MEDIA WATCH: When the message is not clear enough

 Hoyporhoy, La Prensa, Nov. 30

POLITICAL PATRONAGE practices adopted by those in power reflect the serious distortion of the social, political and economic structures to which our nation is subjected. Panama has for decades suffered every five year period the same  disappointment after disappointment.

An , example is the allocation of $2.3 million in discretionary items handled by  the president Juan Carlos Varela, just 30 days before the end of the year. The obvious explanation is that the use of these public funds will be precisely to meet the typical political populism that has done so much harm to our society. Mr President, patronage is not, and never will be, the solution to ending poverty and unemployment. Panama deserves a government in which the exchange of favors is not what determines whose hands will hold the reins of the country. The use of the checkbook to cover corruption received widespread condemnation from  a population that said loud and clear “enough!” Apparently, it was not clear.