Most ads are interactive -- click on them to visit the folks who make The Panama News possible

editorial

Vote NO on October 22, but don't leave it at that

What to do about this canal expansion referendum

Voters will go to the polls on October 22 and there are many scenarios of what might happen, none of which end on that day.

This has been an infamous campaign in which major institutions and many individuals have seen their integrity irreparably compromised, and the reckoning for that has already begun and is likely to be protracted over many years.

We have seen journalists fired from their jobs at the behest of the “yes” campaign, in one case on orders from a government official. We have seen the wholesale bribery of all of the corporate mainstream media, and the purchase of the one independent television news channel by the former head of the PRD’s Frente Empresarial for the specific purpose of blacking out the “no” campaign. The ad cartel founded by the president’s father-in-law will of course take no notice, but people have already begun to abandon La Prensa and MEDCOM in search of real news. In the new political paradigm that emerges from this sordid episode in Panamanian history, the breakup of MEDCOM, TVN and the ad cartel will surely become one of the popular demands that form part of the national political discourse. If it’s left at that, however, it would be a terrible blow to freedom of expression in this country --- the task at hand is not to plead for more space in the established media, but to build the alternatives that will displace them.

We have seen open vote buying by the president, open use of public funds for one side’s campaign, the ACP’s flagrant misrepresentation of studies done with public funding and various subterfuges to deny access to these, and the Electoral Tribunal’s open partisanship for the “yes” side. These will not be treated as illegal acts by our corrupt system, no matter what the plain words of the law say. But some day legal fictions will be swept aside and a genuine justice system will properly hold that there is no statute of limitations for public officials who hid behind a reign of impunity in these times.

Will the next epoch of Panama’s partisan divide emerge from this campaign? If the left ever gets its act together it just might. Then, instead of the Panameñistas and their allies on the center-right and the PRD on the center-left and the same families in control no matter what, we may see the right side of the spectrum dominated by Vanguardia Moral and other emerging conservative "no" forces and the left side behind the banner of a new party largely based in labor movement, with both of these appealing to people in the center. In that event we will no doubt hear the faint sound of the old ruling elite whining in Miami about the terrible thing that has happened in Panama.

But these are longer term possibilities, and there is an immediate task at hand, a decision to make on October 22. It’s not a vote about modernization in general, nor about a generic expansion of the canal. It’s a specific choice to make about a specific proposal, the Torrijos - Alemán Zubieta Plan.

That plan is unfinished and highly flawed and deserves to be rejected on its merits:

·        It threatens this country with a ruinous debt, one that will absorb canal revenues and thus deprive our government of funds to run the schools, maintain the roads, provide police protection and carry out all of the other necessary public functions;

·        It threatens the gradual loss of the drinking water supply for the Panama-Colon-San Miguelito metro area;

·        It would carry with it safety problems inherent in the design concept for the new locks, which use unproven new versions of existing European technologies that where they have been employed cause many more accidents than we experience with our present canal;

·        It would weaken the fresh water barrier between the oceans, and that poses threats to our marine environments and fisheries, the particulars of which we wouldn’t know until it’s too late; and

·        It would be carried out by a government and a canal administration both proven to be inept, corrupt and prone to conflicts of interest.

We need to think very seriously and act very deliberately about the future of our crucial maritime transport infrastructures. We can't let our decisions wait for another generation. However, the Torrijos - Alemán Zubieta Plan reflects very little serious thinking. Its adoption would mean improvised actions whose only well planned aspects are the profits of construction companies, financial institutions and ad agencies. We should vote “NO” by such a resounding majority that no fraud would be possible, dismiss those who failed to do their homework from public life, then go right back to the drawing board to come up with a plan that serves Panama’s interests.

Vote NO on October 22, and be prepared to defend your vote from fraud.

Bear in mind...

The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos.

Stephen Jay Gould

Never give up and never face the facts.

Ruth Gordon

The church must be ready to speak the truth in love. It has a responsibility for all, the rich and the poor, the ruler and the ruled, the oppressed and the oppressor, but it needs to point out that God does take sides. Incredibly, he sides with those whom the world would marginalize, whom the world considers of little account.

Desmond Tutu