Do the right thing?
An honest politician? That can be a problem!
Purificación Carpinteyro, a PRD Deputy was to have led her party in the upcoming debate over a new telecommunications law. However, when an illegal wiretap picked up Ms. Carptineyro discussing her own personal investments in a telecom venture, she recused herself from the telecommunications committee, and has created uncertainty not only over the form any new telecommunicatios regulations will take, but over the course of Mexican lawmaking in general. In acting honorably, the question has come up whether legislators can, or should, be allowed to take part in discussion on bills in which they have a material interest.
Purificación Carpintyro (El Financiero)
Not that there’s anything especially wrong with politicians having business investments (and, one hopes, that elected officials have some kind of “real world” experience beyond politics), and one would assume an active investor in a telecom start-up would have something worthwhile to contribute to the discussion.
Of course, it has to be noted that the PRD sought to delay passage of the telecom bills, and Carpinteryo’s withdrawal gives her party a perfectly legitimate reason to push back discussion, and to negotiate with PAN and PRI over further changes. And, to hold forth on the conflicts of interest of their opponents.
Who leaked the conversation, or why, hasn’t much been discussed. Presumably, it was meant to discredit the bills’ socialist opponents… but one has to wonder. By doing the right thing, are the Socialists deviously forcing their opponents to show their own personal interests in these proposed “reforms”, and — ultimately — to force through the changes in the bill that they’ve wanted all along.
Doing right and doing in the opposition… now that’s politics!
etc.
The Mex Files 