opinion

Tourism Minister (more or less) Rubén Blades isn’t spending so much time in recording studios of late, but something he did last year has won him some honors now. Teaming up with his former Seis del Solar band mate Oscar Hernández’s group, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, to write one song and sing four tracks on “Across 110th Street,” he had a hand in winning this year’s Grammy for best salsa or merengue album.

(And let me in passing register my disappointment with the people who run the Grammies, who at one time put the sounds that Blades makes into a make-believe “tropical music” category. Now they merely fail to recognize that Afro-Cuban rooted salsa and the distinctly Dominican merengue are different genres, each with its own excellent artists worthy of being separately recognized at the Grammies.)

Time will tell, but at this early point in the current administration's term it looks like Martín Torrijos has made some good appointments, Blades being one of them. The Grammy stands or falls on its musical merits, but it’s also a symbol the sort of team that the president has assembled.

To the extent that he can make himself the wedge that gets a lot of other Panamanian musicians of various genres onto stages before North American, Western European and Pacific Rim audiences, Blades would bring a lot more tourists and retirees down to Panama. But of course, most of his work days are understandably taken up by other important if mundane chores. We already knew that the IPAT director was a gifted entertainer and a well educated lawyer too. Balanced against that, it’s hard to deny that he was a failure as a party boss and a most inept campaigner. Now let’s see what sort of public administrator he is.

Another of the stars in the Torrijos cabinet, Housing Minister Balbina Herrera, is not unknown as a public executive. She served as mayor of San Miguelito for several years before moving on to the legislature. Balbina, educated in Panama as an agricultural engineer, is the ultimate machine politician, having worked her way up from student groups and volunteer wardheeling to the top of the PRD. She carries sufficient political baggage that those who wish to say things about her that are both nasty and truthful shall not want. No rancor is necessary for a serious journalist to observe that she doesn’t seem the get the notion of a free and independent press as every citizen’s right. No Ivy League schools appear on her CV, and unlike some of her better educated colleagues, she has never put on airs about doctrates that she doesn’t have. The important thing is that Balbina Herrera tends to get things done. Having watched her act various roles for more than a decade, I don’t see anybody in the PRD who’s more competent in public affairs.

The new Attorney General, Ana Matilde Gómez, also looks like someone special in her first days on the job. It would be easy for her to look good in comparison with her predecessor, but I expect that at the end of the day we’ll have a lot more than that to say in her favor.

It’s easy enough to be skeptical about the best and the brightest. Rubén Blades will sooner or later face the reality that he can only do so much, especially but not only because Panama’s tourism business depends in part upon factors beyond this country’s control. Our housing problems are many and huge, for Balbina Herrera or anyone else. Our justice system is corrupt and dysfunctional, despite the best efforts of many good people who work in it, and let it be known --- I think to her credit --- that the last time Gómez worked in the Public Ministry it chewed her up and spit her out.

Martín himself doesn’t really bring such compelling qualifications to his job. A degree from Texas A&M and executive experience running a fast food outlet and as Vice-Minister of Government & Justice for a few months don’t count for nothing, but Torrijos is not president because of his resumé. He’s where he is because he’s his father’s son and because he was the PRD standard bearer after an amazingly bad Arnulfista turn in power, and now he’s landed a job that makes him ultimately responsible for diverse tasks that take tens of thousands of people to perform, one that obliges him to attract, inspire and direct talented people in order to have any success.

The worst leaders surround themselves with dull non-entities so that they look great when compared to those near them. Then there are mediocre leaders who attract good people anxious to do their best for the country, but eventually alienate these recruits and lose the benefit of their services to the nation. The presidents whose key people are more talented and better educated than themselves, and who manage those who are smarter than they are with skill to get their best performances on behalf of the public interest --- these are the rare and wonderful treats in public administration.

Not only because he's a man whose words usually include few specifics, it’s still way too early to tell what sort of leadership we’ll get from Martín Torrijos. We'll just have to wait and see.





Also in this section:
Council on Hemispheric Affairs, The Elliott Abrams appointment
Noriega, The Four Pillars of US policy in the Americas
Leis, Legality and legitimacy
Silié, Caribbean integration and peace
Weisbrot, Cloudy US economic outlook for 2005
Klieman, The sad decline of Daniel Ortega
Greenpeace, Sellout on shipbreaking regulations
Alliance for Conservation and Development, Suspend controversial dam project
Jackson, Rubén Blades wins another Grammy
Bernal, Participatory democracy and the referendum

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