Is Political dialogue pushing Panama to be even more divided?

Human Interest

I have another reflection, and it is about the content of the dialogue. About the dialogue! The Panamanian crisis is not only political. The Panamanian crisis is economic, it is social, it is comprehensive, moral, it is a total crisis. All sectors of Panamanian society are affected by the crisis. Some more, some less, but everyone somehow gets the effects of the crisis. In such a way that in today’s country everyone is interested in solving the crisis. It is not only of interest to APEDE, or it is of interest to the Political Parties. I reiterate, there is a new consciousness in the country. Anyone who does not want to perceive that there is a new awareness in the country or at least that there is more awareness in the Panamanian about all the problems, has not well captured the formidable changes that have taken place in the Panamanian social structures. There is greater concern from all sectors. The unprecedented presence of you in this room to listen to a testimony, which, as I said at the beginning, is not intended to create some kind of concern and make an intimate analysis of what I say, accept it or not, enriches the criteria and proof that there is a new consciousness in the country.

The crisis that Panama is experiencing is not just any political crisis. The crisis that Panama is experiencing is similar to the crisis produced by a war. It has the same effects as a civil war. Because it occurs in the economic field, in the field of the domestic economy, in the field of the state economy, there is no money in circulation. All Panamanians have a common denominator today: the deficit.

We are all anguished, we are all worried, especially that there is a crisis of illusions. We all walk without horizons, our youth emigrating, our talents emigrating. Do you know what it means for a poor country like ours when young people feel that they have no destiny in their country and professionals feel that they have no destiny in their country? That it has cost the Panamanian State so much to train professionals, so that they have to emigrate because they do not find an alternative to their life here. It is a comprehensive crisis that we Panamanians have. Therefore, it is a crisis that increases. It is a crisis that forces us all to have a lot of responsibility and not to act with political criteria; but to act with a criterion, I would say that even standing above our own capacity,

Do you know what it means that today we have 200,000 unemployed? Do you know what it means for a country that, at the rate it was growing before the crisis, was not going to be able to cope with the natural growth of the Panamanian population in 20 years? That we have not been able to satisfy the demands of the country of 1987, and within 20 years this country, due to the doubling of the population, will have to have built the second floor for that new population, with all its demands. Do you know what all these serious problems mean in a town without social assistance, in a town with a negative hospital system, that you don’t know if you are going to the state hospital to die or to be cured? that you don’t know exactly when you have the misfortune to get sick and not have enough money in your pocket to face a private hospital? Knowing that if you go to Social Security, the same doctors warn patients about what happens at Social Security. The patients who undergo hernia surgery today at nine in the morning, at two in the afternoon are told: go home because you have more security there. And they take him out of the hospital three hours after the operation.

“We are all anguished, we all walk with a concern, especially that there is a crisis of illusions.”

This crisis that we Panamanians are experiencing is an oppressive, growing crisis. In democracies, political crises are resolved at the polls. All political efforts are resolved at the polls. If there is a difference, then we are going to the controversy and each party has its position and sets out its objectives and its programs. Proselytism arises and is resolved at the ballot box in a democracy. But our crises, in addition to being political, are superior crises; that escape the control of a single man; that are beyond the control of a party. The current crisis in Panama is a solution crisis for all Panamanians.

What I want is to leave this reflection in your mind: it is up to all of us to get on the deck of the ship and see how we are going to direct this whole ship to get out of the stormy sea in which we find ourselves. Crises are resolved directly at the polls, in democracy. They are crises that are resolved by parleying in parliaments. An Assembly leaves and there the parliamentarians arrive and propose the solutions and there is a controversy, there is a solution, there is an exchange of journalistic criteria, a bill is proposed, it is discussed in the press, commentators emerge, journalists emerge. Journalists become social leaders and when you see how Panamanian journalists reach the Assemblies it is because within democracy they play a vigorous role as interpreters of the social organism. In the dictatorship, which is what we are currently experiencing, not only is this crisis of ours generated by internal problems, but external political-economic factors also generate it or contribute to its strengthening. Consequently, the solution to the current crisis cannot be found at the ballot box, because the dictatorship does not believe in the ballot box; she is allergic to urns. So a mechanism must be sought that leads us to democracy and that leads us all to work for democracy. A mechanism that has as its first objective the achievement of a dialogue, that obtains from that dialogue a democratizing program. the solution to the current crisis cannot be found at the ballot box, because the dictatorship does not believe in the ballot box; she is allergic to urns. So a mechanism must be sought that leads us to democracy and that leads us all to work for democracy. A mechanism that has as its first objective the achievement of a dialogue, that obtains from that dialogue a democratizing program. the solution to the current crisis cannot be found at the ballot box, because the dictatorship does not believe in the ballot box; she is allergic to urns. So a mechanism must be sought that leads us to democracy and that leads us all to work for democracy. A mechanism that has as its first objective the achievement of a dialogue, that obtains from that dialogue a democratizing program.

I believe that there is an immediate program and a mediate program. The immediate program, the one that is close to our noses, is what a provisional democratic government proposed a while ago. An impartial Electoral Tribunal. That must be the objective of a dialogue, of an immediate type: Obtaining public liberties, the withdrawal and replacement of the military leadership and the new Court. There is also a mediate program, a mediate objective that is to call presidential elections and a parallel Constituent Assembly that makes it possible for there, within the Constituent Assembly, to carry out the great national dialogue of all sectors as conceived by Tomás Herrera to decide there the luck of the Isthmus.

Who should participate in the immediate dialogue, in the dialogue to achieve, in my opinion, a climate that makes the election of democracy possible? They must participate based on experience, the fundamental protagonists. Based on what experience? In the system for dialogue followed by peoples who come out of the Catacombs, or who come out of the mountains armed.

Who participates in the dialogues in Colombia? Who are the summoned to dialogue in Colombia? Who are those who participate in a bloody, mutilated society, in a society without horizons, like the Colombian one, in beloved Colombia? Who are they? Only those who think that the political solution to the Panamanian crisis must pass exclusively through the bottleneck of political parties do not participate. I do not believe in dialogue solely in the hands of political parties. That is a bottleneck. They are not the only protagonists, they are not the only ones interested in this national crisis, this is not just a political crisis to be left exclusively to the parties.

This is a solution that is incumbent on all Panamanian sectors. Who dialogues in Colombia? For the government, on the one hand, the military and the parties. On the other hand, the opposition, the opposition parties, dialogues. And on the other, unions, workers, civic unions, economic forces and university students participate. Here in Panama, those who must dialogue are these forces: the military and its people, because here there is no other participant, protagonist on the side of the government than the military, because they have real power, everyone in Panama knows it. It is not a matter of sending civilians to do it for them, the military will talk directly; The opposition parties are going to talk, and the labor unions, the business unions, the universities, the vital sectors of Panamanian society are going to talk. But this immediate dialogue is to obtain the objectives that I have set for a democratic transitional government. And the other dialogue, the mediate dialogue, which is what should take place within the Constituent Assembly where the great proposals will be made to restructure Panamanian society in peace, in coexistence. Only a body like a Constituent Assembly can serve as a cushion for conflicts where passions will not enervate the development of talent, and quite the contrary, where a great national debate could take place, above all, which is the most important, so that the legal structures that exist in this country serve as a framework for the social, economic and political development of a growing country, such as Panama.

The current legal structures are not exactly those that can allow the social development of the Panamanian nation because they are tied to certain ideological criteria that make it totally ineffective for the new Panamanian society that was born in June 1987. Among Panamanians we can do it! !

We cannot allow them to continue ridiculing us as a nation by observing the dialogue, I repeat, between foreigners and the military and presenting ourselves as a community without leaders capable of leading the Panamanian nation.

Extract from the conference ‘Reflections on the Current Political Moment’ offered at the Apede, on September 1, 1988. Originally published in the Acción newspaper.

The dialogue that the people demand
The dialogue that the people demand

FILE

A winner in the field of freedom ideals:

Full name: Carlos Iván Zúñiga Guardia

Born: January 1, 1926 Penonomé, Coclé

Died: November 14, 2008, Panama City

Occupation: Lawyer, journalist, teacher and politician

Religious Beliefs: Catholic

Widow: Sydia Candanedo de Zúñiga

Summary of his career: In 1947 he began his political life as a student leader who rejected the Filós-Hines Grassroots Agreement. He held the positions of minister, deputy, president of the Popular Action Party in 1981, and leader of the National Civilian Crusade. He was recognized for his multiple criminal defenses and for his excellent oratory. From 1991 to 1994 he was rector of the University of Panama. He has received the Order of Manuel Amador Guerrero, the Justo Arosemena and the Order of the Sun from Peru.

No Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Politics
History of the Panamanian Presidents, a story within itself.

https://www.laestrella.com.pa/panama/nacional/despues-de-la-silla-el-impacto-de-la-presidencia-en-sus-protagonistas-AX6451570 The presidency of the Republic of Panama is a position of great responsibility, which can cause health problems. What did the country’s presidents look like before and after leaving office? Since the invasion of the United States, Panama has had seven presidents, who, despite being elected for a five-year period, …

Political FRAUD
Sins of the past keep following Martinelli, as his enemies continue to try to mute his influence.

https://www.laestrella.com.pa/panama/nacional/peticiones-a-brasil-complican-defensa-de-la-fiscalia-en-caso-odebrecht-BG6484892 The defense of former president Ricardo Martinelli filed an appeal before the Federal Court of Brazil to prohibit the testimony of key company executives and the evidence from box 2 in the November trial. The Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office will be increasingly pressured not to depend on the evidence …

Politics
The 4 Day Workweek has risen as the HOT topic of early election debates.

Various voices analyze the proposal of Vice President José Gabriel Carrizo to reduce the working day and increase the minimum wage to $1,000 “Senseless and crazy,” is how some economists described the proposal of vice president and presidential candidate José Gabriel Carrizo, to reduce the working day to four days …