Anthropologist Tahira Vargas said yesterday, Sunday 1 September that Dominicans are not too tolerant when it comes corruption. The problem is that the judicial system is not strong enough to penalize the practice, especially in government officials, as reported in Hoy. She said that in order to achieve genuine democracy, true independence is needed in government branches, which today does not exist.
She said that Dominican democracy is weak because it has been kidnapped by the ruling political party. “After the Trujillo dictatorship and the Balaguer regime, the state has been kidnapped by the political parties that have stimulated corruption supported by political patronage and this has been legitimized,” she said. She said that for several decades the Dominican population has lived in a society where stealing from government is not seen as theft. She comments that other reasons for the permissiveness toward corruption include the low quality of education and the almost total absence of civic education. She said that it is not in the government’s interest for citizens to know their rights, to know that the state is ours, that the state’s money is ours and that we should monitor and demand accountability,” she said. She said that whenever anyone with integrity and critical awareness takes on a government post that person is dismissed or has to resign. She called on civil society, social movements and the media to confront corruption given the lack of action by opposition parties. She said that they are limited to their political agenda and have forgotten the social agenda.
She urged for creating a vision of state among citizens independent of the political parties.
www.hoy.com.do/el-pais/2013/8/30/496395/Antropologa-afirma-ineficacia-judicial-sustenta-corrupcion