While in the past Dominicans did not point to corruption as one of the leading social ills, the 12-16 October 2014 Greenberg-Diario Libre poll highlights that corruption is second to lack of jobs in the perception of voting Dominicans. Making the point of how now corruption has “finally” become a serious public concern, in a page two editorial today, Thursday 30 October 2014, Diario Libre editor Ines Aizpun writes:
“The political class acts as if it does not know that political patronage is a weak and temporary mitigation of poverty that is strategically used to obtain impunity. In the poll, corruption mars the figure of Leonel Fernandez but the message should be understood by Danilo, despite his excellent popularity, because citizens believe that corruption continues to grow,” she writes.
She expands: “Citizens have assimilated the implications that corruption has on their lives. The ‘diverted’ money has enriched generations of politicians/aka businesspeople. This is the money that the citizens need, but it has been taken from education, health and infrastructure.”
Aizpun writes: “It’s unlikely that the candidate-ministers could pay for those huge campaigns lasting for more than a year out of their own pockets…. It’s impossible for legislators to become millionaires in dollars after a few years of congressional work…. It is unacceptable that municipalities spend millions collecting garbage and yet are always dirty… It’s humiliating that relatives and friends get preference in jobs….”
She says that the poll reveals that society wants corruption to be tackled. “They are aware that there are people who are directly responsible. That is not an abstraction. Pretending otherwise has finally become unbearable for Dominican society,” she concludes.
http://www.diariolibre.com/opinion/2014/10/30/i860401_heyes-corrupcin.html