy, for the upcoming reforms to the Social Security fund and for the planned expansion of the Panama Canal.

From the moment at which the real agents of power, assisted by the circles and pressure groups that aspire to walk the halls of power and the never-absent arrivistes and opportunists, opted to impede constitutional change for the purpose of a truly social rule of law and preferred to, as pillars of Panama's political organization, reject human dignity, equality and solidarity, there then resulted an unending illusion of thinking that the proposed reforms --- and those to be proposed --- will serve as a point of departure to promote the operation of a just social order and to guarantee the effectiveness of the principles, rights and duties consecrated in modern constitutions.

Every public administration must be presided over by a material justice, which must serve as the reference point for a distributive justice. In this field, let's not fail to see that the reforms are a mirage because they drag along with them --- in form and in fundamental essence --- a structural ethical fault, not only because they would promote a tax equality that would maintain the inequality in terms of social values, but also because the constitutional framework preserves the forms of authoritarian governments.

I must reiterate this point, that the forms of authoritarian governments that continue to preside over local institutions are only concerned with growing the spaces of state power and with the business or monetary aspects of public administration. Let's not fail to see that the promoters of the tax reforms are the "same old, same old." Or is it that we haven't learned the lesson over 20 years?

The people of the present government, like those who preceded them, are only interested in the state as a seat of domination. The urgent consideration of social values in the public administration is not part of their agenda, which also does not include real projects, with true space and scope for discussion and civic evaluation, with respect to that matter.

The constitutional reforms were imbued with relativism and utilitarianism. We can't hope that the tax reforms will not come with vanishing principles of solidarity and equity, because we're dealing with the same model of "aggressive and impersonal management that prevails in the economy" and also falls over politics and education.

Nor can we hope that it will come out any different in the next reforms that they're preparing for us --- from their camps in the social desert of the government --- in the matters of the Social Security Fund, the University of Panama and the courts.

Every day we get farther away from, rather than closer to, a true constitutional order. Every day more of the liberties and rights that belong to human beings in the 21st century are abandoned. Every day more dignity is sold out due to a lack of principles and the absence of social responsibility and respect for the human condition. If we go on like this, living in mirages between conformism and reformism, we won't have much farther to go before we end up turning from citizens into camels.

Also in this section:
Torrijos, Education is the key to Panama's advancement
Bernal, Mirages of reform
Leis, More proposals for Seguro Social
Toro Hardy, The man the Colombians grabbed in Venezuela
DeLong, Will Uncle Sam allow a China-Venezuela oil pact?
WWF, Bad news for hawksbill turtles
Miller, CARICOM on the situation in Haiti
Betto, Scenes reminiscent of The Great Flood
Avnery, Who envies Abu-Mazen?
Jackson, Specialist Graner, Lieutenant Calley and General Yamashita

opinion

The mirage of reform