OPINION: Panama’s constitutional circus

Panama’s constitutional circus

It looks like a three-ring circus, or perhaps, the general assembly of the owners of a dysfunctional condominium agreeing to approve an extraordinary fee. However, it is none of these. On the contrary, it is the most important exercise that the National Assembly has done in a generation, to revise the Political Constitution. The document developed by the National Development Council Council, which took approximately one year to be drafted, and which had the opinion of all political parties, now faces the reality of appetite, whims and personal yearnings of the majority of the dominant alliance within the National Assembly.

 They have touched on individual guarantees, tried to change the concept of Panamanian nationality and are looking to redefine political and government institutions without any debate, or worse, justified by individual selfishness and ambitions.  For example, if a deputy does not want to be investigated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the proposal advanced by the Council that reflects the feeling of broad sectors of public opinion is abandoned and.

At this rate, and with this speed, we will not end with a modern and democratic constitution bu ut with a coloring book, in which each one draws and paints in the way he wants. This is not the civic way to debate a constitutional change. LA PRENSA, Oc.t 19