opinion

Panama for everyone
by Miguel Antonio Bernal --- candidate for mayor of Panama City

Citizens are ever more preoccupied by the way our society functions, and get ever fewer answers from those whose greed only flourishes in the field of mismanagement of public affairs.

Blinded by power, the majority of our public officials and politicians maneuver and manipulate things to keep Panamanians from being able to freely and responsibly travel the broad avenues of knowledge that, thanks to the science, technology and information revolutions through which humanity is living, should be open to all of us rather than a select few.

Inequality, indifference and poverty have taken hold of our everyday lives, and this contributes to a decided de-legitimization of a system that only serves to confirm to us that the powers that be, with their present structure, composition and consolidation, are not only incapable of but aren't interested in solving the grave problems that are piling up for the great majority of people.

We can't have change without changing ourselves, so we can and must liberate ourselves from the mediocrity that asphyxiates us, and rise above the modus operandi of a vitiated democracy that has been imposed upon us. It's therefore imperative that citizens decisively participate, so that we can recover the space --- our space --- that's vital if we are to take action and change things.

The reigning party system has wounded our fragile democracy with its practices of political patronage, cronyism and favoritism, which they intend to maintain with impunity. They're welded to power, with its unkept promises, with its practices that contaminate everything they touch, and with their clear objective of eternally maintaining themselves with a monopoly on power.

It's thus left to us to recover the dignity that's our birthright, to reject the abyss of unsustainable lies with which they attempt to maintain their privileges while a large part of the population lives in poverty, misery, fatalism, desperation, disappointment and frustration.

Thus it's imperative that we know how to turn the electoral calendar into a permanent debate, and know how to put the common good and general interest above egoism, peace above violence, dialogue and consultation above imposition, dignity above mediocrity.

We don't want saviors, nor fake caciques, nor arrogant and deceptive epigones --- what we want is to realize the possibility of a Panama with development for all and not just a few. I'm calling on all my compatriots who are disposed to recover their personal and national dignity to join forces as citizens to shut off the suction machine that the usual people control. Panama is everybody, and for everybody.