At a meeting with the President, DR Finance Minister Bengoa is quoted as complaining that "Dominican entrepreneurs are more politicized than politicians themselves, in view that they constantly opinionate on all national topics" (cit: http://dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=18094).
The press seems to have picked this up as a dissonant chord, but someone should have thumped on it immediately, such as his boss, the President, the keeper of Duarte's flame.
In England or Australia (and less and less in the U.S.) such a statement would surely cause outrage in press and parliament, and the minister would have his hat handed to him forthwith. Why not here?
I hold Bengoa innocent. He simply gave true expression to the universal Latin understanding of democracy. He has nicely delineated the yawning cultural divide between West and East, a deadly canyon often ignored on both sides.
Bengoa's precept: "Policticians are chosen by the public to set policy for them". This is how tribal chiefs, warlords and emirs of the caliphates operate, and it works. But that's not saying much because the guillotine also works, and well at that.
The West's "Age of Enlightenment" (Locke, Montaigne, Jefferson ...) changed that proposition and vivified Plato's dream in multitudinous constitutions since 1783.
The West's precept: "Politicians are chosen by the public to execute the public's policy desires".
Will the entrepeneur's group respond? Does the Dominican citizenry care on which side of the canyon they stand?
The press seems to have picked this up as a dissonant chord, but someone should have thumped on it immediately, such as his boss, the President, the keeper of Duarte's flame.
In England or Australia (and less and less in the U.S.) such a statement would surely cause outrage in press and parliament, and the minister would have his hat handed to him forthwith. Why not here?
I hold Bengoa innocent. He simply gave true expression to the universal Latin understanding of democracy. He has nicely delineated the yawning cultural divide between West and East, a deadly canyon often ignored on both sides.
Bengoa's precept: "Policticians are chosen by the public to set policy for them". This is how tribal chiefs, warlords and emirs of the caliphates operate, and it works. But that's not saying much because the guillotine also works, and well at that.
The West's "Age of Enlightenment" (Locke, Montaigne, Jefferson ...) changed that proposition and vivified Plato's dream in multitudinous constitutions since 1783.
The West's precept: "Politicians are chosen by the public to execute the public's policy desires".
Will the entrepeneur's group respond? Does the Dominican citizenry care on which side of the canyon they stand?