I Can See Clearly Now. Not!
By John Holtz*

While the legislative assembly was in recess during Semana Santa and most of the ministries as well as public works gone on vacation, one would expect not too much to happen except the open roads and easy driving.

But then again, we live in the “happiest country in the world” and anything can and usually does unexpectedly occur at any time.

Could it be that we are so terribly happy because we do not know what reality is and have given up hope of ever breaking down the massive Opaque Wall or being able to peer over into the other side where the elite and privileged hang out with their own unique rules, regulations, laws and indeed knowledge?

There is the latest case of Radiográfica Costarricense (RACSA), the Godson of ICE, that lost ¢6.786 billion colones (us$13.47 million dollars) last year and joins the public health care system, Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS or Caja), which is on the brink of closing its doors. Meanwhile the Contraloría General de la República (Comptroller's office) an institution designed with the specific purpose to be a “public financial watchdog” refuses to make anything public for the proletariat to even have a chance at a cognitive opinion.

With excellent investigative reporting, La Nation, the journal which uncovered that 85 of our largest companies only paid approximately $200 each in corporate taxes last year but could not have their deadbeat names published by law.

Delinquent taxes? While the warm fuzziest of negotiations take place, it all comes down to another so called misunderstanding which defies explanation and protects the good reputations of the National cheats.

After all, if too many of the hierarchy become victims of justice, who would be left to run the government?

What most of us who have historically thought was true finally came to fruition. Some top government officials got their hands caught cheating. Someone or some persons managed to scale the Opaque Wall, not get shot in the effort and peered over confirming what we all suspected and now know.

Even Mr. Tax Man himself got himself caught along with his “comical side kick” Mr. Economy hiding behind the Wall, each hiding serious transgressions. A banner week if ever there was one that clearly says, “...for Costa Rica to ever develop or ever be taken seriously as a country of esteem, it must have internal transparency.” And that transparency must be made public and not limited to colleagues, intellectuals and fellow politicos but rather to all who wish to know and want to vote.

Then let´s see how “happy” we are.

It is not a question of leadership, it is a question of tradition and doing little if any homework for this Administration or any prior administration to make public both reality and truth.

Every month it is another step backwards as Lady Laura (Presidenta Laura Chinchilla) looks more and more the fool and her party, Liberación, more and more corrupt.

Are they alone in this disgrace? Not at all as secrecy prevails like a national disease growing unabated, similar to cancer.

Is there a way out?

Over the years I have become more and more pessimistic and frankly I am not so sure anymore as the abyss deepens all around us and threatens to swallow Costa Rica into economic as well as social oblivion if only because the class separation is so terribly profound.

Those who have either political power or wealth operate in collusion as well as secrecy and for the most part, with impunity. Those with lesser economic means and only neighborhood political clout have learned to lie, cheat cover-up and steal as part of a culture so exemplified by the country´s esteem leaders.

It is that so many of the elected and appointed officials who have been pounding on doors to sell the tax reform plan have recently been declared as cheats, except perhaps for Lady Laura, and the jury must still be out on her. Especially since apparently her husband received $500 thousand to document her campaign on video.

Absent of transparency in government, the officials of government and the institutions of government, we the people function in the dark, vote on personalities as in high school, invest on intuition alone and become the recipient pawns of publicity.

As tax payers, we have the reasonable right to expect organizations such as ARESEP (regulator of public services) who practice price controls, the mayors of municipalities, the police, the judges…all be scrutinized for honesty and most certainly for criminal records. However, that is not the case.

How is it possible that the proletariat, so to speak, must have taxes and social security deducted from their employee pay checks but be told that Minister Smith has evaded those same conditions as perhaps has the employer? Or that ICE, while instructing son #2 electricity, (CNFL) may charge more per kilowatt hour than any of the other Central American countries do and they do not need to make public its financial statement. In fact neither does the oil and gas company RECOPE that ARESEP price regulates or that large companies who pay almost nothing into the system or worse, large companies that pay nothing at all.

Who are they and let us make their conditions public, okay? In a true democracy, let the people be the judge on everything from politicians to wayward institutions, to law. This “republic” of government has failed the people time and again. Especially in one term countries where the magistrates and president have only one term and dedicate 50% of that term to rape, pilfer and plunder the coffers.

The Opaque Wall includes a minimal policy for police background checks, same or none for municipal mayors of which some have criminal histories, judges, institutional hierarchy and members of the tax evasion club, a public background check on “ministers”, university officials and ALL elected officials. This may eliminate many from serving the common bad, but right now expecting transparency is not a Costa Rican right but rather a scandalous after thought.


*John Holtz can be reached at jrh@modernmanagement.org