Harry Brown
Political scientist, CIEPS Director, author of “El Vencedor No Aprece en La Papeleta” and “Partidos Políticos y Elecciones en Panamá”, author/editor of the book “Las Reformas Electorales en Panamá: Claves para el Desarrollo Humano para la Toma de Decisiones” and member of the Consejo Asesor de Proyecto de Reformas Políticas de América Latina.
Moderator
Alixenia Lopez
Project Coordinator of Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Panamá, Regional Program ADELA "Alianzas para la Democracia y el Desarrollo con América Latina")
Event
The pandemic has caused many political entities to make complete reforms in their internal and external operations systems to maintain the order and peace of their Governmental States during these times, in Panama’s case, it’s caused an endless amount of decisions by the Executive and Legislative Bodies, where the majority have been questioned by the population in general, however these decisions have the purpose of favoring and protecting the majority of the citizens of the economic, psychological and social repercussions that has caused the presence of this new deadly virus
The National Political Perspectives in the face of the Pandemic
When the first COVID-19 case was announced and the State of Emergency in Panama, it has been greatly appreciated through the media, websites and in the national newscasts an endless amount of political interpretations and situations that Panama has experienced in these past months of confinement. The majority of these are valid, however, some must be taken with caution in face of it’s truthfulness. The global situation of the virus works as a medium of comparison between the actions taken by governments, before, during and after the pandemic, making an emphasis in the importance at the backup of the national democracy, the citizens’ participation in politics, education for the next generations, and the fight against governmental/political carcinogenic phenomena, such as corruption or political scams. It’s important to see that this pandemic situation has provided for the population to identify the bigger problem that the country currently has isn’t the the lack of hygiene in regards of the virus (sanitation issues) if not the high rate of inequality in the economic and social backgrounds that are permitted and protagonized by political members of the National Government
The National Reaction Towards the Pandemic
From the Panamanian macroeconomics perspective, it’s known that the economy was in decline since the infamous global event known as “Panama Papers” in 2016 and then by the protests and closure of the construction industry by the workers syndicates of Panama in 2019, which was a strong hit for the population, specially those who find themselves in the country’s middle class, but many economists predicted a positive growth of almost 5% at a national level for 2020, however nobody predicted the impact of this virus. Last March 13th 2020 a state of emergency was announced by the national government of Panama, announcing the shutdown in most of the commercial activities and creating regulations in the citizens’ movement throughout the whole country as a measure and a way to regulate the effective reproduction of the virus as soon as possible. Due to this, there has been an increase in unemployment and job contract suspension to a national level which has caused a complete discontent by the lower, middle-low, and middle class in Panama. A poll made by Centro Internacional de Estudios Políticos y Sociales (CIEPS) of Panama asked the Panamanian population how they perceived the economy during the pandemic, where 89% of the respondents answered with “bad” or “very bad” which is a reflection to the lack of confidence that the population has towards the public entities regarding the economical management of the country. The executive as well as the legislative bodies have decreed articles and laws to give social and economical protection to the population. Even if some decrees were made that theoretically favor the population and PYMES companies during these times, most of the implemented has been criticized at the moment when it’s put to the test in the country. These critics are due to the lack of accomplishments of the decrees stablished by the government and lack of fulfillment of bio security measures by the political figures.
The educational structure equally has been totally altered and actualized to face the situation of the virus where the National Government has driven classes to be taken online which has incorporated little by little the population, but it is heavily criticized because it omits students that don’t have the resources necessary to participate in online classes. These investments have caused an ideological separation towards politics in Panama, for on one side there’s an uncontrolled investment by the Government, and on the other side the positive results aren’t being visualized by the population, and this creates doubts to the social pact of the National Government which manes an impulse to establish a fiscal pact to have control of the inversions during and after the pandemic and try to fight against the inequalities in riches of society.
The recorded video on Facebook y YouTube
Fundación Konrad Adenauer
Por:
Alejandro Alberto Marín Leiva
Pasante en la oficina de KAS ADELA, Panamá.