editorial

The government, making some adjustments in the course of a whirlwind process, has raised our taxes. One way or another, it had to be done.

On a several levels, however, it would have been better to have done it in other ways.

The original proposal bore hallmarks of improvisation, such as wording that was confusing but didn’t have to be and mechanisms designed with the reasonable aim of thwarting evasion but not well thought out in terms of what they would do to certain kinds of businesses.

Then sorting the insincere, opportunistic and whining criticism from the points well taken became a difficult task, given the whirlwind nature of the presentation, committee hearings and amendment processes. Some changes were made --- maybe not the best ones --- and the main fault in this regard lay in the procedure used. But of course the Torrijos administration’s methods were chosen precisely so that procedural knots, self-serving nonsense disguised as high-minded public debate and all the other corny tricks that have played such major roles in distorting our tax system to the point where major changes were required would not block this effort.

Tax reform may have been a high-stakes game, but the risks and prizes are nowhere near as great as in the next major economic measures to come. Social Security reforms will be presented, debated and passed starting right after Carnival. There is a good chance that when the National Assembly meets in regular session again in March, at the top of their agenda will be a proposed free trade agreement with the United States.

Seguro has been the subject of a wide-ranging public debate for some time, in which much of the business sector has intransigently demanded privatization schemes that would put workers’ retirement pensions into the hands of the usual rabiblanco families, and much of the labor movement has intransigently resisted any reforms that would be at the expense of working people. In this debate the mainstream corporate media, which count among their managers and owners people with stakes in the consortia that want to privatize the pension fund, have added a note of hysteria by publishing pseudo-scientific analyses that project the economic recession of 1998 to 2002 indefinitely into the future rather than taking a longer view of Seguro’s actuarial problems.

With Seguro, there is no need for another round of dialogues and discussions of the type we have seen in recent years. There needs to be political leadership that offers a sensible proposal that takes the best ideas from the various competing plans. Labor and management need to negotiate a compromise based on such a proposal instead of shouting slogans at one another.

On the subject of a free trade agreement there needs to be far more public debate than the Seguro Social issue would entail.

First, we need a full discussion that starts from scratch because the talks between Panama and the United States have taken place behind closed doors, although with cryptic public pronouncements and partial leaks from the negotiating teams. Despite all the full-page newspaper ads by groups like the rice growers, Panama really hasn’t had an informed debate on the numerous and often complex issues that will be in any free trade pact.

Moreover, the stakes in a free trade agreement would surely have more profound effects on Panamanian society than either the tax or Seguro Social reforms.

The agricultural changes that the American side wants would shut down major parts of Panama’s rural economy, driving more people from the countryside into the cities and driving more landless farmers to try their luck at slashing and burning farms out of national parks and indigenous comarcas. The changes would convert classes of small business owners into Wal-Mart employees. They would make American-owned intellectual properties sacrosanct for Panamanians and transfer Panamanian-owned inventions, ideas and traditions to the most rapacious American pirates. They would raise Panama’s medicine prices and health care costs toward the astronomical US rates. They would severely curtail the democratic right of the Panamanian people to change economic policies that don’t suit this country.

From such sketchy reports as we have, it would appear that the Torrijos administration is resisting many of the most outrageous Bush administration demands. But because we have been for the most part kept in the dark it would be both unfair and provocative to use the procedures we have seen in the tax reform debate and will see in the Social Security reform process when considering a free trade deal with the United States.

To a much greater extent than was the case with the tax reform package, Seguro Social and free trade with the USA are likely to be “debated” with street blockades, strikes and other militant tactics. How bad it gets will depend first on the contents of the government proposals, but also largely on the ways that they are presented and discussed.

Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.

Richard Wright

Nothing has really happened until it has been recorded.

Virginia Woolf

Here's all you have to know about men and women: women are crazy, men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid.

George Carlin

Back to top

Financial services at Finansbanken --- http://www.finansbanken.dk/english/index.html
Build a home in Las Cumbres with Villa Concordia --- http://villaconcordia-pma.com/
Make the Executive Hotel your headquarters in Panama City --- http://www.executivehotel-panama.com
Let Alegria Web Design handle your Internet needs --- http://www.alegriawebdesign.com