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editorial

There they go again

Martín Torrijos now finds himself, deservedly so or not, with a public approval rating somewhat like that which Mireya Moscoso enjoyed as soon as the kleptocratic nature of her administration became clear to most Panamanians. Twenty-one points, the Dichter & Neira poll says.

So with doctors, nurses, public school teachers and construction workers still on strike, the president went on TV and said that he and his party had made a mistake by the way they jammed the Seguro Social reforms through the legislature, in particular with the hackneyed wee hours vote for final approval.

But Martín still doesn’t really get it.

In a later televised address to the nation, he maintained the pretense that he hadn’t broken his “no privatization” promise by way of an amendment rushed through the legislature with no debate that will turn half a billion dollars of the retirement fund to the private sector. He didn’t admit anything wrong with having his proposal ready for months without revealing its contents, then quickly pushing it through the legislature with only four days of hearings, denying most groups a right to testify before the legislative committee and using the appointment for his severest critics to have their say as the starting whistle for a police riot in which peaceful protesters, vendors at the kiosks on Avenida Central and journalists were all attacked without provocation.

Worst of all, Torrijos and the PRD went straight into the same gutter with their next major legislative initiative. The PRD administration of the University of Panama closed down the campus, and then the PRD legislative caucus took that occasion to start hearings on a retrograde, pro-corruption “university reform” proposal that responds to none of the dire needs for true reform in the nation’s higher education system.

That bit of legislation was “approved” last year in a flagrantly rigged snap “university referendum” in which some 10 percent of those who would be eligible to vote participated, then deliberately sent to the National Assembly in a manner designed to exclude the university community once again.

Thus it appears that the self-proclaimed “Rector Magnifico” --- a man who can count among his great accomplishments the naming of a university street after himself --- will soon be able to seek reelection.

Despite the mislabeling of the proposed legislation as protection for academic freedom, it would actually give the administration the power to fire tenured faculty members who criticize it.

The chartering of private “universities” with neither libraries worthy of the name nor valid reasons to exist will continue. No, we can't prove that bribery has been involved in this process, but if it hasn't been then many of the University of Panama's exercises of this function --- one that it should lose in any true higher education reform --- can't be rationalized in any way, shape or form.

“University autonomy” is now before the Supreme Court, with the Rector Magnifico arguing that the concept means that prosecutors can't investigate and judges can't try and punish those involved in white collar crime on campus. By not specifically overruling such claims, this legislation is effectively pro-corruption.

Worst of all, the proposed legislation does nothing at all about the low quality of most university departments. It's designed to  maintain the University of Panama's political patronage, nepotism and wretched international reputation as is. For that reason, despite any false tag the university in-crowd may put on the proposal, it's at the bottom line an impediment to national development, a sacrifice of the public interest to the narrow-minded power lust of an obnoxious little clique that puts itself above the university and the university above the nation, a slap in the face to those who pay for and depend upon our higher education system.

So let’s not hear your ministers whine about plots to destabilize the government, Martín. Don't make any more offers for dialogue with preconditions that make such discussions meaningless. Don't expect the supporters you have lost to share that bizarre notion that what's good for the personal interests of PRD leaders is somehow identical to Panama's best interests.

Panama is not a nation of manipulable fools. To the extent that the Torrijos administration treats people like naive children, most Panamanians will justifiably consider themselves insulted.

Wise up, Martín. If you don't, your administration will fail as badly as Mireya's did.

Bear in mind...

When you own a big chunk of the bloody Third World the babies just come with the scenery.

Chrissie Hynde

If you don’t forgive yourself you’ll never be able to forgive anybody else and you’ll go on committing the same crimes forever.

James Baldwin   

Intellect does not attain its full force until it attacks power.

  Madame de Staël