OPINION: Panamas feudal deputies

THE OLD HABITS of Creole politics persist. As if they were feudal lords, the deputies insist on placing their names on the property of the State, as if they were a gift that they with their personal patrimony have given to the people who elected them. The case of the Municipality of La Pintada, and surely of many others, only shows that the clientelism mentality is alive, and there is no Penal Code or Electoral Law that counts. Even if words are erased, the fact is already consummated. Watchfulness
Is the only response we have to defend ourselves against such abuses, since this abuse is natural and “Acceptable”, for the politicians and some institutions of Government. Elimination of the gifts to constituencies, the phantom contracts and the simulated donations, which as clear as the light
of the day is the culture of politics, in which being a representative or deputy, mayor or president, seems to be a patent license   These perverse rites are not the ingredients of a constitutional democracy in which citizens are respected: La Prensa Aug.8