opinion

In his Encyclopedia de la Política (Fondo de Cultura Económica, México 1998), Rodrigo Borja defines the referendum as "a form of suffrage that consists of the act by which citizens with the right to vote approve or disapprove a constitutional or legal disposition." It's a "popular consultation about a constitution, a law, a constitutional reform or a legal reform." "In every case --- we are told --- it's a consultation about a matter of a juridical nature. And here is its difference from the plebiscite, which refers to other subjects."

Spain adopted its political constitution by way of a referendum on December 6, 1978, and will hold a referendum over the European Constitution over a couple of days. Other European states are set to hold such popular consultations over the coming months.

In our Americas, during recent years there has been an increase in the holding of referenda as a mechanism to encourage citizen participation in Uruguay, Guatemala, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela and other places. And it happens that participatory democracy has diversified its instruments of citizens' participation among which, in addition to referendum, are included the plebiscite, the town meeting and the recall.

In Panama, despite having ratified countless international conventions, treaties and declarations about the necessity to develop a democratic society, the government officials of the last three lustra have discounted the reality that "democracy is indispensable for the effective exercise of fundamental liberties and human rights, given their universal, indivisible and interdependent character;" as well as the reality that "the participation of the citizenry in the decisions relating to their own development is a right and a responsibility. It's also a necessary condition for the full and effective exercise of democracy. To promote and foment diverse forms of participation strengthens democracy."

In Panama, the partisan political leaderships, like the rest of the leaderships of the local "establishment," have spared no effort to avoid any mechanism of citizen participation that's not under their absolute and total control. Proofs of this are how they have hardened the obsolete and out-of-touch constitutional structures, which they can only patch up, and an electoral system whose matrix only allows it to abort any project for participatory democracy.

When a year ago a citizen initiative arose to include a "fifth ballot" on Election Day so that --- as a referendum --- we citizens could express our support or rejection of the convening of a constituent assembly, it unleashed every grade and type of deceitful, authoritarian, sectarian and anti-democratic mechanism to avoid and impede such a consultation --- and it worked.

It worked, among other reasons, thanks to the rapid abandonment of the promotion of civic participation on the part of several of those who --- from the dynamizing group of Vision 2020 --- were casually, but demagogically, promoting citizen participation. By opting to give in to "the rules of the game" of the monopolizers of the system and adversaries of participatory democracy, they made the work of the neo-populists and the epigones of the dictatorship easy.

Panamanian society clamor for more mechanisms and instruments of participation. These are systematically denied by the deforciants of power and, on ever more occasions, with declarations of a presumptuous, arrogant and totalitarian style. Clouded by the power that gives them power, they shut the door to the the principal power: the citizens' power.

To continue the way are going, rejecting and patching --- the effort that some want to make so that the country can recover and progress --- will mostly turn out to be unproductive and frustrating.

We have to repeat the call to the rulers installed in the different organs of state in order for them to rise above their anti-democratic and authoritarian behavior. Otherwise, the popular initiative will have to turn into a pronounce civil disobedience in order to achieve participatory democracy.



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

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